I've always been somewhat surprised by people who don't know how to set boundaries when they're overwhelmed with work, but now that I'm in the same situation, I realize that it's not so easy to do, especially when you're afraid of losing your job. How do you deal with a manager who doesn't know when enough is enough?
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Typical BOA. Promote incompetence that don’t know the role and do a lot of busy work, volunteer and D&I to look relevant.
The old BOA did not operate like this.
Do what useless people in the bank do - arrange meetings during lunchtime or Friday late afternoon in order to create a perception how busy you are and sacrificing your lunchtime. I have seen this trick from people who have nothing much to do and have to justify their existence
It's super hard to get fired and nearly impossible if your putting in a solid 40 hour week. Keep a daily accomplishment journal showing what you worked on and how long spent on each item (approximately). At the end of the day turn the computer off and go home. When you hit capacity, don't be afraid to let your manager know that your day is already full (you have evidence to show them) and to take on something new you have to give up something else to fit it in the workday. Your leadership team would rather get a solid 40 hours of work from you than 0 (they can't backfill your role if you were to leave).
Also keep in mind, nobody regrets not working super long hours but just about everyone will regret spending less time with family/friends in favor of spending excessive time working. Family time is much more important than boosting BM'S already massive bonus.
2nd point - Work on your financial life so you have more confidence. 6 month emergency fund in place and pay off all your debt (credit cards, student loans, auto loans, and eventually home mortgage). Owe nobody except for monthly utilities, insurance, property taxes. When you get to this place financially, your confidence to control your career increases substantially because you are now the one in control. If necessary, you could scrape by temporarily in the gig economy.
My strategy which has worked pretty well is to be extremely mediocre and to always do the bare minimum. No one even asks me to do any extra work anymore I just get my normal stuff done and check out. Remember if you do twice as much work you don't get paid twice as much
I'm in the same boat in my IT group. In addition to having so much piled on that I'm working nights and weekends, i was recently gifted the additional responsibility of being a 'capability/product manager' for my area to review products in EARC catalog and update vendor information which is taking much more time than they said. My manager and 4 other recently promoted SVP's won't stop asking me to do unfunded project work outside of my role while reminding us all we are in fact only paid by funded project work. But the worst part is that I see some incompetent coworkers skate by doing the least possible with horrible quality and no one cares. My organization has made it clear who the promotable favorites are and I know I won't be in that group. I love what I do but I've reached the limit.
Find a new job, that usually sends a pretty good message.