Had a super rough day
For the past few weeks – the pressure has been piling on at work. I have a list of priorities for the week – with timelines attached to them. First off- the list is pretty hefty, and more than I think I can manage in one week. Then on top of that, there are ‘urgent’ requests that need to be turned around within 24 hours that are piled on top. It was getting a bit much, and I was starting to get headaches and dizziness just through feeling anxious. My housemate encouraged me to talk to my manager about it – because if they don’t know if there is a problem, they wont do anything to solve it.
It took a bit of working myself up to get the courage to do this, but today I decided I would talk to my boss about it. Needless to say it didn’t go so well. I explained why I am finding my task list difficult to manage, and her response was but you’re getting everything done. And I told her, only because I am working over time and skipping lunch. She just said, all I need to know is that you’re going to get it done – I can’t be worried about anything else.
So yeah, I get it, that’s how work can be, its kind of a turn around from how it was when I came back from sick leave but I understand – we all have our roles to play in the team. I just can’t cope with it right now. When I reached out to my dad, he told me, ‘well just don’t get anxious about it’, my best friend wasn’t much better - he said ‘maybe you should just leave the job instead of having sporadic good days’. Not going to lie, I kind of feel like a popped balloon. I feel like the steps I’m taking aren’t enough. I feel like I’m not getting well fast enough. I feel like I total burden to the lives of my loved ones. Most of all, I just feel isolated. I don’t want to be anxious or depressed, but it seems like my go-to people think this is some kind of choice.
okay, I hear a lot of what's going on at work your kinda doing with your personal life feelings too...one thing at a time, don't pile everything on all at once....go back to your boss, and let her know you have to have time for lunch, so she can find someone to work during your lunch time if she wants to keep up the quota she gave you, that's your right to do that, and I hope your getting paid over time. It's against the law for an employee to work through lunch, or do overtime without compensation, depending on how many hours a week or day you work, it's in your contract with your work. Second, sometimes friends tell us the easiest solution, quitting your job may not be such a good idea, and as far as your family goes, just say, 'hey, I just need some understanding and need to just vent a little, I can't help the anxiety I'm going through'. But from what I'm reading, your job is stressing you out, your making your company money by doing more work than maybe you should have to so they don't have to hire someone else to balance the work load. So you have choices to make. Take care of yourself, and don't take on board anybody else's crap, you deserve to be treated with respect.
Thank you!! Definitely going to be more structured in the way i approach this and try not to let my emotions get tangled up in it. My contract states that reasonable overtime is expected - of course they don't quantify that. We have a lot of holes in our team - the work has been redistributed because the 3 missing team members will not be replaced. Hopefully once I feel a bit better i can think about it more clearly.
no matter what the contract says...overtime is the law. And of course the law says you have to have breaks, so if you give them up for your boss, she is breaking the law. That simple. But you can just keep that info in your back pocket, and approach them with the old...'I want to keep doing quality work as I always have been, but need my breaks to recharge my battery's, and that if I at least had a part time helper I can keep up with the work load demands......how ever your comfortable with talking to them, always let them think your only thinking of the good of the production, which truthfully you do want to do a good job, but not give up your rights as an employee either, cause they don't care.
You're right - and the more I don't stand up for myself, the more she is going to push for things. I've emailed her today for the sake of a paper trail suggesting how we could better manage the work load and make sure that we're not putting in excessive over time to meet our commitments. Fingers crossed! Thank you so much