How do I avoid being taken advantage of or grinding myself down?

[Rosamund1]

I am about 15 years behind my peers in terms of career for a number of reasons and my CV is a mess.

I finished my postgrad five years ago and the only work I could get was factory, cleaning and reception.

Two months ago I finally got my foot in the door in an entry level position in the industry I am interested in. It is a small firm with only five people. My role covers reception, admin as well as substantive work. In a large firm I could realistically find myself stuck photocopying all day or away at reception answering phones and not learning much but due to the small size I really get stuck in. I can observe all that goes on and work on my own bits and pieces which then get checked over. It is very satisfying and the people are nice.

I only work there four days a week as I volunteer one day a week for something important to me and they knew that when they took me on.

The problem I would like help with is down to audio typing. Basically the more I do, the more I get and it is taking over my day. As well as my other duties I do audio typing. At first it was just a bit but it is now swamping everything.

The second week I was there we were facing a deadline and to demonstrate I was a team player I took a tape home (with permission) with me on the weekend so that the proposal would be mostly ready on Monday morning.

I think my boss is glad because he is getting a lot done however my other work is now not getting done. 'Have you reviewed the thingimy'
Well no boss, you gave me three tapes this morning'.

On top of that their admin is quite disorganised so if you are typing something and the tape says 'confirm the contract number' that's a ten minute hunt for information.

I have been taking work home and maybe twice a week staying till 7 or 8. I only take 20minute lunches at my desk as there is always some deadline.

I have gone so far as to produce a daily timetable / log - broken into 15 minute segments accounting for my time with a breakdown of tasks. So I will have 10-11 - review X contract but then it will be crossed out and have 'audio typing' as the activity listed.

In itself the audio typing is interesting because it refers to complex matters and high level matters however I am starting to feel run down and want to get my other work done.

It is always 'oh here are a couple of tapes, it is really important'. I even show the boss my list and say what should I take off for today? He is always non commital and a few days later it will be 'did you laminate all the packs' or whatever and it's like the fact that was the lowest priority thing to get done and so given the number of things on the list, which you have seen, it's not going to happen until you stop with the tapes.

I have stopped taking them home and today I literally did nothing but audio typing as well as the phone and some urgent emails.

I was at a job where for four years I barely saw my dd and they basically took advantage and I don't want that to happen again.