Reaching a crisis point at work, advice needed

[Thewheelsarefallingoff]

Hi, I'm lying here awake for the last 2 hours and unable to get back to sleep due to intense stress and anxiety related to my job. I don't know what advice I am asking for. I'm hoping telling someone will help.

I work in the public sector, predominantly in adult social care. I took on a new role a few months ago, within the area I have been working in for 4 years. It is a management role, public facing and expanding constantly. The role had been vacant for around 6 weeks and I came into it having to pick everything up as I went along (only 1 area of the job had a written process).

I have never caught up with that 6 weeks of backlog and I am discovering new tasks involved in the role periodically whenever something falls down that should have happened.

My stress and anxiety are increasing to an unmanageable level. I am currently on A/L to spend some time with the DCs on half-term, but I cannot forget work. I don't have the spare time to take off and I am dreading what I will go back to. I brought some work home with me to try to stop things getting too much worse. I did 1.5 hours after the DC were asleep last night, but it is a drop in the ocean. I started to compose an email to my boss earlier in the week, before I went on leave, outlining some issues that have come up and letting her know I'm not managing.

I don't know where I go from here, I feel like I am in danger of permanently ruining my reputation within the organisation and it is an area I have loved working in in the last 4 years.

I think an email is the right place to start. The fact that you had no handover or induction for the role is poor, but it's entirely possible that the job isn't actually achievable within the contracted hours. Do you know why your predecessor left?

Thanks for your reply. My predecessor left to go on to a role at a higher grade. However she took on the job I'm now doing at its inception and the work came in at a trickle. She set everything up in a way that worked for her, the way it's set up means that all tasks are duplicated (actually triplicated) and it is coming in at a deluge now. I have plans to address the repetition of tasks, but I'm so overwhelmed I don't know when I can get to it.

I'd pass it up the line. Email your manager to inform them that the current service is not fit for purpose or meeting required standards and requires extra resources (staffing, time,policies) to bring it in line.

Do not make yourself sick trying to be a sticking plaster on an under resourced service.

Your reputation should not be that you are someone who will make do, but someone who will push for improvement.

Take care of yourself x

Thanks so much for the support. I will do. X

I second the suggestion of contacting your line manager as soon as you can. Tell them of your concerns. Pass the buck, it shouldn't stop with you. Ask for support. Good luck.

I also. recommend end a sit down with your line manager to review how the new role is going. State your enthusiasm and any areas going well, state issues and potential solutions. Also state resources you need. For the things you can't solve. Try to agree timelines or at least a further review period.

You can't continue as you are, it's not healthy.