Would you quit? I'm so torn.

[WhatNoNotYouAgain]

My job is slowly driving me insane. I'm under qualified for it (long story but I was basically internally promoted because our CE could not be arsed to go out to recruit). But the main problem is there is no decent leadership and no proper planning. This is not likely to change any time soon. I am contracted for four days but I am working every day along with most evenings and weekends at the moment. If it was any other job I'd walk but:

1. it's very very flexible. I mostly work from home, my hours are flexible, I can have a sick DC at home if needed.

2. it's much better paid than similar jobs in the same sector.

My DH is the main breadwinner (in a job he enjoys) - I don't technically "need" to work but I desperately want to to have financial independence and bring in some more money. However, I am so stressed and feel myself burning out.

WIBU to quit and find something else even though I'd be taking a big pay cut?

You know it’s never going to change.

You know you are stressed and unhappy.

Even with the flexibility, why would you put your health - mental and physical - at risk for a job you don’t even need to be doing?

When you do change jobs, I guarantee you’ll wish you’d done it sooner.

If it's a charity and neither the Chief Exec nor the Chairman are properly performing their roles, I'd be tempted to raise it with the charity commission.

Personally I would quit. Stay at home for a bit.

I’d walk. You’re under qualified, over worked and when something goes wrong - and it will, you’ll be in the line of fire. It’s not worth it. If your boss won’t listen take control and walk. And I speak as a Director in a public sector organisation with responsibility for all the area you’ve listed

If it's not a charity you're passionate about, given everything you've said, just leave.

I don’t understand why you are prepared to leave but won’t put your foot down and only do the work that you are able to do in the time allotted. Surely they’d be worse off with you leaving and having to find a new person ( who prob would refuse to do the job on the hours/pay that you are on)?

They are damned lucky that you are able to work on your days off. I have childcare responsibility on mine- I simply could not work outside my normal hours. Stop thinking of YOUR time as hours available for the job. You are enabling bad management. It may be a charity but you are not a volunteer. Paying staff properly is not against the rules of running charities.

That said, if you can find another job then probably easier to leave.

And the “flexibility” is a joke if you are working all your days off and weekends. That’s not remotely flexible!

I agree with Iwouldratherbe
Working in a charitable role, with people who aren't qualified or performing could lead to some pretty serious issues for everyone involved if the Charity Commission get involved.

you can't be that well paid, if you are working every day how is the pay work out for the amount of hours you actually put in?

I would leave because of the poor governance - take yourself out of the firing line.

I used to volunteer at a local charity, the manager, a lady in her 60’s was contracted (and paid only) for 15 hours per week but was actually working over 40 hours, evenings and weekends, she was frazzled.
Personally, I would quit, no one lays on their death bed wishing they had worked more, life is far too short. Find something else.

If you leave they will have to hire two people. Because no one else will take on this madness. So I’d go to them and say ‘I’m planning to quit, the current setup is very high risk and will lead to issues with the charity commission. Either you find a way to resolve it with me, or I can quit and you find a way to resolve it on your own.”

After reading what your responsible for, I’d leave and pronto. Even putting the amount of work aside, that is a lot of areas to be responsible for, if anything went wrong you’d be carrying the can.
Resign and leave them to it.

I wouldn't underestimate the importance of financial independence and it looks like there is some potential for this to be a good job, if the conditions can be sorted.

Before handing in your resignation, I would have a meeting with one or both bosses. Set out why you're considering leaving, what parts of the role would make sense to keep and what you feel would be best handled by one of them. Sounds like they need you more than you need them which is always a strong negotiating position.

I work with private businesses, public sector organisations and charities. I'm shocked at the acceptance of poor management in the third sector, many of whom are appointed without any proper selection process. "But's it's a charidee" doesn't absolve organisations from their rights as an employer and shouldn't give licence to exploit employees.

I knew this would be a charity too, from the first paragraph. The third sector is held up on the goodwill of staff.

I'm aware that I probably sound really pessimistic about it not changing but the thing is the problem is cultural - it's a super small organisation and pretty much all the staff bar me have been around since its inception. There is a huge culture of lack of any decision making, no hierarchy (which believe me is not a good thing as it means its never clear who has ownership over anything), doing everything at the last minute, viewing good governance as a beaureaucratic hassle which isn't important and not keeping key members of staff (mostly me) informed of things that need to be done until the last minute, so I'm flapping around like a blue arsed fly because others did not think ahead. A good example of that one is when I was asked to put together a five year budget for a funding bid in one afternoon.

leave. before it goes belly up and you carry the can.

@WhatNoNotYouAgain what would happen in reality if you only worked your contracted hours and told your CE that you couldn't do xyz?

QueenEnid

Then no one else would do it. The CE is not interested in the operational side. She doesn't even look at our management accounts. I doubt she could tell you where they're saved. She has never read our constitution. That's all solely on my shoulders.

Based on your responses, it sounds like you should leave.

Hope you find something that gives you more support and helps you to feel happier.

If I were you I'd wait until just after halloween, with the aim of starting a new job at the beginning of 2020.

I wouldn't quit yet. But I think you need to present workable solutions to the bosses. Firstly you need to list the tasks you do and whether they are daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly etc So they can see why you are stating there is too much work. Look through your tasks - are there any that you could do more effectively with training? Can you find a training provider to meet the need? Have you reached out to other workers in the sector to see what they do and how they manage - for example you use a forum like this for general advice is there similar for charities? (I'm on a fabulous Facebook group for School Governors where we all share resources and advice). Could you shadow another charity administrator for a day? Is there a helpline at the charity commission? Can they help you? Are you doing what is necessary or are some of your processes and procedures over engineered? Once you have done your research go back - tell them how much you love working for them but that the job is too much for one person for xyz reasons. Here's how to resolve it and the costs Involved. This might need minuting at an AGM with the trustees.

Finally work out your actual wage per hour...based on what you really work and decide if that is well paid.

The advice from user1474 above is fantastic, and I can't add anything more practical to that, but I just wanted to say I know how you're feeling and appreciate how horrid it is. I'm not in your sector but have a very similar working situation. Two young DC and a role that is predominantly working from home - I go into the office one day a month.

I work every day, evenings, weekends, and am solely responsible for one section of the business. It's an area where it's standard to get specialists in to help with big projects or functions, but our MD is running the whole thing on a shoe string, so I spend hours teaching myself how to do stuff (less well than if we'd paid an expert) and we muddle along.

I went through a phase of being thoroughly stressed with it all and absolutely hating it, but changed my mindset a few months ago. I've divided my job into business critical stuff and then the ongoing projects stuff that people want to keep moving. The business critical stuff I'm getting done and I am slowly progressing the other stuff but I am being much more blunt when people say 'so could we bring x to market by the end of the month' to manage expectations.

It's still stressful at times, but I make WFH work for me and have made the decision that when my youngest DC starts school next September I'm going to look closely at other options. For now it will do - it's way better paid than anything else regular I could get with this kind of flexibility / hours, I don't have the inclination to chase around and manage freelance contracts at the moment.

I've also had a very blunt conversation with some colleagues that while I work X number of hours (part time) a week, I'm already working Y which is significantly more and I'm not sitting in a box waiting for them to contact me which is when my elastic number of hours will magically swing into action!

OP, honestly you could be me, about 3 yrs ago.

As suggested here, back then i had meetings with key people in the organisation (also a badly run charity) put together lists of what i do and how long it takes etc etc. Nothing changed for the longest of times.

Things came to a head Two years ago when all the work stress, combined with various family stresses meant that i had to I take 3 months out from work.

Despite the break I didn't recover well enough and have now been on ADs for well over a year , and have had therapy.

In the interim I have had to learn to implement boundaries around work. I reduced my contracted hours, and have learned to 'walk away' ... not always successfully but I try very hard, and it is helping me alot.

I'd really urge you to assess your own ability to impose the boundaries you need to stay healthy. I've had to learn to live with that continuous sense of not doing everything that's needed. To allow things to go wrong, and not to pick up the pieces, or feel guilty about it.

if you think you can't do that, i think you should leave, for your family's sake. They will be the ones most affected by your mental ill-health.

Sorry, I did go on didn't I? Basically your thread kickstarted what is my usual Monday morning existential work crisis!

QueenEnid

Then no one else would do it

Ok, so then no-one else does it.

No-one is making you work all those hours, you are choosing to between the options of doing it, or let the work slide. But given that it's too much you need to be firmer with your boss.

Don't let the fact that it's a charity or you're understaffed impact your whole life. I understand I work for a charity where I always have too much to do to. I could work 100 hours a week and get everything done, or I could work 50 and prioritize and explain to my boss what I'm being forced to de-prioritize and the consequences of that.

If you continue to work like this then fine but recognize that it is a choice you're making, even if from a limited pool of options.