Life is overwhelming right now! Help!

[PawPatrolHell]

Hi,

This could be long so I'll try and keep things as brief as possible, without being outing.

I work part-time, 30 hours a week over 4 days, in quite a stressful local authority role.
Due to lots of factors, an already intense job has become more pressured. Extra work is being asked of us but we are expected to do our usual work load on top of this. Management will then chase you on the additional work, but our usual work load have gone up, we are getting more phone calls, more emails, more service users to see in person. Everyone has their own separate projects that they deal with. It's manic. My phone rings constantly, sometimes as soon as I log in. My own mailbox is piling up and my projects barely touched. You might pick up a phone call or email and you'll spend half of the day dealing with one crisis. We have new staff but it doesn't seem to have eased any of the pressure.

I have a toddler at home and on the days I'm working I barely see her, depending on the time DH is working we'll juggle the drop off between us. I work mostly in the office so by the time I get home most days my daughter is already in bed. My commute is just over an hour, but if I miss a connection it can take a lot longer. Most of the day I have off in the week is dealing with admin, cleaning, laundry, appointments. I just feel so overwhelmed and bogged down by it all. I'm constantly anxious, I dread work. Sunday nights I toss and turn. I just feel like it's all too much. I feel like I'm doing a shit job at work and being a shit mum because I'm missing so much. I'm always rushing around. I just feel ground down by it all.

How do other people cope? Surely there's more to life than this.

It's really bloody difficult to work in a stressful role and be a parent and alongside it somehow manage to run a home and general life admin. It gets easier when they're older but it's still really shit.

The obvious answer is to move to a less overwhelming role or one that offers hybrid working. I work so much more working from home than I do in the office and I manage to keep the house tidy and clean on my breaks. It's the only way I can balance any kind of family and work life but I still can't manage a social life too.

You will need to find a less stressful job it all sounds too much for you.

Are there good jobs more locally too? You definitely need to change something and to make this more family friendly . I would keep an eye out for other opportunities and while you do so lower your standards on tidying etc . I feel for you as it sounds so tiring

I'm looking more locally but unfortunately the pay is substantially less. I can't afford to lose that much per month. Just so many things have made my job harder and we just seem to be busier in general.

Hopefully things will ease off a little.

Thank you all 😊

It sounds like you have a lot on. Working nearly FT with a toddler and a commute isn’t easy.

As changing jobs isn’t an easy option, are there things you could do to make things easier at home eg get a cleaner, get DH to take on a bigger share of admin tasks?

Could you also go see HR at work and say this isn’t tenable? That might not get you anywhere, but it might.. could you try and negotiate a day working at home?