to feel pissed off and resentful about my job?

[LouiseCheese123]

Just over a year ago I accepted a counter-offer to stay at my current company. I accepted on the the basis that I'd get to spend 30% of my time on a new project that would eventually become a full-time role in 1-2 years. In the meantime I'd still spend 70% of time on my existing role.

However since then, the 70% role has become really pressured and has become a 100% role again. The 30% role has also grown and become a 50% role. So basically I’m working a lot, and I’m starting to feel pissed off and resentful.

My direct boss only cares about the 70% role (the project work isn’t his remit) and is not remotely supportive. I mentioned that I was working long hours and his response was ‘I don’t ask you to do that, it’s your choice’.

My boss’s boss, who manages the 30% project, is understanding and would be ok with me keeping the project as 30% role, or even dropping to 20%. However, the less I do of that, the less value they will be able to see in it becoming a 100% role and the longer it will take.

I don’t know how to manage this, and feel really stuck. All of the options I can think of have drawbacks:

a) Continue working all hours, be stoical about it, keep both bosses happy and hope it eventually pays off.

b) Set out clear time limits for each role, e.g. Monday to Thursday lunch is role 1, after that is project work (not totally practical because both need quick responses when something comes up).

c) Do a half-assed job somewhere along the line / subtly drop the parts of the job that I think are less important (tried doing this overtly - didn't work. I just got "It's all important and has to be done!")

d) Raise it with my direct boss and ask for his support/input (could go very wrong – and I’d have to be very careful it didn’t come across remotely moan-ish because that’s when he shuts down and becomes totally unsupportive)

e) Leave! Admit I've looked into it but I actually really like my job, my colleagues and the location, and there aren't many jobs like the project role going - so It'd probably be a sideways move.

Anyone got a silver bullet? I don’t mind hard work but I also want my life back!

Thanks.

Ways to make job more doable should include ability to give assistant colleague responsibility rather than just individual tasks imo - that's a bit nuts.

Yes, do you have someone good to delegate to? If not, ask for that. Could be a good opportunity for someone junior to you.

That’s good that your preferred new project sounds viable. They can’t base business decisions on “promises” to retain an employee. September isn’t too long to wait to see if the funds come though.

So, a bit of an update... After reading all the replies, and on the basis that leaving isn't really an option right now, I decided to go and talk to my boss again (being careful to pick a time when I wasn't feeling annoyed!) and tell him that things would be dropped, rather than asking permission.

I started off by apologising for having a moan about my workload in an unproductive way, which I had done (basically he'd asked me to drop everything for a couple of days and work on something else, I'd resisted/reacted because I already had so much on and could see my evenings slipping away trying to catch up). I said that it came from a place of wanting to do everything well, and not wanting to renege on other commitments I'd made to other teams, but that I did recognise that what he'd asked me to do was a priority for the company and that of course I would do it. However it would inevitably mean that other things slipped, and that it would just be a question of working out what those things were - I said I'd involve him and his boss in that process to make sure I was prioritising in line with the company's priorities.

Although he was fine with it and said it sounded reasonable, I was still sceptical as I assumed when it came to the crunch he'd say nothing could be dropped. However.... surprisingly he came back after the bank holiday saying he'd reflected on it too and has actually now offered to take an area of responsibility off me - which frees up about 30% of my time - from next week! I nearly fainted with the shock. Anyway we'll see how it goes...

Good news OP and thanks for coming back to update, sounds like you framed the conversation very well

My counter-offer worked for me.
It was set in writing.