Hi everyone, reaching out for help. I’m also concerned I’m being precious and complaining about nothing, so any guidance on if IABU would be really helpful.
I have a job which is known for high workload and poor work life balance. It’s a small team and there is uneven distribution of work (others are working normal hours). I’m having to work dawn to dusk to keep up, including weekends. I recently had holiday and worked full time hours because emergency stuff came up and there’s no one who can cover. Despite trying hard, I’m falling increasingly behind because it’s not possible to do it all. I’m stressed, tearful and anxious to the point that I feel physically ill, none of which is like me. I’ve also lost touch with almost all my friends.
What I’ve tried so far:
- Showing my manager it’s too much and asking for things to be reallocated. Told it’ll happen “later”. That was six months ago. Following up has been ignored.
- When being given an additional big job to do, asking for it to at least be split with someone else. I was promised that would happen then that was withdrawn. Eventually got agreement for a 90/10 split (!), and even that hasn’t been put in place yet (job needs to be done this month). If the 10% isn’t done, that creates more work for me, so it’s not something I can just ignore and say “well you said X would do it” because I’m the only one who’ll suffer.
- Talking to the manager above my manager about my workload. They refused to do anything and encouraged me to find another job. I guess important context is that despite all the above, I’m doing well on my KPIs so far and get on with everyone so it’s not like they’re trying to manage me out because I’m rubbish or awful (I hope). I’ve even had some “employee of the month” type stuff from further up the tree, which is lovely but I’d rather have a day off!
- Asking for flexible hours so I can take one day per week properly off. There’s no reason this wouldn’t work operationally or would affect my work. Manager refused to even put in the request, and said I shouldn’t ask HR because they’ll say no. (Again context so I don’t sound like I’m problematic: I didn’t mention HR, they did, and I’ve never gone to HR about anything.)
- Asking to claim back the holiday when I had to work. Also refused because I “should have been better organised”. The work was unpredictable and short notice, and not doing it would have been detrimental to me and also our clients, so I’m not sure what I was meant to do - clearly the system should enable someone else to pick up jobs when people are on leave, but at the moment it doesn’t.
I don’t know what to do other than leave, and despite how horrendous this feels, I really enjoy the work - I just need there to be less on my plate. What can I do? And please tell me if I’m being whiny and it’s not a big deal, because I’d rather know and then work on toughening up. Thank you.