Am I crap at my job or is this burnout?

[Needabloodynap]

So I work in HR so I am constantly dealing with everyone else’s issues so I definitely feel the mental impact of that side of things. One of my colleagues has been off work since February due to stress so I have been covering for her. So that’s 2 people’s caseload. Another member of staff gone off sick last week due to a death and I am temporarily attending some meetings for her.

Ive just had a call now asking for me to do a presentation as my other colleague has an important meeting now and can’t do it. I really wanted to say no but I think they have looked at my calendar and it seen that’s it free so they just think I’m sat at home doing nothing.

I can feel the stress in my chest and feel like crying!

AIBU to feel like this? Or should I be able to cope with this.

Can you cope with the tasks? As in can you physically handle them? I don’t think they’d ask you if they thought you couldn’t. Have you had any/ much time off recently? Could you take some time or tell them you need help?

You're not crap at your job, you've in fact been doing three people's jobs and a fourth person has just offloaded part of their job onto you as well!

Do you have a line manager who can help with this? Many jobs (even in HR!) will just load more and more onto people until they break. It sounds like this meeting your other colleague is asking you to do is the last straw.

Call your colleague back and say you can't do it because you're doing off with stress colleague's job, off with bereavement colleague's job and your own job on top. They'll have to resolve the meeting conflict themselves and reschedule one of them, you can't cover them as well.

@stayathomer the problem is that each person offloading onto the OP thinks "oh this is just a small task - just one presentation - just one short meeting". And sure, in generally OP could probably handle just that small task if she was just doing her own job.

But underneath that small task is the OP's own full-time job AND the two colleagues jobs she is covering who are off, so that one small task might as well be a huge impossible task, as she just doesn't have capacity.

I think that was a brilliant way of explaining it thank you. They just assume I’m free and sat at home doing nothing. But in fact I’m covering for so many people. I finish work at 3 on a Thursday to go pick up my kids and then I’m off to college study!! I feel like I’m so close to just giving up.

Don't give up. You need to say no and push back on this colleague. Pick up the phone right now and read this out, or paste into a email:

"Hi is that David? Hi David, I'm sorry but I've just gone over my capacity and I'm not going to be able to take your meeting at 2pm - I'm absolutely swamped covering not just my own work, but also covering Sandra's case load who's been off since February and now I'm also covering all James's work as well as he's gone off sick. I'm completely beyond capacity and I can't cover your 2pm on top of everything else - I'd suggest you reschedule it if you can't find someone else. Good luck!"

And then put the phone down.

They need to advertise a temporary post to help you before you go off on stress too

Yes I agree with @PolePrince55 - they now have two people off sick, and they will soon have a third (you!!) unless they get cover sorted out for the first two people that is someone other than you.

This is your manager's job - that's why they get paid the big bucks. After calling David back, you need to tell your manager that you are this close to going off sick as well as you're now covering three roles and David's trying to get you to cover some of his as well. Line manager needs to sort it out.

Xiaoxiong

Ah ok I was actually only asking because op’s title says or am I crap at the job!!

Block chunks out of your diary for getting on with work time

And yes it sounds like you have hit peak overload

Hi, I don’t know your your place of work operates its diaries however for my own work diary I have my meetings and team sessions in it and then I block out time for my other tasks and work accordingly. Therefore no one can see an empty diary or a diary with gaps. Having time to actually do work and to think about solutions is just as important as attending meetings etc.

The words that need to come out of your mouth

"I do not have the capacity for this task" or

"in order to do this task I will have to drop task x, which would you (as my manager) prefer I prioritise"

"I should be able to complete this task by the 30 Oct (insert suitable date), if you'd prefer I do it sooner then tell me which task to deprioritise"

You do not have the capacity to do 4 peoples jobs, something needs to be deprioritised. Your manager needs to aid this prioritisation. And if they say it all needs doing, stick to your guns and say ' I don't have capacity, it'll get done by 30th October "

don't let any job burn you out.

Come on, OP. You know that you're not really crap at your job. You're being asked to do too much.

If an employee approached you, as someone in HR, about unreasonable demands being placed on them, what would you advise? I'm willing to bet that you might advise them to talk to their line manager and perhaps ask which of the tasks they should prioritise?

You clearly can't do everything, so it is time to put your big girl pants on and talk to your manager about what needs to be done and what can be let go. If you just keep quiet and keep saying yes to everything, they will assume that you have capacity. You don't, so tell them. You are not being unreasonable or unhelpful by saying that it is just too much... you're being realistic.

Could you just explain you don’t have time to do the presentation either?

Are you me?

I’m not in HR but you have basically exactly described my job

Its not that you’re crap at your job, it’s probably that you are actually too good at it for your own good.

I constantly get this kind of shit from managers because as a PP mentioned they only think about their own caseload and not about the demands on you from others.

My company has three partners and they each work in a vacuum with no idea whatsoever what the workload is from the others.

I have one hour today when I am not scheduled to be on Teams calls. One of the partners emailed me at 11.30pm asking me if I could “spend the morning” working on some presentation slides. No, because as it stands I will be lucky to squeeze in a toilet break, never mind lunch.

Then if you can’t fulfill whatever unreasonable demand is made of you with a minute’s notice it’s then held up as your inflexibility, poor organisational skill and lack of commitment.

I dont know what to say really, it’s the nature of modern work. But you have my sympathy. I don’t burnout mainly because I can’t afford the time off. I know that sounds cynical but it’s the reality.

Start blocking out your diary for tasks.

Diaries shouldn’t just be there for meetings, you need to be able to build in time for other work.

It is not fair that you need to do two staff members' workloads as your colleague is off sick. The management should prioritise work and let something drop.