I work as a PA in a really fast-paced environment. My main boss is intense but generally kind and fair, and managing their workload alone is a full-time job. Because I was handling things well, my manager asked me to take on a second team member. I agreed, with the caveat that if the workload became too much, I might not be able to manage both.
The second person turned out to be an absolute nightmare. Their communication is terrible, they second-guess everything I do, and they constantly report me for every little thing—often things they hadn’t even communicated properly in the first place. I’ve found I make more mistakes with them because I’m so on edge, knowing they’ll pull me up on anything.
It got to the point where I told my manager I couldn’t cope with both, and thankfully they listened and reassigned some of the work. But I’m still dealing with the fallout, and every time I see this person’s name in my inbox, I feel sick. They recently tried to pin a mistake on me that wasn’t my job to check in the first place, and when I politely pointed this out, they just brushed it off and told me to fix it—no acknowledgment that they should have checked their own work.
I’ve been so anxious and tearful over all of this. I haven’t really had a break since starting this job, and I feel like my mental health is in pieces. Whilst I appreciate the work being reassigned I feel like my nervous system is shot from the last few months of being overworked and constantly fire fighting/trying to defend myself. I know work is busy and that others have been off with stress or personal issues, so I feel guilty even considering it, but WIBU to take time off? Or do I just need to suck it up?