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Work related stress - is it me and when is it time to get help?

1 reply

Stressyy · 17/09/2024 20:41

Long story short, my job is sending me over the edge. Essentially there is a lack of support, little to no training and quite poor line management.

I have been in the role for just over a year. We deal with a wide variety of clients and work with cases and answering queries by email and telephone. Unlike other places I have worked like this, rather than the work being in a central "pot" and dished out, it's very much this case is yours, you keep it. Whilst I appreciate this is good for continuity, it also causes problems - no one is keeping an eye on how many cases we have therefore there has been occasions were myself has had far more work than the other junior and I've gotten no help. This is also the case then that if you take more calls, you've now gotten more work for yourself. The other junior and myself do alot of the day to day things, and the middle person also does some of these, particularly the more advanced/complex things we haven't been shown.

The work we complete there are no process notes for, meaning there is a lot of asking for help and rework involved (causing incoming work to pile up.) I've never experienced this before in any role as there has always been either training notes to refer to or someone shows you how to do something and you can make notes as they go along.

The other junior was recently on leave and my manager could see the amount of work I now had as no one else was taking any other work off me. He said the middle level person was to help me. Our manager then went on leave and that never happened. This middle person was then due to go on leave the week the other junior was coming back. On the Monday of that week, they emailed us both saying not to send them any work as they were getting tidied up for going off on the Friday. As the other junior was off - this meant all the incoming work was coming to me - again including things I have no clue how to do and deadlines coming up to expiration. The seniors could see how much I had but also continued to send me more things to add to my list. One of them said just this week, if you have anything I can help with send it across...I sent them a trickier case and they sent it straight back to me.

I know reading it back it all seems pretty trivial and some might say it's just a case of speaking up. However when they can all see the work piled up and continue to pile more on what's the point. If my manager sends something back to me that needs re-work, if I ask them for help it almost seems like an inconvenience to them or they also act like they don't know what I'm even talking about, despite them looking at it 5 mins prior.

I just don't know how to cope anymore, it's got the point where I'm crying at my desk everyday (Wfh 4/5 days which I believe is a big part of the problem) or if in work, in the toilets. I can't leave without another job to go to and my notice is 3 months (despite the level of my role!) My friend said to just hand my notice in now and I'll get something else soon enough but I can't rely on that. My husband did also say the same. I have also seriously considered going off on stress, but then my manager would say "why didn't you say anything" no doubt, but I also have the worry of then having to declare this at another job if I were to leave. I also don't even know how to go about it. I just don't know what to do or where to turn, I know I can't speak to my manager anyway.

As awful as it is I'm also at the stage where I'm wishing to get hit by a car/something equally disruptive enough that I don't have to work for a while.

Any advice from anyone who has been there would be much appreciated.

OP posts:
Bloatedbelly · 18/09/2024 23:13

Hi @Stressyy ,

Firstly deep breath!!

Do you work for a law firm? This is what I’m imagining.

Sometimes work places and managers have a ‘keeping giving them work until they break’ attitude. Which is why you have to speak up and protect your own mental health. The more you take on the more that comes and the cycle gets worse and worse.

Theres no shame at all in going off sick. Honestly if you said the above to your GP they would give you a sick note. You could have anything written on it ‘mental health’ ‘stress’ ‘anxiety’ - honestly whatever you like. You can tell them what you want. I do think you need to explain how much it’s all been affecting you so that things can improve.

Dont carry on feeling this way. Force yourself to log off at a reasonable time and take back control. Take a lunch break. Speak to your manager. Take some time away.

Whatever you need don’t get sucked into being a work slave

xx

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