It's all too common I know, but when I returned from Maternity leave to a 4-day week, I ended up having to do 5 days' worth of work in 4 days.
It's been really tough at times, but things had been looking up towards the end of last year. I had a really capable junior supporting me who took on much of the day to day tasks so I could focus on 'bigger picture' stuff, as my role requires.
Then in January, my junior handed in her notice. She's been gone for one working week now and I'm already drowning. In addition to doing all the work on the busy account she and I shared, since January I'm also managing another junior on two other accounts, plus my boss keeps chucking ad hoc projects at me!
As a company we have always had a culture of overworking people til they get fed up and leave, or have a breakdown. The boss won't 'speculate to accumulate' so will never keep more than the bare minimum of staff members to cover the workload. He's now saying we can't afford to replace my old junior.
In December I was promised that my biggest account would go to another team. After my junior left their line manager promised they would get another team member to share the work, so the changeover was still supposed to go ahead. It's now March and the other team are just too busy to take on my account. With no sign of an extra staff member that's not likely to happen anytime soon.
So, I'm job hunting (for a FT role closer to home, PT work in my field is v rare), and hoping that I don't get pushed to the point of handing in my notice without a job to go to, which wouldn't be the most sensible decision financially.
I guess I'd like to hear from anyone else who has been in this situation. What did you do? Is leaving my only option?