I work in a very, very busy school kitchen full time. Our work load had risen massively since covid as obviously everything has changed.
We have lost staff due to the pressure we are under, and the staff that are left have very low moral as we have more pressure on us to keep everything the same as it was pre covid with no one understanding the extra work load.
So we are working with less staff, but still expected to do the same amount [ and more work than before ] in the same amount of time.
We have narcissist manager who is very much a yes person to senior staff with no regard to how we are managing, so again we are getting extra work daily. If they say jump, manager says how high! They are impossible to talk to as it just turns back to how they are feeling.
I am exhausted and extremely stressed with all we are going through. I am not sleeping as this plays on my mind all the time and I actually dread going into work. I am getting headaches daily which I feel are stress related. We have no HR as such, so there is no one senior we can go to. Anytime one of us has tried to talk to senior management, they immediately speak to our manager who then berates us for bypassing them.
I am in my 60's and just don't know how long I can go on like this [ I have no pension so need to work ]. I have tried finding another job, but given my age and lack of qualifications and I need full time work, it is almost impossible to find anything. If I thought this was going to be temporary I could just about manage to get through, but I don't think it will and this will become our new normal.
I don't know what I am asking really, just so stressed I need someone to know how I am feeing. I am single with no one to talk this over with which doesn't help.