I have wasted an entire WEEK and I am panicked

[PanickedPanini]

I'm not quite sure how this has happened. I've been struggling with motivation etc in lockdown but this week has peaked. I have somehow got to the end of the week without doing any work.

I've had a few meetings but nothing that took out huge chunks of my time. I had 9 things to complete by the end of the week and I've done just 2. One of which was to send an email!!

I feel sick. I don't know where the week has gone or what the hell I'm going to say at my weekly 121 with my line manager tomorrow morning. This is not like me and I don't know what I was thinking. I've been sleeping badly and the week has just trickled away from me. I'm tired but apathetic and panicked all at once.

Do I just call in sick tomorrow morning? semi serious

Can you do a couple of reports before going to bed, and one tomorrow before the meeting, so you’ve done at least half?

It really depends on how they handle these things at your job. In my line of work you must give notice the minute you’re sick or realise you might not be able to complete tasks by X deadline. They need to call someone in, well ahead of the deadline, to do it for you.

Does anything vital depend on these reports? Will it impact on someone else’s progress next week? If no, don’t stress yourself too much (I know, easier said than done!).

Call your Manager in the morning and tell them you are taking the day off to support your DM.

If you can complete the work over the weekend and it doesn't leave you stressed and overwhelmed do it, if not tell them on Monday that you have had other things on your mind over the last couple of weeks and you will need extra time to catch up.

Managers are normally human and will help you.

I think I would go with call in sick and spend tomorrow and the weekend getting on top of it all.
I was like this last week and then paid the price of having to put together 3 presentations with only a couple of evenings to do it in. I ended up cancelling some work to give myself extra time. I’ve always cut it fine with deadlines but never been this bad.
Think lots of people are feeling the same right now

The only problem with calling in sick is that it might prompt your manager to go digging into what you’ve done whilst you aren’t there to discuss/explain yourself. I’d also be expecting them to ask off the bat if you have anything due that day. Would it be possible to call in sick, submit the work later in the day? Or say to your manager I’ll send in what I’ve done but buy yourself some time to do it?

I wouldn’t go with the mh angle (agree with pp that lip service is paid) or even say you’ve been unproductive, companies will soon start cracking down on people procrastinating whilst wfh. If anything I’d go with plain overwhelmed and fluff something about some tasks/things taking longer than expected that’s put you behind.

Firstly I’d ‘start’ everything, even if it’s just getting some notes on a word doc or a framework for the report.

Does anyone else owe you a favour or could lend you some resource tomorrow?

Consider whether it’s better doing a crap job than missing the deadline, which is worse? In your situation I’d brave a crap report if the rest of your work is usually good. Easier to be seen to learn from a crap report than admit to mega procrastination on works time.

Consider doing an all nighter or at least getting up early to get a couple of hours in.

I would call in sick, catch up over the weekend, and if that causes anyone inconvenience, or you can’t quite get it all done, explain about family illness.

It’s all totally understandable, but unless you know your boss well it’s not a good impression, so just dodge it,

I moved the 121, sent through a poor first draft of a report and am frantically working on another piece ahead of my meeting, where I will ask for a chat/consultation even though I know the answer.

Thanks for advice re: "starting" as much as possible, I think this will be my saving grace.

I feel like such a ridiculous fraud.

@OldKingCole

I felt like this about a week ago...it’s not like me at all....it’s all the pressure of lockdown and anxiety and depression that goes with it. Can you be honest with your manager that you are finding things hard right now and your motivation has dipped? It is temporary. As a manager I would be very understanding if an employee came to me with this issue.

Some terrible advice on here, I agree with OldKingCole.

Just be honest, it's expected that motivation is going to be low these days. Don't stress out doing it tonight or over the weekend. And don't be going off on sick just so you don't have to do it. Do however go on sick if you're struggling in general.

As a manager I would like to see a plan on how you're going to get on top of it, and how you're going to prioritise the work you'd not done.

The worst case scenario is getting a little telling off from work, but its only work.