Struggling with workload

[victoriacc]

Hi,

I've been in my job just over two years. When I started I was brought in as an addition, to help with the workload

After eight months my colleague who had been there for ten years was gradually taken away to do another job in a different building

I now do the job on my own

My colleague is still on our headcount and officially has the same title as me but is unofficially doing another job altogether

Work has got busier. It's at least twice as busy as when I joined. I've also had to take on even more work

I've been told it was always the director's plan for this to happen, my colleague being removed

I can no longer cope

I've got headaches all the time. I wake up at 3.00am, 4.00am and think about work. I've now started to stop eating, I have no appetite

Two other colleagues at work in another dept. are currently signed off with stress. One guy was signed off with stress and left altogether about two months ago. Another guy handed his notice in and left two weeks ago after being threatened with disciplinary over something minor

There has recently been three redundancies and we've been led to believe there will be more but the regional HR manager visited our office this week and said there won't be anymore

Other sites have told staff this but our director hasn't, my manager believes he wants people to live in fear

I don't know what to do. It's impacting on my home life now

The only thing I can do right now is slow down and stop rushing around. I can't go on like this

My manager's manager told me that sites les busy than our's have two people doing my job. I was given some agency help for about four weeks but this was stopped two weeks ago for cost saving

I was on holiday yesterday looking after DD and now I have a meeting with the director today and sales managers to go over our stock levels

I know lots of pressure will be put on me in the meeting. I'm just a lowly administrator but I'm having to run a small dept. on my own

My own manager is no help

When I was on holiday for a week he was asked to cover my role in one small area and refused. If I'm off my role is not covered at all and I come back to chaos. I dread taking time off

I'm drowning and I don't know where to go, I'm thinking about booking a doctor's appointment because stopping eating and sleeping can't go on

Do I speak to HR first or my manager, he's so unapproachable and only ever thinks about how anything will impact him, not that his staff need help. Three previous people in my office left because of him

All advice welcome

OP I wanted to say this sounds intolerable and that I hope you get some resolution. It sounds like treating people poorly is ingrained there. I.dont have any advice,except,is there a union rep you could talk to? Perhaps you could look into joining a union?

I'm sorry to hear you're struggling so much, what a horrible situational when work is affecting your health.

You have 3 options and it really depends how much you want to stay in this job. Are there other factors which are good such as short commute, good pay etc

1. Make a list of all your job tasks and roughly what proportion of your time is spent on each. That should let you see if there's an area taking up too much of your time.
   Arrange a meeting with your manager to look at your workload and go through your list. In that meeting you will need to be very firm that you cannot fit all of these job tasks into your week and that the current situation will not be continuing. Ask him to identify which tasks you should prioritise. You will then both agree which job tasks you will focus on each week and which can be left, allocated to someone else.
   You will need to remain firm and resolute that you cannot continue covering everything.

2. Look for another job asap. It's affecting your health and no job is worth that. You could even look at temp jobs if you need out quickly.

3. If you are really struggling speak to your GP and get signed off with work related stress.
   That will give you a breathing space to step back and get your thoughts in order. Then you can decide whether to follow options 1 or 2

Good luck

Thank you

Just came out of the meeting and don't feel any better. Everything I said got quashed by the director

I think I need to start looking for something just to get me out of here

I have also been applying for long term jobs

I mentioned my workload and that other sites have two people doing the job but the director said that isn't true

I know it is, the general sales manager told me there was at the site he came from at the beginning of this year. He wasn't in the meeting although he was meant to be

I am going to stand firm, I'm not going to run around like a lunatic. It will only cover up the problems

I would have never normally applied for this job but I had to take redundancy from my previous job that I was in for almost seven years

I've never touched my £12k pay. I'm thinking I might need to start using some of it now if I take a lower paying job just to get me out of here

It's such a horrible, pressurised environment. The managers will be on £60k, general sales manager £80k and director £100k+ and there's me with my basic pay of £22k and they expect the world of me

Not sure how much more I can take

You definitely need to get another job. They are never going to change their way of thinking, the director doesn’t care about you or your health, just paying as little as possible. So you need to not care about them, and to stop working over and above, and if needs be, let some things slide to prove a point. Would you consider temping until you find something else, as an administrator you should easily get temp work to tide you over.

i hope you get out of that toxic place very soon, and let them flounder.

Sorry to hear they didn't take what you were saying on board @victoriacc

Definitely time to get out. They don't care about you or your well-being and nothings going to change. longer you stay the more it will affect your health.
Maybe sign up with an agency and do temp work while you look for something permanent

Thank you

It's an extremely toxic place and it's ran on fear by the director

I've been there two years and I've never been scrutinised before. Sales have taken a big hit and our stock has lost a lot of value which has in turn meant everything is getting tightened up on

It wouldn't be anywhere near as much of an issue but my help was taken away two weeks ago for cost saving

We only made £168M in the first quarter