How busy are you at work?

[Forhecksake]

On an average day, do you feel like you have time to do the work that you need to do that day?

I usually get to work early, work through lunch and am last out at the end of the day. Some days I'm so flat out that I don't even remember to get up to use the toilet.

There's a bit of chat with colleagues, but most of the day is either silent or on calls.

I feel like I have never worked harder in my life. After 2+ years, I've been in post longer and have more knowledge and experience than anyone else in the role. But it's still not good enough for the boss. I now feel like it's not possible to deliver what they want in the timescales they specify.

Is that just what's normal in the workplace now? Does everyone work at breakneck speed chasing targets that can't be met?

(I'm going to take a wild guess and say Teachers and nurses will say yes 😁)

Some days I'm so flat out that I don't even remember to get up to use the toilet.

That seems like a contradiction in terms to me. I have very physically demanding job. I only sit down for 30mins during a 9hr shift. Busy in a different way to you I guess, but I enjoy being active at work. I couldn’t stand to be tied to a desk.

I’m a teacher; I’m not too busy. I have firm boundaries though, I delegate anything I can, and prioritise the things that must get done. We’re humans, not machines, and I’ll be useless if I become ill from burnout/stress.

I'm not the first in/last out now that I have a child but yeah, this does pretty much describe my days. They're normally packed and I also often don't have time to go to the loo either. Most of the actual thinking work gets done in the evenings too after DS has gone to bed.

Lol, I suppose when I say flat out, I mean typing furiously 🤣. Sometimes standing and sometimes sitting, but almost always attached to a laptop unless I'm in a client facing meeting. Sometimes I do log in from home on non-work days to try to catch up as well. But I try not to.

I suppose what bothers me isn't actually the pace. If I bust my butt all day to get people the help they need, that's a great feeling. That's the whole goal.

But if I bust my butt and then get in trouble because I forgot to ask someone whether they ever served in the armed forces or if they own their own home during the conversation where I'm arranging the help... It's so depressing.

For example, yesterday I was getting through my work, scheduled my last call with time to record everything. Perfect. Except my Co-workers kept trying to put a call through to me while I was on the phone. Then sending me emails and teams messages to say that I needed to take this call.

When I finished my call, I looked at the messages--1 colleague had tried to help the caller and given inappropriate information and two colleagues had just passed her over to me because she knew my name.

So instead of writing up my call as planned, I had to call the distressed person to talk through what she needed and get things calm. By the time I finished, everyone else had gone home.

So now I'm already going to be in trouble at 9am on Monday because I have 2 calls that haven't been recorded within 48 hours. And it will continue from there.

I feel like I have two jobs in one. I have a big project team to manage that could be a full time job if I wanted, and I also have a separate line management team of 12 I need to support.

We do a lot of matrix management so my project only involves 2 of the people I line manage. The other ten need my support to navigate some of the challenges they have eg competing priorities from managers of projects if they are working on more than one (most are). This aspect of my role could also be a whole job!

So I'm very busy, but the week passes quickly and I feel satisfied at the end of it because it's productive and I love supporting people. My previous role I was equally busy but found it very draining because it always felt like nothing was moving forward because the organisation moved at glacial speed at all times.

TA, currently off sick.
In the main, I'm busy five days a week. The school day is very obviously structured in such a way that we always need to be somewhere at a certain time.