Work stress covering for multiple people on annual leave

[HazelLion]

Over the past couple of weeks I've had to take on the workloads of four colleagues who went on annual leave at the same time, in addition to a colleague on mat leave - so in total I've taken on the work of five other people in addition to my own. Our work is client-facing and with tight deadlines. Some tasks that were meant to be quick box-ticking exercises became much more involved and were hard to deal with as I didn't have any documentation and wasn't cc'd into prior emails. I feel like a few of my colleague's handover documents were lacking in necessary detail, so I made a couple of mistakes because I didn't have full context. My manager now seems irritated with me and I'm also irritated for not even getting a thank you in return for all the pressure I've been under.

I'm also a bit upset that all of these holidays were approved without checking the calendar first to make sure we still had appropriate cover in the department. I've broken down crying several times over the stress of it all. Am I being unreasonable here? My DH thinks I need to raise it with my manager but as they approved the leave (and went on leave themselves) I can't imagine they will be sympathetic.

Yes you need to raise it with your manager. I don't think any mumsnetters will be able to solve this for you.

Forget the manager. Raise it with HR. That’s completely inappropriate. One person can’t do the job of five.

It's a small company and HR is just one person who reports to my manager (who is a director), so I don't think that would go down well for me.

Really, I guess I'm just looking for validation that I'm not being weak or unreasonable for being stressed.

You are not being unreasonable. I remember being in a small office where I'd absolutely dread my colleagues long holidays. You need to just do what's essential and the clients need to be told that there is annual leave and you aren't providing like for like cover.

You're not unreasonable. Stop trying to do it all. As I tell my team at work, you can only do what you can do. Prioritise sensibly and what's left is left. It cannot be all your problem.

I've had this happen to me to in the past.

If it EVER happens again - and I mean EVER - I will ring in sick when 5 colleagues and my manager are away at the same time. No fucking way would I even attempt to do it again. THEN, the manager would have some explaining to do.

Your manager needs to have a holiday spreadsheet. This needs to be properly managed over Xmas, summer and other hotspots. It’s basic, but it’s relevant. You must raise this to your manager to sort out and mention your stress! You are being perfectly reasonable!

You are only 1 person and can only do so much. Don't feel pressured to stay back late or do extra- unless you are paid for it and you want to. Keep a log of the issues and if its too much- go off sick. Utterly ridiculous to be able to do the work of 5 people!

Sorry theyve put you in this position.

Speak to your manager and say you're trying to do (insert names) but it's too much to cover with too many priority tasks and urgent deadlines and you need support.

You can ask for clarification as to what gets prioritised and what gets dropped.
You can go off sick if it gets too overwhelming. Which it does sound like it's becoming.

You need to come to an agreement on the minimum level of staffing required to provide a service for your clients. If this means no more than 2 people can be off at any given time then it needs to be adhered to when holidays are requested. Things like this cause burnout and resentment not to mention disgruntled clients.

That’s outrageous op! Yanbu.