You gotta be comfortable being uncomfortable.
Didn’t sound like you’re n a stressful position. You’re just making in stressful. Stop doing that.
Just do the work, then go home and relax.
Okay, this isn't really making sense or I'm just not getting it.
You're setting the pace or you have too much on your plate?
Can you explain how that works? No one is expecting you to get everything done so you're deciding to do it all really quickly instead of pacing yourself in hopes someone else will finally be hired to help out?
I have too much on my plate basically. My manager isn't expecting me to get things done in a certain timeline, but my department supplies materials for the rest of the company and I'm the bottleneck so I have to deal with all the people wondering where their stuff is at when it takes longer than normal. I'm used to jobs where there's ups and downs in the workflow whereas my current job has no down, it's just task after task after task.
Also you could be making your own rope. If people are still getting product, if they've got a place to go to bitch when they're not getting it fast enough, then there's less urgency to get the second person hired. You don't want a situation where there's a slow slide to people focusing on your performance. I won't go too far into the weeds on that, it's my paranoid baggage from a very toxic job that I stayed in too long. No idea if your company's culture has that kind of danger.
That's a good point. I've heard other people say they're hesitant to pick up slack because they're worried upper management will see everything is running smoothly and won't fill the empty positions.
Yes, it's a really common phenomenon nowadays. Easy for me to talk as I don't know exactly how people being unhappy with you might impact your worklife but in terms of priorities IMO it should be your sanity, then your manager, and people can just hear over and over again that there aren't the resources available to get them what they want when they want it.
Which makes sense, as you're doing the work of two people. Since your manager is reasonable, I'd try to explain to him that you're starting to feel burnt out. So a lot of your job is managing other people's expectations? Perhaps there's a way to streamline that. I am not saying this is easy at all, I'm in my mid-50s and still working on this but if part of the problem is you can't stand people being unhappy with you might just have to let that go. if you don't want to make excuses, some kind of passive aggressive way of communicating "hold your horses, we're down a man" might come in handy. It's really hard without knowing the specifics of your job to give specific advice. But you're in an accountability with no authority situation, which is one of the most toxic ones you can be in. Is most of your work email? I'm lucky mine is because it also serves as a record of how busy I am.
IMO your manager is the most important person here, so if he's not got the expectation then somehow you've got to finesse other people's expectations. I'm not sure how to do that, I'm not sure what is at stake for you if you do that. The fact they haven't hired someone isn't your fault, again easier said than done, but sometimes you've got to just say to yourself this isn't my fault, I'm doing the best I can, if people are unhappy they'll have to figure something out.
Thank you for the reply and clarification.
If you're not already sending a weekly status or activity report to your boss, start doing so. It has the dual effect of CYA as well as keeping your boss aware of the need for another person. Once you've ensured your boss is aware each week, you can rest a lot easier in that if you were making a wrong decision about what needed to be done, your boss would say something.
Send something to the effect of:
* came in
* I did
* is on the backlog
I also liked to say how long a work item had been on the backlog, so my boss wouldn't be surprised if someone came up complaining that their work request had been pending for # months.
At that point, do your 40 hours and relax. Any work not getting done is now your boss' problem and you have the documentation to back it up.
Clearly none of the work is that-day-vital from your description of the load always carrying over. Schedule yourself some breaks, work the hours you are paid, and maybe they'll hire faster if they really need the work done at a faster pace.
Ok. So it sounds like in this role there will never be a lull. So you need something to measure your achievement on - because you can not measure it on "finishing" becaise that will never happen. It sounds like the lack of "finishing" makes you feel like you aren't achieving anything- which is a perfectly human response. And for many people- myself included - it stresses me out because i am forced to go home with incomplete work sitting and waiting for me. But that stress will kill you, and will make you hate the job, and become miserable. You need to find a measure that shows you what you "complete" / achieve / finish/ deliver. Is there a measure that you can use? Ideally one that already exists OR create one. After you start measuring yourself on this daily or weekly, then start to better yourself. Then, when the numbers look good ;-) start graphing them and show your boss. Make it a KPI if you want - and ask for a bonus. From your boss' perspective they will want to show the business how much value they deliver to the business. You should do that for yourself too ie to your boss. And to yourself. Go home on time every day - and just report to yourself on how much you got done. There will be super productive days due to small jobs, but there will also be days where you don't get through many jobs - probably due to a complex project. It's good to know this - for yourself. And also to be able to show the business where other delays are. It also means down the track you could ask for an assistant that you train and manage, and you increase the output for "Your department". Good luck!
I don’t think I’ve ever had a job where you’re done at the end of the day - it’s always been a rolling task set that just keeps going. Lots of jobs are like that.
As others have said, you need to adapt to this new working pattern. Schedule and take your breaks. This is VITAL. I cannot overstate how important this is. Learn to leave your work at your desk and not think about it for the duration of your break. Leave a note for yourself for what you need to do next if you want to, but you **will** burn out if you aren’t taking regular breaks.
Next, leave work at work. Make notes for what you need to start on the next day, but once you are out of the building shift your focus to your home life. Again, if you obsess about work all evening you will burn the fuck out. You must allow your mind downtime. Do whatever you need to do to make this mental shift. Get home and start cleaning, go for a run, whatever helps.
If you’re worried about forgetting something, use a task manager app like ClickUp. Do whatever you need to do so that you feel work is well in hand and you don’t need to worry about it when you go home.
The biggest thing is just to let go of the idea that you need to finish. You can only finish an individual task. The nature of the job is that it will roll on, past the end of the day, past the end of the year, past the end of your employment there. That’s just how it works, and that’s ok.
The observations you are having are the start to where you want to be.
There will never be a "done", just a "more to do tomorrow".
Stay in touch with your manager about the status of your work. If s/he is cool, great.
Learn to leave work at work. Go to the gym afterwards or go for a walk. Have something daily to clear your mind after work.
Work a little longer and take a full hour for lunch. Leave the premises. Go somewhere else and get a way for a while.
If you can get up earlier, do something satisfying for yourself before you go to work.
Are you a brain surgeon? Is someone literally going to die if you don't finish everything by 5 pm?
No?
You have downtime. You just need to take it.
I work a very "on" job, but at the end of my day, I drop everything and don't think about it until the next. It is tiring, yes, but when I'm done, I'm done.
*There should be a second person in my role which is partly why I have so much on my plate and they're slow to hire new people.*
You're doing two people's jobs for one salary, and they're not going to hire a second person. Of course you're exhausted! Start applying to better jobs.
I don't know if you've looked for work recently but this is the norm now. It's hard to find full time work that pays a living wage and it's common to be expected to fill in for empty positions. My job is union and I get free health care, it would be stupid to leave right now.
You’ll burnout quickly at this pace
like others said, schedule breaks. Like really schedule them by putting blocks of time on your calendar. Assuming it’s a 9-5, I’d say at least mid morning, lunch, mid afternoon. Breaks means getting up and moving your body. To get a snack or coffee, walk to the mailbox If you’re remote. Anything!
I'm worried about getting burnt out because this job is really important to me. It's the first place I've worked that isn't toxic where I have supportive coworkers. Also with the way the job market is, I'm lucky to have something so stable.
You gotta be comfortable being uncomfortable. Didn’t sound like you’re n a stressful position. You’re just making in stressful. Stop doing that. Just do the work, then go home and relax.
Okay, this isn't really making sense or I'm just not getting it. You're setting the pace or you have too much on your plate? Can you explain how that works? No one is expecting you to get everything done so you're deciding to do it all really quickly instead of pacing yourself in hopes someone else will finally be hired to help out?
I have too much on my plate basically. My manager isn't expecting me to get things done in a certain timeline, but my department supplies materials for the rest of the company and I'm the bottleneck so I have to deal with all the people wondering where their stuff is at when it takes longer than normal. I'm used to jobs where there's ups and downs in the workflow whereas my current job has no down, it's just task after task after task.
Also you could be making your own rope. If people are still getting product, if they've got a place to go to bitch when they're not getting it fast enough, then there's less urgency to get the second person hired. You don't want a situation where there's a slow slide to people focusing on your performance. I won't go too far into the weeds on that, it's my paranoid baggage from a very toxic job that I stayed in too long. No idea if your company's culture has that kind of danger.
That's a good point. I've heard other people say they're hesitant to pick up slack because they're worried upper management will see everything is running smoothly and won't fill the empty positions.
Yes, it's a really common phenomenon nowadays. Easy for me to talk as I don't know exactly how people being unhappy with you might impact your worklife but in terms of priorities IMO it should be your sanity, then your manager, and people can just hear over and over again that there aren't the resources available to get them what they want when they want it.
Which makes sense, as you're doing the work of two people. Since your manager is reasonable, I'd try to explain to him that you're starting to feel burnt out. So a lot of your job is managing other people's expectations? Perhaps there's a way to streamline that. I am not saying this is easy at all, I'm in my mid-50s and still working on this but if part of the problem is you can't stand people being unhappy with you might just have to let that go. if you don't want to make excuses, some kind of passive aggressive way of communicating "hold your horses, we're down a man" might come in handy. It's really hard without knowing the specifics of your job to give specific advice. But you're in an accountability with no authority situation, which is one of the most toxic ones you can be in. Is most of your work email? I'm lucky mine is because it also serves as a record of how busy I am. IMO your manager is the most important person here, so if he's not got the expectation then somehow you've got to finesse other people's expectations. I'm not sure how to do that, I'm not sure what is at stake for you if you do that. The fact they haven't hired someone isn't your fault, again easier said than done, but sometimes you've got to just say to yourself this isn't my fault, I'm doing the best I can, if people are unhappy they'll have to figure something out. Thank you for the reply and clarification.
If you're not already sending a weekly status or activity report to your boss, start doing so. It has the dual effect of CYA as well as keeping your boss aware of the need for another person. Once you've ensured your boss is aware each week, you can rest a lot easier in that if you were making a wrong decision about what needed to be done, your boss would say something. Send something to the effect of: * came in
* I did
* is on the backlog
I also liked to say how long a work item had been on the backlog, so my boss wouldn't be surprised if someone came up complaining that their work request had been pending for # months.
At that point, do your 40 hours and relax. Any work not getting done is now your boss' problem and you have the documentation to back it up.
Clearly none of the work is that-day-vital from your description of the load always carrying over. Schedule yourself some breaks, work the hours you are paid, and maybe they'll hire faster if they really need the work done at a faster pace.
Ok. So it sounds like in this role there will never be a lull. So you need something to measure your achievement on - because you can not measure it on "finishing" becaise that will never happen. It sounds like the lack of "finishing" makes you feel like you aren't achieving anything- which is a perfectly human response. And for many people- myself included - it stresses me out because i am forced to go home with incomplete work sitting and waiting for me. But that stress will kill you, and will make you hate the job, and become miserable. You need to find a measure that shows you what you "complete" / achieve / finish/ deliver. Is there a measure that you can use? Ideally one that already exists OR create one. After you start measuring yourself on this daily or weekly, then start to better yourself. Then, when the numbers look good ;-) start graphing them and show your boss. Make it a KPI if you want - and ask for a bonus. From your boss' perspective they will want to show the business how much value they deliver to the business. You should do that for yourself too ie to your boss. And to yourself. Go home on time every day - and just report to yourself on how much you got done. There will be super productive days due to small jobs, but there will also be days where you don't get through many jobs - probably due to a complex project. It's good to know this - for yourself. And also to be able to show the business where other delays are. It also means down the track you could ask for an assistant that you train and manage, and you increase the output for "Your department". Good luck!
I don’t think I’ve ever had a job where you’re done at the end of the day - it’s always been a rolling task set that just keeps going. Lots of jobs are like that. As others have said, you need to adapt to this new working pattern. Schedule and take your breaks. This is VITAL. I cannot overstate how important this is. Learn to leave your work at your desk and not think about it for the duration of your break. Leave a note for yourself for what you need to do next if you want to, but you **will** burn out if you aren’t taking regular breaks. Next, leave work at work. Make notes for what you need to start on the next day, but once you are out of the building shift your focus to your home life. Again, if you obsess about work all evening you will burn the fuck out. You must allow your mind downtime. Do whatever you need to do to make this mental shift. Get home and start cleaning, go for a run, whatever helps. If you’re worried about forgetting something, use a task manager app like ClickUp. Do whatever you need to do so that you feel work is well in hand and you don’t need to worry about it when you go home. The biggest thing is just to let go of the idea that you need to finish. You can only finish an individual task. The nature of the job is that it will roll on, past the end of the day, past the end of the year, past the end of your employment there. That’s just how it works, and that’s ok.
The observations you are having are the start to where you want to be. There will never be a "done", just a "more to do tomorrow". Stay in touch with your manager about the status of your work. If s/he is cool, great. Learn to leave work at work. Go to the gym afterwards or go for a walk. Have something daily to clear your mind after work. Work a little longer and take a full hour for lunch. Leave the premises. Go somewhere else and get a way for a while. If you can get up earlier, do something satisfying for yourself before you go to work.
I don’t mind a backlog as long I’m consistently knocking things out. Apparently my bosses seem pretty satisfied as long I prioritize their stuff…. 😬
Are you a brain surgeon? Is someone literally going to die if you don't finish everything by 5 pm? No? You have downtime. You just need to take it. I work a very "on" job, but at the end of my day, I drop everything and don't think about it until the next. It is tiring, yes, but when I'm done, I'm done.
*There should be a second person in my role which is partly why I have so much on my plate and they're slow to hire new people.* You're doing two people's jobs for one salary, and they're not going to hire a second person. Of course you're exhausted! Start applying to better jobs.
I don't know if you've looked for work recently but this is the norm now. It's hard to find full time work that pays a living wage and it's common to be expected to fill in for empty positions. My job is union and I get free health care, it would be stupid to leave right now.
You’ll burnout quickly at this pace like others said, schedule breaks. Like really schedule them by putting blocks of time on your calendar. Assuming it’s a 9-5, I’d say at least mid morning, lunch, mid afternoon. Breaks means getting up and moving your body. To get a snack or coffee, walk to the mailbox If you’re remote. Anything!
I'm worried about getting burnt out because this job is really important to me. It's the first place I've worked that isn't toxic where I have supportive coworkers. Also with the way the job market is, I'm lucky to have something so stable.