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changing For the last 9 months, work has been very difficult. That was when I lost my assistant, and I began to do the work of two. I hung in there for a couple months, fully expecting that she would be replaced. And when she wasn't, I had a chat with my boss (but not before Jess had hinted to him that I was way stressed), telling him that I couldn't go on like I was going on...that there was just way too much to do and not enough time to do it. He had me make a list of all my duties and the duties that Jess took care of, and had me tell him which ones I wanted to keep and which ones I wanted to turn over. Soon after, he brought Pam into the office, telling me that she was there to help me out. I thought some relief was in sight. For about a week. Pam wanted to have a meeting at Starbucks to talk about things, and it became quite evident to me that she had no intention of helping out. One of the big things I wanted help with was answering the phones. We've gotten so busy now that I can't get the billing or the pay done in a timely manner. Just when I figure out where I'd left off, the phone would ring again. But she had no intention of answering the phones. She had her own ideas on what she was to accomplish while in the office part time, and the only thing that she "helped" with was data entry. It really wasn't much of a help because the girl made soooo many errors. And when we tried to have her type the stuff up at home in an excel spreadsheet, it got worse when I tried to import into Access. Even though I wasn't doing the data entry anymore, it was still taking me just as long to finish the billing. In late October, Michelle offered to take that over, so I relieved Pam of those duties. And I can now get things done in one or two days. Other than that, I'm still trying to do everything that needs to get done. And I'm not succeeding. And I'm so incredibly stressed out. I revisited the topic with my boss in about September. He indicated that he'd talk to Dr Ass and see if we could give some more stuff to Michelle. And he agreed. But that didn't end up with me giving her some of my stuff (other than the data entry)...that ended up with Mike giving her insurance billing duties. I tried to be patient and give things time to sort out. It was around this time that my boss gave me a huge raise. At the time, I thought it had to do with the fact that Jess was now making quite a bit more than I was, and to keep me in line with what she was making, he bumped it up. Turns out that wasn't exactly correct. By mid-November, it became obvious to me that things weren't going to change. My stress was at an all time high. I had so much to do, and there was so much that didn't get done until it was at a crisis moment. I really only had time to get the billing and then the pay done. I was starting to take work home, which didn't make me happy--but it had to get done. And then Pam said that she couldn't do the job she had come to do anymore...that it was just too much for her. And that she would just be working on insurance billing. And she was wanting our help. And I just snapped. Mini meltdown right there in front of everyone. I told her i could absolutely not take on anymore. That it just was not possible. And I knew who would get stuck with the things that she had started---ME! My neck and shoulders were in constant pain--I was so tense. Having a difficult time sleeping. And migraines galore. And I started getting sick. A lot. I missed a week of work in December--I was so sick. So when I came back to work, my boss asked me what was going on and I told him that the doc said I was overstressed. He asked if he was stressing me out, and I told him that work in general was stressing me out. That there was just way too much for me to do and I just couldn't do it all. And he said that maybe we'd get someone in there part time to help out. That he was hoping that Susan could do some stuff, but that it hadn't worked out that way. It was just the same ol story. And I came to the sad realization that the only way that my work situation would change was if I changed it. We're three weeks from that conversation, and I'm just getting over being sick again. And once I get well, I'm going to start my job search. I told the girls last week that I was going to start looking for another job. They were both really sweet, saying that they were going to go on strike to make my boss do something to keep me. Jess asked if I'd leave if I found a job making less money, and without hesitation, I told her, "yes." That's when I found out that she'd gone to my boss again and told him that if he didn't get me some help, that I was going to leave. Then he gave me the raise...and checked in with her and asked how I was doing. She told him that i was still way stressed, and his response? "Well, I gave her a nice raise." As if that was supposed to make the work load more tolerable?? I don't get it. That news kinda pissed me off. The raise was nice, but that didn't make the work load any less...the stress any less. *sigh* I feel sad about it. I love what the company does. I love working with Jess and Michelle. Absolutely love Jess and Michelle. But I just can't keep going like this. |