Work issue

Anonymouspink

Hi there,

I wanted to write to get outsiders opinions

I have been struggling in my role at work. There has been change in the company I work in the past12 months - my teams workload has been increasing and there is uncertainty around different aspects of our role. It’s hard to explain but it’s just a real mess at the moment.

I thought it would get sorted after the summer but it’s dragging on. It’s really affecting me and the team. My own experience has been that I’m constantly under stress, my motivation is really low, my mental health has been suffering because I feel under so much constant pressure from clients and also other parts of the business.

I recently had to start taking antidepressant medication because I felt so burnt out. I’ve also sought counseling.

About 6 weeks ago I went to my boss and explained that I felt I couldn’t continue in my role as it was affecting me hugely and I need a change. I ecxplained I was willing to go to HR because I understood the constraints in our department and that my boss is dealing with similar uncertainly.

It was explained to me that if I went to HR - it’s likely that the issue would be directed to management so my boss came back to me with a solution- to move some of my work to other team members. I thought this was ridiculous. I was really upset at the time because my team have been really good to me and I don’t think it’s fair that they get my work but I have been so unwell and this was literally the only solution presented to me.

I let it happen - I didn’t speak to the team about it because I really didn’t want to get into personal issues with them so I let my boss deal with it. He made a mess of doing it ... which left them really angry and upset. I am in the process of giving them the work and they are really upset and it’s put a divide in the team. I am trying to be professional but it’s breaking my heart but if I try keep the work I will be back to square one next week, feeling extremely pressurized and getting depressed.

I just wanted to get others opinions or some suggestions about what i could do i this situation.

I quite like my team however they have stopped trusting me because they think I’m dumping work on them when they are overloaded . I don’t want to speak to them about my personal life to explain because I don’t think that’s fair.

Any ideas on what to do would be welcome

zapper55

Your boss has been a real coward about this.

I'm glad you went to him when you were struggling but his response was appalling. It would be good if hr directed this to management, they have a duty of care to you and the other staff.

That you had to go on medication and counselling enrages me. You have not been given adequate support at all.

I'd suggest two things. Call all your staff together. Don't go into details about the why but you owe it to them to explain what is happening, I.e you've had to take a step back because of health issues. You are sorry you didn't say it to them before it happened and you are sorry that it was handled badly (by your manager obviously but I wouldn't mention your manager).

Then you need to talk to HR. You can't continue under this stress. Something needs to change.