Work making me so anxious, when is enough enough?

HateMyJobNow

To give a little background I’m working in the healthcare industry specifically Nursing Homes. Have been a receptionist for a number of homes across a large group. Loved each one of the positions. Have recently been promoted to administrator for one of the larger homes 130 beds. It’s a new enough home just under 2 years so isn’t full just yet.

It’s is now my responsibility to complete all staff HR compliance, all staff HIQA compliance. All invoicing both to HSE and resident Next of Kin. Full control of payroll and time management system. Bank reconciliations. All HSE notifications. Record and maintain residents finances. Debtors and creditors ,recording on SAGE, payments received, Staff and resident file scanning and archiving. I also have to insure no resident can leave the home unaccompanied and believe me they try!

This is on top of running a very busy reception with large numbers of visitors ,maintenance staff and residents in reception daily. Some of the residents can be quiet time consuming (I love them and don’t mean that to sound bad but it takes longer to deal with someone suffering with confusion or dementia)

My new boss is hard work. I don’t dislike him on a personal level and before my promotion to his team we got on really well. Can sit in canteen and have a civil chat and he’s lovely but when it comes to work it’s different. He is condescending speaks down to me and every other department head. I can honestly say not one person in the building likes working with him. He makes me personally feel incompetent. Nothing I do is every good enough. He’s making noises now about extending my probation as I’m not performing to his standards.

Now, I am not reaching goals. I know that but in my opinion they are unrealistic and not achievable. If the home was full and up and running properly they may be possible. As it isn’t there can be anything up to 25 interviews a week. I then have to chase up references etc for each of these and the trend is for staff to leave. We are massively understaffed. Some stay less than a month so it’s a matter of starting interview and compliance process again. Then there is up to 8 admission/discharge in a week which is also more paperwork.

I have met with him and explained that there is too much work for 1 person and to this I get told don’t be so silly. It’s just too much for you!! Now one of the other homes has only 70 residents but they have 2 admins and a receptionist. They are also fully staffed so apart from the normal staff turn around compliance files are up to date. They may have a day of interviews every 3-4 months.

I can’t go to his Manager as she hangs on his every word. Won’t hear a thing said about him. He is her puppet master. He basically runs everything

To make it worse the home I’m in had no admin for 12 weeks before I started so I’m still trying to catch up on all that too.

I don’t suffer well didn’t suffer from anxiety. Now I do I have a constant ball of anxious nerves. I hate every second of work I just want to leave but I have to eat and pay bills. I’ve applied to ever job I can find from reception to cleaning to shop assistant. I’ve had 2 interviews heard nothing back.

I suppose I’m looking to see how long do you suffer on in work and when do you have to put your mental health first. I’m lucky i don’t have a mortgage and I’m in a council house so my rent should reduce if my income does but not low enough that living on the dole would cover it. Don’t get me wrong I don’t want to go on the dole. It’s the last thing I want but if I don’t get something I may have too. Has anyone else been in a similar situation and how did you cope.

Sorry this turned into an essay.

The_Honeybadger

Your work load sound ridiculous OP. I had a similar situation many years ago where I was working in a demanding field sales role for a major blue chip company. I was continually struggling to complete my sales calls as my territory seemed to be double the size of everyone else’s both in area size and number of accounts. There quite literally was not enough hours in the day to do my job. When I pointed this out to my manager I was told that I had to prove myself or some other waffle, and that it would be looked at then. It wasn’t an option to go above his head. The workload was impossible and I left in the end despite it being my dream job on the face of it, great salary, prestigious company, gorgeous company car etc. I couldn’t sleep at night worrying about targets etc. Life is too short.

Can you request a transfer to another home or section? Leaving is probably not the best option if you like the sector but a sideways move might be possible for you. I now work in the public sector and find that the difference in workload between sections in various organisations can be incredible.

HateMyJobNow

Unfortunately I can request to move to any other position as there are no more openings in admin or reception. I don’t have the qualifications to be a care staff or nurse so I don’t know what to do. I’m just miserable I’ve never felt like this in my life and if this is even close to what depression feels like then my heart goes out to those who live with it on a daily basis. It’s soul destroying

The_Honeybadger wrote: »

Your work load sound ridiculous OP. I had a similar situation many years ago where I was working in a demanding field sales role for a major blue chip company. I was continually struggling to complete my sales calls as my territory seemed to be double the size of everyone else’s both in area size and number of accounts. There quite literally was not enough hours in the day to do my job. When I pointed this out to my manager I was told that I had to prove myself or some other waffle, and that it would be looked at then. It wasn’t an option to go above his head. The workload was impossible and I left in the end despite it being my dream job on the face of it, great salary, prestigious company, gorgeous company car etc. I couldn’t sleep at night worrying about targets etc. Life is too short.

Can you request a transfer to another home or section? Leaving is probably not the best option if you like the sector but a sideways move might be possible for you. I now work in the public sector and find that the difference in workload between sections in various organisations can be incredible.

LuasSimon

More and more employers in the private sector are placing unreasonable asks on their staff . The downturn led to a “ your lucky to have a job mentality “.. which was a pass to make staffs life hell .
Non unionized work places are the worst . Sales targets often lead to ridiculous targets .

The_Honeybadger

It’s a tough one then. What are your prospects of getting a similar position elsewhere if you leave?

Also, is there a chance that your situation could improve where you are? It sounds like you like the job but just need a bit of help. Managers come and go in this kind of job so I wouldn’t be leaving on account of him. He probably knows your workload is too heavy but is pushing you for his own benefit.

HateMyJobNow

The_Honeybadger wrote: »

It’s a tough one then. What are your prospects of getting a similar position elsewhere if you leave?

Also, is there a chance that your situation could improve where you are? It sounds like you like the job but just need a bit of help. Managers come and go in this kind of job so I wouldn’t be leaving on account of him. He probably knows your workload is too heavy but is pushing you for his own benefit.

Sorry I should have mentioned he’s not just a manager think he may have shares in the home. He’s on BOM. I do like the job and the residents just not sure how much more of the stress I can

GalwayGrrrrrl

How long would it take you to do the basic healthcare assistant course? You could then stay working in nursing homes but just do the healthcare assistant role which would be less stressful.

I’m getting anxious just reading your list of responsibilities, it’s too much for one person. Over the next week write down each day what you are doing and how long it takes you. Ask your manager which tasks to drop as you can show him in black and white that you don’t have time to do everything.

Strumms

The amount of responsibility sounds like it would be challenging spread over two or three people on a shift it’s crazy in the extreme especially given the nature of the job that it should have to fall on just one person...

By what you have told us, from outside looking in my opinion would be you would be best advised to seek alternate employment, with a fairer, more realistic and appropriate workload and levels of responsibility...

BlackandGreen

GalwayGrrrrrl wrote: »

How long would it take you to do the basic healthcare assistant course? You could then stay working in nursing homes but just do the healthcare assistant role which would be less stressful.

Just chiming in on this. Healthcare assistant roles are aboslutely not less stress in private nursing homes.
You can expect to be dealing with the same amount of workload, except this time you're dealing with peoples lives. Excrement. Aggression and a whole array of nasty surprises.

You'll be handed a list of 10 people in the morning and told you need to get everybody fed, washed, out of bed, and tidy their rooms by lunch time.
90% of the time its not do-able at all and its horrendous stress.



I'm sure OP knows this but the workload will roughly be the same. You can expect to deal with the same anxiety, stresses, and overload regardless of whether youre a HCA, kitchen staff, housekeeping or admin.



I've worked in a few nursing homes and visited dozens on a weekly basis in another job.

The vast majority treat their staff the same and view their residents as nothing more than revenue.


You can guarantee the owner and your boss are making millions too OP.

The only advice I can give you is do some really thourough research and talk to people. Find out which are the nicer nursing homes to work in.

But honestly, I'd be getting out of there ASAP and into a better non private-nursing home role once you've built up the experience on your CV.



Not worth turning into one of those staff members who get stuck in a rut and never move.


And as you said: the manager/owner will never budge. They give no fúcks. It's all money to them and you're expendable. They live on another planet and wouldn't know hard work if it hit them in the face.

kravmaga

@OP,

Get a new job, get the CV updated and start looking for an Employer who values you instead of running you into the ground, if you stay in this current role you will be a nervous wreck and your health will suffer down the road, get out now while you can.

Also sounds like your Boss is a bully.

Thoie

While you're still deciding whether to stay or go, short term, sit down with him and insist that he helps with prioritising.

Let's say you work a 40 hour week. Sit down and break the tasks down, and put a duration against each of them.

E.g.

Admissions/discharge - 1 hour each x 8 per week = 8 hours
Interviews - 30 minutes x 20 per week = 10 hours
Reference checking 15 mins x 20 per week = 5 hours
SAGE entry - 2 hours
Payroll/time entry - 2 hours
Bank reconciliations - 1 hour
Invoicing - 1 hour
HR/HIQA compliance - 2 hours
Resident finances - 2 hours
File scanning/archiving - 5 hours
Reception - 3 minutes per visit x 500 per week = 25 hours

You're already up to 63 hours of work there (though you'll need to put in real figures).

By having the list broken down like that you can have a discussion about things. For example, maybe it takes you an hour to do an admission. He feels like that's a 30 minute task, so you can discuss whether you're doing "too much", or if he's not familiar with the amount of work required for it. Maybe he's not aware that the Payroll takes 2 hours - perhaps he thinks it's a 3 minute push a button task.

If you both agree that the time you've listed (and track it for a few weeks, to get averages) is accurate, then ask him which 20 hours would he like you to remove from your workload, as he only pays you for 40 hours.

OMM 0000

It seems wrong to be experiencing this sort of pressure and stress in an admin role.

There are tons of peaceful admin roles.

I think you need to start looking for a new job this weekend.