I hate......

The BBQ Pit
1

I pit my job.

I pit the fact that two weeks after they hire me the person I directly work with goes on a month’s leave.

I pit that they told me they were going to look for someone to come in and help and never did.

I pit how they just expect me to do two full time jobs, with no compensation.

I pit how in the first 2 1/2 weeks after my co-worker left I worked over 180 hours.

I pit that I am salary and am expected to take time of in lieu but if I took all that time off I would not be able to do my job, let alone another person’s as well. So I am forced to make a choice between a job that is a great opportunity for me, or quitting and leaving them SOL in an industry that is very close nit and if I do leave word will spread and I probably won’t be given the same chance again.

I pit that I am absolutely exhausted and that there is nothing I can do about it, all I want is one day off but there is no chance of that in my future.

I pit how no one ever told me:
a) The company policies
b) Where to find the information that I need to do both jobs
c) What I am expected to do for the other job, because all I got was a copy of the forms, and a good luck.
d) Any sort of timeline of expectations.
e) Well, anything really

I pit that I feel like I am in way over my head. I absolutely HATE that feeling.

I pit how overwhelmed I am and there is no one available to relieve the work load. (we are really short staffed right now, 3 people are either on leave or have left the company out of an office staff of 6 full time 2 part time)

I pit that I feel like if I ask for help I will be seen as a failure in the companies eyes, as well as my own. I am not as concerned with the company, but more with myself.

I pit that as I write this I am close to tears, just out of exhaustion and desperation, and I hate feeling weak. I am young (24) and have worked my ass off to get to a job that is normally offered to people who are twice my age and so I try not to show weakness that will cause my co-workers to doubt my abilities. At this point they all think I am doing great, but I seriously doubt my abilities.

I pit that because of my insanely busy schedule things have been done later than usual and some things fell through the cracks. I feel responsible for this and it occasionally causes huge problems down the line. I tell myself that it is not my fault, the things that have fallen through are things that I was not aware were my reponsibilities (well technically they are not my responsibilites, they are not my job) that it would happen to anyone who is thrust into doing what I am doing, but I don’t seem to listen.

I pit how my co-workers come into my office with a sympathetic smile on their faces as they ask me for some vital information that they need to do their jobs that I have not had a chance to do because, well because of everything I already listed. They know what I am going through, but that doesn’t change the facts that if I don’t give them this information people don’t get paid.

I pit that I feel a panic attack coming on all day long. My head and chest feel like they are each stuck in a vice and every person that asks me anything, just twists the screw just that bit more.
I pit myself

I pit that I have to put this in MPSIMS because there is not half as much swearing as there should be, I just don’t have the energy to be bitter.

2

a) WHY do so many companies do that? Company policies are something that every employee has to follow/is subject to (is it “subjected” or “subject”? “subjected” just looks wrong), so we should get a freaking folder the first day we get there. Here, THIS applies to you. I had this horrid HR person who completely refused to give me copies of the HR policies that were being applied to me because “they weren’t ‘need to know’ to me”. Duh? Uh, hello, how am I supposed to negotiate my next position if I don’t know what the boundaries are? Anybody home? I’m in a special project, you know, I’m supposed and expected to look for the next job. Hello? She wouldn’t even give them to my boss, we had to go to a company VP to get them - and at first, she refused them to him as well.

b, c) I do love procedures. At least the good ones, like for example the ones I write. They’re the handbook for your job. When you get a non-routine task at 3am, being able to Follow The Page is great. But, like company policy, people tend to either not write them or write something that’s so out of touch with the Real Work as to be useless :frowning:

Have you tried to bring the lack of information and disorientation up with your boss? Or maybe a third person who isn’t your direct manager but can point you in the right direction.

You need help. ASK for it. A lot of the help you need isn’t even “someone to take work off your shoulders”, it’s information - which your boss or a more-veteran peer should be able to provide.

I grew up having to do my own job and, often, Mom’s. Learning to ask for help is probably the hardest thing I’ve done. I still have problems with it. But sometimes you have to, and this is one of those times: ASK FOR HELP.

Maybe if you ask a mod to put this in the pit we can do the cussing for you :smiley:

3

I have a feeling this was meant for the The Pit.

I’ll move it for you.

Cajun Man
for the SDMB

4

Good luck Ludy the current situation sucks, but this is also the way you gain most experience and prestige within a company / sector.
Try and get firm commitments from your superiors as to when and how they are going to provide support for you. Try to survive the meantime. If your superiors don’t provide help record what has happened and what you have achieved in the time you are at the company. If you have to look for another job be sure to be able to explain carmly and in detail how you did two peoples work to try and keep current company functioning and how current companies superiros made your position impossible. If you get support in the future, make sure that those in power know just how well and how hard you worked for the company when the situation was dire. Look towards taking over the job of your superior who took a months sabatacal at a very inopertune time if he/she did it out of selfish reasons.

5

I’m so sorry to hear you’re in that situation, Ludy. I hate to tell you this, but all that work you’re doing, and all the stress you’re under - chances are extremely good that it won’t benefit you with the company at all. In some ways, taking all the shit the company is throwing at you can actually harm you with this company - they might take you for granted, take over-working you for granted, and pass you by for opportunities and promotions. Companies say they appreciate all the extra effort you put in, but if they realize it’s extra effort, why aren’t they working on fixing the problem?

At 24, you sound like you still have a great work ethic, and you truly believe that if you work hard and put 110% effort into your job, you will be rewarded. I’m here to tell you, that is not how the corporate world works. Your reward for working hard will usually be more work for the same pay. This company is taking horrible advantage of you, and part of your stress comes from knowing that you’re letting them.

Another part of your stress comes from still caring about how well you do your job. There comes a time when you realize that you will do as much as you can for a company, commensurate with what they’re paying you, and after that, if things don’t get done, they don’t get done, and you don’t lose a moment’s sleep over it. And you know what - it doesn’t make any difference to the company, either. I worked in an accounting department where we were about 40 hours A DAY short-staffed for the duties that needed to be done. You know what happened when we missed deadlines? We moved the deadlines back.

My best advice to you - look for a different job where they won’t take advantage of you, or march into your supervisor’s office and say, “Lookit, you, this is how it’s going to be. I was hired for X, and I will do X. If you also want Y and Z, we’re going to need to re-negotiate that.”

You say it’s a tight-knit industry, and I believe you, but there’s nothing wrong with saying in future interviews that you left because it just wasn’t a good fit (they expected you to work two jobs, you preferred not to). Best of luck in resolving this before you get ulcers.

Oh, and time off in lieu is a myth in Calgary. I don’t know anybody who is supposed to get it who actually ever gets to cash it in. My husband has about a hundred banked hours at this point that he’ll never see (when he took two days off at Christmas, they made him use vacation days for it when he had a hundred hours banked then). When someone offers you salary and mentions time off in lieu for extra hours, ask them to spell out exactly how they track your extra hours, and what the process is for cashing those hours in.

Um, as you may have noticed, this touches a bit of a nerve with me. :smiley:

6

It’s that sort of keen insight and ability to read between the lines that got Cajun Man the moderator job.