Damn, sweetie, are ya sure? Sounds like a lot of rats are fleeing what may become a sinking ship …
(Hopefully not.)
Are the people being replaced, or are you just steadily absorbing more job descriptions? (If so, start advocating for a raise!)
Me? I’m still sick. I’m very tired. I’m also sick of being so tired, and tired of being sick.
I recently got a huge raise/promotion, and it seemed obvious to me it was because they didn’t want me going anywhere. People are leaving because they’re unhappy with the board of directors. I’m also unhappy with the board of directors, but not unhappy enough to leave. We will persevere. We always do. I decided I am committed to the mission of the agency more than I am to any particular person who works there. But it’s going to be tough for a while. I think, too, starting a new job is hard, I am way out of my comfort zone right now.
Still no fridge. The current plan is to cancel that order, eat the restocking fee and order something online with next day shipping. I felt kind of rushed into the purchase anyway, so hopefully we can find something that doesn’t have a lot of features we won’t use.
On the bright side, being fridge-less in December beats bring fridge-less in July!
I feel for you. The logistics industry has been all over the place.
I actually have the opposite problem, if you call it a problem. Our Family Christmas Gift is refurbishing a bathroom, and we wanted a new tub. We finalized the tub choice online late last week and when I put the thing in the cart, it said it could be delivered to the store in January. That worked out nicely for our plans, we have to do demo, prep and such between now and then, so I processed the order rather than wait until we were “ready”.
It’s been delivered to the store already. A 5+ week delivery estimate turned into 2 business days. It’s better than the reverse, that’s for sure, but still annoying.
Are you more committed to the mission than you are to your own welfare?
Because they’re about to push you to and past that point.
Only you can say when/where that point is. All I can say is that IMO your life will be better if you’re on the lookout for that point and don’t blow past it unnoticed. Your frog is now simmering.
Naturally, the weather has been unseasonably warm.
They are replacing some of them ASAP. But It’s hard to find people these days. It’s complicated to explain, but a key leadership role recently stepped down (which she had been planning for years, not related to recent upheaval) and they asked if I would like to go full time and take on part of her role with regard to federal grants administration. I said sure. She said it’s easy. And I imagine after thirty years doing it, it is easy, but I’m brand new to it, and there’s a lot of work on the front end just to learn new systems and protocol. Meanwhile our interim finance person is also leaving, she was supposed to be temporary anyway, but where I’m frustrated is she made me primary contact on things I was told were finance’s job. Then my boss left, so I have to manage the new CEO with regard to the stuff my boss would have been doing.
Then there’s the broader stress of a sea-change within DHHS. A majority of our federal funding is pass-through non-competitive funding, and long story short, VOCA (Victims of Crime Act) funding was slashed in half, and probably starting next year it will be competitive (meaning there’s a chance we won’t receive funds or will receive significantly less money.) VOCA funds all of our counseling and court advocate positions. Probably at least 20 employees. So for me, starting out for the first time with VOCA, to have this additional pressure is psychologically difficult.
How much is just the stress of a new job I cannot say. I’m trying to compartmentalize as much as possible, like designating one day a week to worry about the big picture stuff and just trying to stay focused on what’s needed that day. Yesterday I was a hormonal mess and it seemed like the end of the world. Today I’m like, well, I’m doing my best.
Spice_Weasel, I hope everything smooths out and the job gets more manageable. You have a lot of stressful things in your life, and I’m hoping 2023 is going to be a much better year for you.
I don’t shop at Walgreen’s for several reasons, even though there’s one just down the street from where I live. They bought out all of the Rite-Aids here and closed stores that people could walk to. I think that’s bad for the community. That’s only one reason out of many.
I’m sick, the car I just bought has a leak, and it’s raining. 
The last two weeks have been so bad, and I just want things to get better. I want to visit my mom, who I haven’t seen for a year.
While I wasn’t about to buy a car, one reason I was holding onto enough Ford stock was to qualify for the X plan because there’s a good chance I will buy something like the Maverick in the next couple years. I just now learned that they discontinued the X plan a few months ago. So I’m annoyed that I missed my chance to use it. Guess I’ll just have to hope that the value stays at least even and then sell it to help pay for a car.
And I hope things start to go better for you, too.
I took some steps today to dial back the insanity. I literally had to lay down and stare at the ceiling for 30 minutes. Then I reached out for help on a project that is out of my depth, and took steps to coordinate a meeting with what’s left of the Grants Committee to gain clarity around our roles moving forward. Even though I still have a lot of work, it felt good to be proactive.
New fridge will allegedly be here Friday. We got a full refund and went to another store, got a model about $800 cheaper that has a higher chance of fitting in the kitchen. Will stainless steel clash with the black appliances? Maybe. But at this point, I just want a fucking fridge.
Black goes with everything and I think black and stainless in particular look great together.
To all of you here who are suffering from depression and stress right now, gather in for a group hug. In with the good air and out with the bad. I’ve got some pretty severe depression going on right now here too. That said, I’ve been in my horrible, downward spiral before and the first thing I can say to you is that I came out of it before and you can too. I may be depressed, behind on my bills, and feel unable to accomplish anything but if @Spice_Weasel can coordinate a meeting in an effort to move forward, I can put in some job applications, and an application for food stamps too. We can do this because we must. Hang in there, only two weeks until the darkest day of the year and then things start getting brighter again.
I teared up a bit. Peace to you. And thanks for reminding me how cruddy the short winter days can make us feel.
So, I gave some money for medical supplies to Ukraine via PayPal and through the official website for donating to Ukraine.
Shortly after, the email address connected to my PayPal account was logged into 3 different times by someone from Moscow, according to Outlook.
I changed my password. Then the spam torrent started. I reported every spam email. After 5 days of that, the problem went away, most likely due to the reporting. Or maybe the spam bot moved on.
Perhaps it is just a coincidence. Or maybe not. I think I will donate more to the Ukraine.
Fuck Russia, with their intimidation tactics, misinformation and bots. Fuck Russia for their brutal, barbaric war and outdated imperialism.
I hear what you’re saying. I think it’s too early to tell what is the real source of my stress and how likely it is to continue. I’ve only been in the new role since October. I was not very well prepared by my predecessor. So everything is a learning curve. There are also situational factors, like the fridge debacle, that have drained away hours of time I could be working. I’m also about to wrap up physical therapy end of December… Another time consuming thing taking away precious work hours. If I could sit down for a full day and actually get to do my freaking job, I think I’d be a lot less stressed. Hormonal depression is not helping. These factors are temporary.
I’m not going to compromise my mental health long term for a job that’s not working, but I enjoy the work and my salary, vacation time and flexible schedule are so cushy, I’m motivated to see where this goes. It’s going to suck for a while. There have been times in the past where things sucked for a while - this is not the first crisis we’ve ever faced. I was once without direct supervision for an entire year. I did a mediocre job that time because of my social anxiety, that I’m hoping to improve upon this time, if only by making sure someone else does the schmoozing. I have taken a kind of pride in my seniority here. And they truly need someone in this role who knows what she’s doing. This is one of those things where I think if I stick it out, could ultimately result in a lot of professional growth.
Six months from now if I’m still feeling this way, well that’s a different story.
Coming back from grocery shopping today, most of my stuff was in a big reusable insulated bag. There was also a small plastic grocery bag. Long story short, I unpacked the plastic grocery bag and among other things took out a tuna sandwich for a quick lunch. I put it aside thinking there was no point in refrigerating it as I would have it in a minute. Then I got distracted by something and after returning to my unpacking, the sandwich was nowhere to be found. I looked everywhere – in the fridge, in the freezer, in the cupboards – nothing. I spent at least ten minutes looking everywhere possible.
Then I figured to hell with it, I may as well open the big insulated bag and continue putting things away. And there it was, in the big zipped-up grocery bag that I had not yet opened.
This is quite disturbing. There are only two possibilities:
My original sandwich had been teleported to another dimension, but to compensate, another one had been teleported to the inside of my zipped-up grocery bag.
There had never been a sandwich in the smaller bag. I had hallucinated it. Which means: I am losing my mind. Not good.
Maybe you got two sandwiches and put one in each bag?
perhaps someone else helped themselves to the sandwich?