I have too much work in too little time. I recently got a warning. I know there are same positions open, but in some stations there less work and less pay. I would like to take one to save my job. I am wondering, however, if I would look super incompentent to my boss, if I ask for less work for less pay. What do you think?
Who cares if you look incompetent, as long as you still have a job? If you keep failing at what you’re doing now, you’re going to keep getting more warnings. Ask for the move. They may be willing to work with you, or they may fire you. But if you don’t take the move, they’ll fire you for sure.
Do you mean within the same department and working for the same boss? Ask to be put into an easier job for less pay? I think that they’ll just fire you on the spot or soon after. You were hired for the job that you’re in. If you can’t do it, you should find something else quick, but somewhere else.
Less pay is better than no pay. People do internal transfers all the time for all kinds of reasons, I doubt everyone will automatically assume super incompetence on your part.
If you have to go through an interview process for the new spot, don’t mention you’re looking for less work/responsibility. If asked why you want to make the move, simply say you feel X is a better fit for you. If pushed, give something reasonable like the work is more in keeping with your background or skills.
I like your tone here in staying positive. You might even say, “Look, I’m a team player and want this company to succeed. I may be able to contribute more and be more successful in X position.” Let them point out the financial consequences.
What is a “warning”? You get some sort of formal write up or demerit or something whenever your TPS report is filed wrong or whatever?
I would imagine in such a job, your overdrone (manager) is probably less concerned with helping you be successful and more concerned with accurately documenting defects so he can report to his uberdrone underboss why production is down 1% and why replacing workstation 452 with another interchangeable carbon-blob should fix it.
Unfortunately, the way you framed the problem as “how do I convince my boss that I’m not incompetant, just lazy.” That’s not the correct approach. What you need to do is have a frank discussion and explain how you don’t feel you can meet quality standards given your workload. The options will likely be:
-Move to a different position. This might not actually be possible if there is no one to replace you and the work needs to get done. 80% of x getting done now is better than 100% getting done never.
-Transfer some of the work to someone else. Again, this depends on the availability of other resources.
-Prioritize the work so you get important stuff done first. This is assuming you aren’t just working through a giant pile of indistinguishable widgets.
-Just do the best you can as fast as you can. If changing jobs, getting additional help or reducing workload isn’t an option, your only choice is to turn in good work for the stuff you can finish and get to the rest as you can.
-Quit. Depending on your financial situation and other factors, it simply may just not be worth it to kill yourself trying to get some impossible project done.
One advantage of being overworked is that it’s often a sign that there isn’t anyone else to actually get that work done.
Having been in this position with employees several times, I absolutely vote for asking for a change in responsibilities. Look, if they’re warning you, they’re on the road to firing you. That’s reality. No company starts handing out written warnings to employees for their health; it’s to support a termination. If you can’t hack it, be honest and forthright about it. Explain the situation. Ask management for help.
In my case, we would usually take an employee in this position and see if additional coaching and mentoring was an option, or see if training was needed. Sometimes people didn’t truly understand the needs of the job, or, the requirements weren’t fair (e.g. the productivity requirements didn’t fit the project) and fixing it was possible. One example was an employee who wasn’t getting in very many calls and it was because they were documenting way, way too much. Like, you could only write 200 characters and honestly needed far less for 95% of calls, and she was literally accessing the account a dozen times to fill in that 200 character maximum for every single call, to try to get all this minutia down about a two minute basic call. Once we made it really clear and had her sit with other employees to demonstrate, it got much better. It only cost us maybe 8 hours of her time to retrain her – way, way less than the cost of interviewing, hiring, and training someone new, and further she appreciated the effort and really applied herself. It’s win/win.
If it was clear that the employee just couldn’t succeed in the job, but they had a good track record otherwise (reliable, works well with others, shows initiative and interest, etc.) then we would try to place them elsewhere. If that was not possible, we would explain to the employee that the requirements can’t change and there’s no suitable position available, and they can opt to resign or unfortunately we would have to continue issuing disciplinary actions if the problem wasn’t fixed. In no case was someone worse off for trying to fix the problem. I absolutely have respect for people who do the adult thing and try to take responsibility.
Now, there were some people who couldn’t hack it in a way that just wasn’t going to cut it anywhere – e.g. “I’m really bad with keeping track of time, is there a job where I could just come in and work 8 hours whenever was convenient?” doesn’t work in a hell of a lot of entry-level positions. Still, if the person said that, I wouldn’t try to get them fired, I’d just reiterate the job requirements and, if they needed it, work with them on solutions (e.g. is it getting up early? Would a later shift work? etc.) I’m sure there are places where any sign of weakness is mercilessly preyed upon, but honestly, if you work for a place like that, you’re pretty boned already based on what you’ve described.
Strictly speaking that’s not always true; the job can change over time just like a cable channel. Then there are involuntary transfers, which, in themselves, are probably bad omens to begin with. But the employee usually doesn’t realize this if they go in with the expectation that the new assignment will be a learning opportunity, and not drastically more demanding or worse-suited to their personality.
Yes, people are transferred internally all the time. However, unless there is a compelling reason unrelated to work performance (such as moving to another office in a different city to be closer to a family member with health problems, or having health problems that now prevent you from working in a particular position, like moving from a job involving heavy lifting to a desk job because you’ve recently had to have surgery for something or have chronic back pain, etc.), you will invariably be asked to demonstrate the ability to do your own job first. Transfers are always thought of as a way to up-skill, cross-skill, develop further in your career after you have excelled in your existing position and are looking for a more challenging role (at least outwardly, as this applies even if your current role is more challenging, but in a bad way, because it’s too much challenge for you).
They hired you for a specific role because you convinced them you were capable of doing it. Unfortunately, if the role turns out not to be within your abilities, they’re not going to care. They’ll just find someone else who can do it. It sucks, but that’s how employers work. (I have been in this position before, where the work we were asked to do was simply unrealistic - not just for me, for the entire team; even senior team members were getting warnings because they weren’t able to produce to the ridiculously high standard being asked of us - there’s a red flag right there for bad management).
You could try explaining the situation to them, but honestly I really doubt you’re going to get a positive response from them, unless you happen to have a direct manager who is very, very understanding. There is also the risk that explaining that you can’t do the work *will *make them think you are incompetent and will make the situation worse.
In my experience and the experiences of others I’ve known who’ve stumbled into jobs they really weren’t suited for or that held unrealistic expectations, your best option is to seek a better suited job somewhere else before you do get canned. And come up with some other reason why you are seeking a new job, such as a desire to try a different field or specialize in something you were working on or whatever might be vaguely relevant enough to the two roles to be believable. Whatever you do, don’t tell prospective employers you want a new job because you suck at yours (or even that the workload was too much, it still makes you sound lazy or incompetent in their eyes).
Good luck to you. 
My experience: You can certainly try to transfer to a less demanding position, but be forewarned: If you ever want to up for promotion, you’ve just shot yourself in the foot because your stepping down indicates to them that you cannot handle anything else.