Growing Stress, Changing Work Orgs, and Mental Health

kh1985

Hi there,

I am posting to really get my situation out there and look for a safe space to discuss how changes in my workplace out of my control are becoming untenable and are beginning to affect my mental health. Apologies I tried to keep this brief but it is complicated. I think this is the right section to post this so please correct me if I am wrong!

A bit of history, I have worked at this organisation for 10 years. Fantastic company to work for, many would love to work for them, so I know I shouldn’t be complaining as many are in worse situations, however the last 2 years have become increasingly difficult to navigate.

I started as a marketing assistant and worked into a senior role in marketing for 8 years. However, due to having a degree in creative design, being able to take marketing content and create visual output without outsourcing to agencies/other departments in a short time has always been an element and made me a key player in whatevere team I've been in.

At the start of 2020, with no prior notice, the marketing team I was part of was disbanded, and I was moved to a creative team full time. This career change was part welcomed as I do enjoy being creative but did cause anxiety as any design work I had done was rusty and just the ‘tail end’ of my ‘one man band’ job. Additionally, my new team were based in the US, so I am never in the same timezone as them and am remote working

Over the year, I adjusted to this and I learned a lot from my colleagues and on-the-job learning so was beginning to feel my skills had been brushed up. However, at the start of 2021 another ‘out of the blue’ org restructure happened where our manager took 5 of the 7 designers with her, she had 30 minutes to decide who goes with her and who stays, leaving 2 of us to support the marketing function.

This was a challenge with lots of uncertainty and was premature as even management were not prepared for it, but the directive came from the CEO so we all had to act -  again, even with my ‘never say no’ attitude that has gotten me far in the company, we were treading water with no management structure so implemented our own way of working, and still getting good feedback, even if it meant me working long hours. I didn’t mind it initially, we were in lockdown so I had nothing better to do so always said yes and it’s become accepted as the norm

On Friday, the other designer resigned. She is younger, and an opportunity to join a smaller company came up and, reading between the lines, the time to jump ship made sense for her.

So that leaves just myself, (and an intern who works 1 day a week) supporting the corporate marketing team with creative work. A team I am only online for 3 hours (officially) with at the same time. I am now essentially doing what was 7 people’s workload on my own, with no real plan from management yet on how this is going to pan out as it is not sustainable. I don’t blame them - they will have been caught off guard by this change.

I am really just looking for advice on how to approach this. 2 weeks ago I was given a substantial raise as recognition of my work. I’ve never complained at work and come across as unphased by anything despite how I am feeling. But I am reaching my breaking point. I don’t want to leave the company or look for other jobs (typically jobs going are half the salary that I am on now and I have financial commitments). They are a very generous company to work for and have been good to me and are good people. 

With lockdown easing, I was looking forward to having some spare time to take care of my mental health. But with recent events I feel lost in the company and with no one really understanding the work that goes into what I do anymore, and being alone, I am in conflict as I am very nervous about saying ‘no’, having never done so. I am feeling very burnt out and don’t see things changing or what the future lies. I have the comfort of knowing I am appreciated, but at what point do you feel like your work has become your life?

The stress has lead to me taking anti anxiety medication as even the ‘off’ time I have for sleeping is becoming difficult. All I think about is work. I don’t want to be on medication. But the work ethic of my company is no one turns down work, I feel hesitant to be the first person to say ’this is too much for me’ especially with no one in the same boat as me and really understands what I do.

Apologies for the long post if you have made it this far. Any advice would be appreciated. This year has taught me that life is short, and the importance of separating work from life, but the thought of pushing back on anything is a foreign concept to me.

Thanks!

wilfred30

kh1985 said:

Hi there,

I am really just looking for advice on how to approach this. 2 weeks ago I was given a substantial raise as recognition of my work. I’ve never complained at work and come across as unphased by anything despite how I am feeling. But I am reaching my breaking point. I don’t want to leave the company or look for other jobs (typically jobs going are half the salary that I am on now and I have financial commitments). They are a very generous company to work for and have been good to me and are good people. 

Thanks!

You may not want to leave the company but the time will come when you have to decide between money or your health. 

oh_really

I suspect going forward you either develop resilience to the company management direction or find a role that suits you better.

74jax

What are your contracted hours? And how many over are you working?

It may unfortunately come down to saying your work load is xyz, you can only fit in 1 and what do your managers want you to prioritise. And you may be having to do this every single day.

The more you work and cover the workload, the less likely management will see the issue.

My husband manages teams worldwide so I appreciate the time difference issues, however if he starts early for a call with another studio then he still finishes 9hrs after that call. He doesn't continue to work his UK hours too.

Have you discussed the company intentions to recruit? 

TELLIT01

In what I take to be a senior position, a degree of flexibility and overtime working is expected.  That does not mean never saying 'No' to taking on additional work.  You will be no use to yourself or the company if you are unable to function properly.  You almost certainly won't be the first person to have said 'no more', you just don't know about them.

Bottom line is that if you don't take care of yourself nobody else will do it for you.

My wife was also one of those people who didn't like to say know and it almost destroyed her.  When she was ill through the stress her manager didn't give a ****.

connors07

It does sound like an awful lot change in a short space of time and much of this pressure is heading your way. The way you've eloquently put things I can't imagine they are unaware of what they have done to your workload and they need to be fair to you. If you are reaching breaking point, if you feel like you are treading water you absolutely must look after yourself and say something to someone that can assist the situation. 

You're not turning down work; you're ensuring you can continue to say yes. Who knows what other conversations happen behind closed doors and how many people have had to say no for the good of their health; maybe some of the recent shake ups have been caused by that; maybe not.

You say they are good people in your post; to me it sounds like you trust them so trust them with the truth. If they are good people they will not take your health lightly and will work on solutions. 

Best of luck; health is wealth physically and mentally. Hopefully we've all got a long ride ahead of us and we'll need our health throughout the journey. 

theoretica

You need to have a discussion with whoever is  your manager - that the current concentration of work is not sustainable, and suggest how it could be handled.  Some tasks won't be that important after all.  Can any be picked up by the five people in the new team?  Can any be outsourced until they have recruited a replacement for the person who left? The intern do more hours?  If you continue as you are your managers may not see the problem - they need to be aware of it to make a workable plan.

TBagpuss

I think the way forward is probably to contact your own manager / boss, and the team you support, and flag the problem explicitly.

i.e. "As you know, until very recently, this team consisted of 7 people + 1 intern. Following the changes on [date] and [name's] resignation, the team now consists of me + intern. Obviously it will not be possible for me to single-handedly cover the same amount of work that was previously being managed by a team of 7, so I will need to focus on the most urgent / important tasks"

Then outline what those are likely to be.

Ideally you would be able to discuss this with your manager ahead of contacting the other team, to clarify what your manager sees as being the highest priority and to ask about timescales for them to recruit new staff or put alternative arrangements in place. You can then feed this back to the marketing team;
e.g. "I understand from [manger] that steps are being taken to recruit [number of people] and in the mean time, we will be focusing on  [most urgent things] "

You may also need to keep reverting back to this - e.g. when you are given too much to do you need to push back - if it's all coming from the same team you can say "I can't do [new project] without stopping work on [existing projects] which of those do you want me to put on hold in order to do this one? " 

kh1985

Thank you so much for all your replies, I think I already knew what I would need to do and agree with the general feedback. I have arranged a meeting to ask for more information on what the thoughts are for going forward now that we are down a person, and then will use that opportunity to show them what I am currently working on and voice my concerns. Whilst working the slightly longer hours than my contracted 37.5, last week I was working up ot 60, so hopefully seeing just how much I have going on will help me push for some sort of organisational change to be considered.

Thanks again for the tips and advice.