Advice about ongoing unpaid overtime and work stress

[mariole]

Hi, my friends! I'm up writing at 3:30 in the morning because I have a tension ball in my stomach and can't sleep. A wonderful situation at work turned on its head. Any advice regarding my mistakes and situation is very welcome. And listen, feel free to tell me what a jerk I've been, because I am not blameless in this mess I've made for myself. I'm

Comments

[lovethosehobbit]

First off, just go with their idea. Yes, it's wrong and lousy but you aren't going to win this battle and will only end up hurting your career even more. Secondly, it WILL blow over. Just give it a few weeks and it will be history. You will need a Valium before, during and after meetings and when working on the project, but from my experience it will, I promise, disappear in a few weeks.

[mariole]

Wise words, Tree. I will do my best to follow them and SHUT UP MY BIG MOUTH!!!

I'm using their hideous design for my big presentation on Monday. We'll see if people continue to like hideous cartoon monitors chewing up their screen real estate. If yes, who am I to argue? It's puke-making but it's expensive so it must be good. *sigh*

[mariole]

Thanks so much, Mews. I did indeed find help and comfort here, lots of it. Yes, I may have been pushed to the limit, but what I'd like to do is expand my limits so I'm not so vulnerable in future. Mean people are all around, unfortunately. It will serve me to develop some better coping skills for when I inevitably run afoul of them again.

*big hugs*

[gilli_ann]

Well, those two obviously felt threatened by you - your positive can-do attitude, new ideas, bright spirits and happy-making personality, all of it. In that sense their enmity is a badge of honour. I wouldn't really be surprised if quite a lot of people in the organization (including higher-ups) realize that, and that you've not in such a dire situastion as you might think, in the medium term. Thing is, people like those two operate very deviously - kissing managements' butt *or* getting some hold on management that makes certain powers that be afraid of them/in their debt etc. They work constantly to manipulate the organization/co-workers, and they kick downwards. Frequently this is effective, and there is collateral damage (like you :( ) but over time it's also increasingly visible, and when the tide turns as it eventually will, when they've gone too far in some way, or made one misjudgment, they'll have no-one at their side. Because people put up with them, were afraid of them, or didn't want to make the effort taking them down.

[mariole]

Your words are like a cool drink of water. It really helps that you're in a corporate environment, too, and have run into this sort of thing. You are wise to remind me that organizations are fluid. I'm reminded of Spock: "It would be illogical to assume that all conditions remain stable." In another year, who knows what the organization might look like? I met a friend yesterday for lunch, and her husband was just promoted and his boss demoted-- so he was now managing his former boss! Just a bit awkward. Fortunately the two are good friends, but this all all part of the wacky world of corporate change

[shirebound]

I'm astounded at how the job market has totally changed in the past few years; every new task and duty we take on where I work, and absorb into an already bursting-at-the-seams workload, magically becomes part of our 'normal job'. No matter how much we do, or how well we do it, we "meet expectations". It's nearly impossible to get a raise or any praise since we're just doing our jobs. And we, too, are "expected to go forward working -- even harder".

What a sucky and frustrating situation, my friend. Please keep track of every hour you work, and get kudos in writing, if possible. And if working that hard with little respect and no extra compensation isn't where you want to be (it's where I am, too), looking for a new job might be the only solution. I might have to do that, as well. And neither of us really want to, which is the suckiest part.

(((YOU)))

[mariole]

Thanks for your support. I had a therapeutic chat with a fellow writer yesterday, and the job market is really improving. I don't have to do OT for no compensation; things are not that gloomy. So I'm going to smile and work on improving my situation.

At one of my old jobs, they kept loading on the work so that each person really did end up with 8 jobs over years of downsizing. I was shocked when I went in to say hi, how strained everyone looked. That's no way to live if you can help it. I wish you luck on your own job search. You're so kind and attentive; you deserve a good position. Good luck.

[illariy]

Others have commented more wisely on the situation than I ever could. I just... I'm sorry you are in this sucky situation and I'm sending you the warmest wishes that it gets better someday soon, at least a little. If I were there physically, I would now want to brew you a hot tea and rub your back and hug you until you went to sleep. I'm not there; it's not enough but know that you are in my thoughts. Best wishes.

[mariole]

Wow, this comment was so incredibly soothing. Thank you; I feel very much as if I've been tea'd and hugged.

Thanks for your good wishes. They do help. *hugs back*