Strategies for coping with job

Post Reply New Topic

Hello everyone. I work in the U.S. and I just got a job as a team leader, which is an assistant manager type position, in an agency that services group homes and apartments for people with disabilities. The problem is I'm already overwhelmed; I didn't really get any training about how to manage people, or what is supposed to happen on a daily basis. Its extremely busy, the phone is always ringing, and four to five people are always talking in the office. And its a mixture of administrative work and direct care. I liked the direct care aspect because it involves interacting with people that are like me in a lot of ways, but I don't have the mental resources to do both every day, and drive everywhere to do errands for the company. I wanted to just do the administrative parts of this job, and get off of work at a reasonable time like 6 or 7pm not work til 11pm or later every friday and saturday night.

I used to like interacting with people at work, but now I'm too burned out to have normal back and forth conversations with people, that I end up mumbling instead of talking and I end up shutting down in the bathroom or melting down in my car after work. On my days off Im too tired to function and I only work 40 hours a week. I feel trapped, I want to get out of the social work field and do something more technical and logical, but I have a liberal arts degree and don't know where to start, and have no money to go back to school. I don't know how much longer I can last at this job before I collapse and start screaming and banging my head on the floor. And that has happened before when I worked at other places. Any ideas of how I can cope with work while I look for a new job? My previous job was also a nightmare for very different reasons, and I literally jumped into this new job after quitting that old place the same week. Thanks for any advice or help you can give.

It would help if I knew you in person.

In general, people who are new to any job are frequently "overwhelmed." It's quite an adjustment, really.

However, once you are aware of why you are overwhelmed, you could make adjustments which would lessen the feeling.

Maybe (yeah, I know, you have a right to your own time!) stay late a couple of days so you could get rid of the administrative backlog. I've done that many-a-time, with a good deal of success.

I'm happy that you are working in the capacity of where you are working. I'm not (as of yet). I'm a clerical civil servant.

However, once I retire, I believe I will wind up in a situation similar to yours.

I am not in a management position of any kind. However I find my job overwhelming at times and just have to deal with it the best that I can. I had about a 6 month period where I didn't work this past year and it was great because I didn't have the stresses of work. However when I came back to work I had to come back part time for a while to ease back into things. There for a while I had thought about going on disability but was still able to work. After being gone so long I was unsure if I could even handle it. Even after coming from part time to full time I had to step back down to part time for about a month. Now I have been working full time for about 2 months now. I had to find a way to measure where I was at mentally and only take on as much as I could handle. I have also determined for me that the current job that I am at is not going to change so it is time for me to look for a better fitting job. My job is one that is not set tasks and changes by the minute. I can't handle that type of things. So for me I have decided to find a new job. Without doing that life will be unmanageable and life is too short. I do have fears of moving to a new job and it be worse that what I am in. I will have to be honest. Good luck in your situation. I know how you feel.

Thanks so much you two! I will try to conserve energy at work, and take more breaks when I get overwhelmed. I hope I get out of non-profits and get to try something new this year.