Work stress

[llewtrah]

Having gone back end of April after a breakdown I am signed off with stress again (sent home by the nurse this morning). The health dept and HR are aware of specific factors and there's a dept meeting soon to discuss the issues (with my doctor's agreement, I'll be there even if signed off sick).

The dept is split into several teams. I have found out it is only one team that has sicknesses due to stress. Our leader is a "yes-man". Rather than tell the dept head that we are at full stretch, he pressurises us into taking on more tasks (using the "I really wouldn't have to tell [dept head] that we can't achieve such-and-such" approach). Sorry mate, but you're going to have to bite the bullet and say "no" or you won't have a team left.

The dept head is a constant source of pressure and has been told this by the health dept. He'd far rather kick his dept in response to another dept's complaints than find out if there is any basis for the complaint. Recently we got threatened with having to do overtime rather than him asking for evidence that we were causing a backlog (turned out we aren't the problem, but we'd already been kicked by then).

The new all-powerful computerised system has turned our dept from quality assurance into database administrators. Somewhere between shuffling database records we are supposed to do our real jobs so the customer gets a good product. It's an overcomplicated system (we demonstrated that some tasks take 6 times as long as they used to), so what does management do? They mandate some procedures from a position of blissful ignorance!

There are 2 of us in the team who have become particularly ill through stress. We're the 2 people who have really gotten to grips with the new system, are trying to do things properly, are coming up against its limitations and who are most aware that non-users need to stop making it even more complicated.

I currently have permanent nausea (I'm normally a comfort eater - I'm now unable to eat), insomnia/nightmares, semi-permanent headache and inability to hold conversations without tearfulness. Yet if managers would just take a step back, start defending their dept instead of kicking it and letting us do our jobs without piling more and more crap onto finite resources, there wouldn't be a problem. I just need them to back off (and employ some data admins) so I can do my job!

I'm not looking forward to the dept stress meeting (HR and company nurse will be there), but team leader and dept manager really need to understand that they are the biggest stress factors and it's time to stop kicking an already overworked and demoralised team. The managers will be there and it's going to be hard to tell them "YOU are my problem, not the workload". It really hasn't dawned on our team leader that none of the other teams are going off sick through stress.

At least I am not in total collapse this time.

[Syllavus]

I really wish you the best in this llewtrah, my husband is dealing with some major work stress himself so I have an idea of what you're going through. I really hope this meeting brings about some positive change for you.

[Mad Jay]

Wishing you the best of luck, llewtrah.

I don't remember the specifics of your earlier postings, but does your company have an open-door policy? Can you go to your manager's boss and talk to them about the additional work load?

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by Mad Jay

Wishing you the best of luck, llewtrah.

I don't remember the specifics of your earlier postings, but does your company have an open-door policy? Can you go to your manager's boss and talk to them about the additional work load?

Unfortunately my team leader is a yes man and the dept head (i.e. the next manager up the chain) is the one putting us all under pressure. The next up from him is based at another site and is less reasonable and worse for pushing pressure down the chain of command - he's actually flowed down a personal development/training objective that has to be done in our own time and requires us to make financial outlay* So for all practical purposes the next one up the chain is HR dept and I have already been talking to them (they are aware our dept head is a workaholic and my team leader seems afraid to tell him "no" ).

After I was sent home, there was a dept meeting which was starting to turn mutinous over yet heavier loading that doesn't contribute to assuring the quality of what we sell our customers. Unlike last time, I am keeping in contact with colleagues during my absence. The problem is I actually like my job (when I'm actually able to do it and not bogged down in the database) and I'm good at it. We actually need a database admin to do a lot of these extra tasks so we can do our real jobs. Right now management think we can do it all ourselves on top of our real jobs and are prepared to put us through hell before realising we can't do everything .

*I can't afford the financial outlay up front (never mind being told I can claim expenses later on if the objective is achieved) and I am under medical instruction not to take work home; I have now queried whether this next boss up the chain is allowed to set "outside of work time" development objectives. <--- me for refusing to accept the objective

[Shnoops]

I wish you well. I hope your kitties can help you de-stress.

[Ramblin' Dave]

Best wishes for a speedy recovery! I've had a lousy week at work too, but after reading this, I won't be complaining again...

[llewtrah]

I phoned in today after my doctor's appointment (she has ordered 2 weeks sick leave). Last week there were so many people off work (including others with stress-induced illness) that the team leader and dept mgr ended up at the coalface. They didn't meat targets and worked over the weekend. While I don't entirely trust what I was hearing, they seem to have a new appreciation that we're not the ones causing backlogs and that we really can't cope with having more loaded onto us.

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by llewtrah

the team leader and dept mgr ended up at the coalface. They didn't meat targets

Bit of a mixed metaphor there. It would appear all you have to do to have your situation taken seriously is have the entire team off with stress.