Things at work have been uber-hectic lately. I try to keep my blog posting as separate from my work life as possible, but lately it is all one big pile of work-related feces. I am stressed about work, take that stress home, carry it around on my back for the rest of the evening, then strap it back on when I'm off to work again. It is all-consuming. And I'm not the only one affected by the goings on.
My coworkers are also stressed; you can see it on their faces. I'm worried that we are all just one misstep away from devolving into crazed lunatics. We've absorbed the work of yet another person who has left the office. The details of how and why the person left are unimportant. What is important is that we are once again having to pick up the slack.
I'm an honest person, and I don't believe in letting things fester. I speak to management about my concerns and don't try to pretend everything is okay. Now for the rhetorical questions. How do you walk the line between giving constructive criticism and giving a person a rude wake-up call? How do you do this when the person is above you in the hierarchy? When do you say enough is enough and just cut your losses and get the hell out? When does responsibility, integrity, and loyalty become plain-old stupidity? These are the things that run through my brain multiple times per day and keep me up at night.
All I want to do is have a job I enjoy doing something that will make a positive difference in the lives of others. I would hope that that job would allow me to live comfortably and to have enough extra money to do something fun every once in a while. I fear that this is simply too much to ask right now. In a time when the economy and job market have gone down the toilet, money is tight, and things are not looking to improve anytime soon, how much should a person take and how much imbalance can you withstand before your home life suffers at the hands of your work life?
