Job really getting me down (long post, sorry)

LegacyUser

I’ve been working for a large company in the city centre for just over a year. I don’t have a car and from where I live I can walk into town easily enough so this really suits me. I’m working in Admin which I trained for a few years back. Even at the time I knew I wouldn’t be seeing out my working days in Admin, I just wanted a good job with regular hours while I decided what I really wanted to do with the rest of my life. And I figured computers would be involved so I thought anything working with computers would only help.

By now I have decided what I want to go for (and it is to do with computers) and my chosen career will take a long time to train for. That’s fine and I plan to stay in Admin until I am qualified enough in my chosen field to move out. I did think that the job I’m in now would be the one I would finish out my Admin career in and I was quite happy to do that.


But my job has changed since I thought that. First of all, they’re closing down their office in the city and moving to one of their other offices. This doesn’t suit me at all! As I’ve said, I don’t have a car, I don’t drive, so I will be relying on buses. Another annoyance of this is that back in March I joined a gym that’s right around the corner from my jobs current location. I go there straight after work and it was really handy but now I’m going to have to get a bus from the jobs new location into town and then home. I don’t want to give away too many exact details of these locations in case someone from work is reading this but to go Job – City – Home will be very awkward indeed!


If this was the only problem I would be annoyed but get over it but it’s not. Recently a girl who used to work here left the company. So I had to take over her duties. I wasn’t asked to, it was just assumed that I would do her job as well as my own from now on. On the Monday after she left someone asked me about the post, which was her job, so that’s why I’m saying they just assumed I’d take over.


I’m really not happy about this. I’m not happy about all the extra workload and also I’m not happy about the way it’s just assumed that I’ll do two people’s jobs now. I don’t know if this is going to continue when we have moved office or not. I know they have no plans to hire anyone else.


Earlier this morning I found out that I had made a huge mistake the day before, not getting an important document signed, I had just forgot all about it. I was doing so much, I have to pack everything away for our move as well as doing the other girls job and then doing my own on top of it. To be honest, I’m surprised I haven’t dropped the ball before now! In a way I’m glad I made a huge mistake because if anyone starts lecturing me on it, it will be my perfect chance to remind them of how much work I’ve been doing since the other girl left.


I don’t get any kind of thank you for doing all this extra work. What I do get is people saying to each other “I’ll get (Doormat) to do this” “I’ll get (Doormat) to do that” and the next time I hear that I’m gonna start barking. Because I do feel like I’m being treated like a dog “Fetch the paper!” “Fetch my coffee!” This morning I gave my name incorrectly to someone over the phone and threw out a fresh litre of milk, both by mistake, I think I’m starting to crack up.


But I’m scared to leave the job because I’ve had some absolute stinkers of jobs before and I don’t know if I change jobs will I end up in a worse one. What should I do? Should I stay put? Should I tell them that I’m not happy with all the extra work and / or the way I wasn’t even asked to take over, it was just assumed? My boyfriend thinks I should say something but I don’t want to rock the boat and cause trouble. On the other hand if I keep doing the work of three people, I’m going to lose every last one of my marbles.


I’m really sorry for the long rant but I think it did help to acknowledge it all. Does anyone have any advice? By the way, I’d just like to point out that I didn’t write this at work, I wrote it on my home computer.

Deadeyes

Phew, where to start.
First I'd say speak up for yourself, rock that bloody boat. If people keep giving you work and you say nothing, how are they supposed to know that it's too much and that it's getting on top of you. Next time someone tries to give you extra work, say NO you've too much on your plate. If you can't say no then make sure you point out that your so busy it might take you ages to get to it.
You really need to communicate with your superiors, tell them your only one person you can't do the work of two people. However I would imagine they'll say they're waiting to complete the move before hiring anyone else.
Ok so you had some bad experiences in the past, but were they that much worse than your current position is now? They say a change is as good as a rest, and different companies can have completely different work environments even if you are doing the same job. Take a moment to look around maybe even do a few interviews, you don't have to take any positions offered. The way I usually look at it is that I am interviewing them to see if they are good enough for me. The interview is your opportunity to make sure any prospective employer is not like any of the bad apples you've had before.
Just out of curiosity what do you want to train for (if you'd rather not say, no problem, I understand)?
I hope some of that rambling was helpful.