Unappreciated

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a work-a-holic. I will stay extra hours to complete a project or meet a deadline.

I was very angry with my boss because he came to me yesterday inquiring why I was not done with a particular project. I proceeded to tell him the steps of my project and he looked as me as if it was the first I have ever work on a project like this. He was also wondering why the help he got me was not working fast. That has nothing to do with me. I can only account for how I work. Moreover, I have almost years of experience and can do the job blindfold. The situation is that it is a large bulk of work. The only way of doing it is trudging through it until it gets done.

Now if this was the only thing I had to do I may accept his concern. However, I have so many other things to do as well as follow up, date entry and a pile of reports I need to complete that he has piled on my desk.

I actually cried when he placed more work on my desk. He laughed thinking I was joking. I was not at all joking. I stated right then and there as well as emailed him that I am extremely overwhelmed with the amount of work I had to do and with the load I had to catch up. It is as if I am always in catching up mode.

Well as I was explaining to him (in my seeing the glass half-full attitude), that I was happy that we had less than a 1/4 left of work to finish for the project, he looked at me in awe. He wanted to know what was taking so long. I said all that I already mentioned and added that my work can only go as fast as my hands type and that is pretty fast. I had to look away and started to cry. I literally cried from 5pm until 10pm that I walk out of that office.

Yes! I stayed anyway. I do not run away from hard work and I do what it takes to get it done. Yet, they do not see what I do. I have so much work it is ridiculous. I have so much work that you can create a new position to tackle a third of the work that I do and this person will be busy all day.

I also take trips to the post office to ensure that my postage and packaging is done correctly. That way I will not run into the issue of getting a returned package. I thought taking that extra step to get the job done was honored. Instead, I get disappointed looks. It really makes me feel unappreciated.

I love my job. I would not change it unless GOD sends me into a different direction. In the meantime, I stay put. The funny this is that everyone has suggestion on how I can do my job better or faster but no one is willing to stay and do the grunt work with me. Well, almost no one. One of my co-workers from a completely and unrelated department, stayed with me one evening until 8pm copying over 500 pieces of documents. You know what that means. Filing all of those 500 pieces of documentation.

I have had a helper as I mentioned assigned to me by my superior. She is a great help but she works so slow. I have to help her to speedy up the portion she is assigned to do. By herself, she only stuffed less than 50 envelops. When I helped her, we did over 300. On my own, I do about 100 to 150. This defeats the whole purpose of getting a helper to relieve me to do the other multiple projects I need to get done.

I have a great boss. He does listen to me. However, he sometimes does not get it. He really does not get it. I do not know how much harder I can work. I am just one person. For the record, he was not nasty at all. He is always very respectful and careful with his words. He is as I am; frustrated because we really want and more so need to have things done yesterday. I know that he shares, to a certain extent my frustration. There are things, however, that can only do in the office. Therefore, I have to pull away from whatever is "priority" to handle it. In most cases it a phone call with an inquiry that is very important to handle. One phone call can take about 15 minutes to solve. This is not including the follow up calls. So multiply that to a minimum of 5 calls. It is usually more. This would be a minimum of 25 minutes. Let us add to the list of things I am responsible. On the other hand, let us not.

The whole gist of this bog is that I do not mind at all being overworked and underpaid. I enjoy my work. I do not like being misunderstood or worse, unappreciated.