Well, I guess this is an extension of the hating a full-time job thread, it might get long, but I really just need to vent.

Mid-last year I quit an awful job due to having a verbally abusive boss that piled more and more work on everyone. It got so bad that dealing with him gave me panic attacks. I was unemployed for about 6 months.

Then, I took a freelance job in November that turned into permanent work in February. At first the work environment was good, overall pretty relaxed. However, since then everything has gone downhill.

They brought in this efficiency expert that was supposed to develop systems for us to do our jobs better. Before that, we were expected to update around 70 projects a month, but less wasn’t a big deal. Projects vary, some things take a long time to resolve, others can be figured out with a short phone call, so I don’t know how well a statistic like that measures what you are doing, plus some sectors like mine require you to provide more information, so things take longer.

The new efficiency guy informed us of a new minimum of 80 updates monthly, halfway through the month, without talking to any of us beforehand introducing processes to make things more efficient. All he seemed to do is spend his time on making some system to assign projects and making threats to people that weren’t close to the target.
Fortunately, he ended up leaving after a few months, but the target of 80 stayed and since then we also have had to write new 12 projects, which you can imagine has taken the workload up another notch.

Then, our boss and a newly hired editor have been really nitpicky about everything of late. Things that were optional or not necessary suddenly became mandatory without us being informed. It’s hard to keep up with it all, and I really don’t feel like I can approach her to discuss it; she has kind of a weird personality. I think it will just end up making me look like I’m not doing my job well, but at the same time I am not a mind reader.

I have to stick it out for a while, I guess. It won’t look good to employers that I am job hunting so soon again. Plus the economy here is terrible. There are a lot of long-term unemployed out there. My husband and I also have some financial goals and me being unemployed will set us back. He has been better mentally now that I am contributing financially. The other thing is that at least I don’t have to commute, which I absolutely hate, and it seems like a lot of friends have the same complaints, so who knows if another job would be better.

Still, I am just feeling overwhelmed with all the expectations, and of course it is for the same money. I started crying this morning over it all. I had a four day weekend last weekend, which was great, but two days back and I don’t feel rested at all, just stressed.