Negative thinking in new job when faced with new challenges

I am soooo nervous this morning. My anxiety is through the roof. I will find out mid-week if I have a job offer. The timing could not be any better IF I do get an offer. I am dying at work. I really don't want to have to come up with content/article ideas for 9 or so more clients. And I don't care about this website audit I am doing with a co-worker. I could care less about the work I am doing right now. I mean, of course, I am still trying my best to produce high quality work, but I just don't care for this job and I want out.... like right now.

I am just SO impressed with how many articles you got done already! It's incredible. Sending more prayers from me about the job search!

THANK YOU!!!! And, thanks soooooo much for the prayers!!!! I need them.

So, we handed in our website audit powerpoint presentation, and my boss and another co-worker tore it up. Meaning, there's a lot to fix and change in the presentation, and it's actually quite overwhelming. They had an issue with practically every slide in the presentation, and that all needs to be fixed before Thursday when I take a couple of vacation days.

I am really not happy where I work right now. Their expectations and demands are SO high, it's really stressful and overwhelming. They expect perfection with these audits, and I think it's over the top ridiculous how much work has to be put into them.

One more day until I find out about this other job.

Seems super harsh how they're treating you. Once I had to come up with I can't remember how many articles, probably like 10 in a short period of time, and they each had to be 1500 words or more. They had to have keywords and all that kind of stuff. That was super stressful, so I cannot imagine how you feel having to come up with so many! Are there any coworkers in your present job who you can at least kind of "team up with" in a sense? I mean like anybody you feel rapport with. So you can feel like there's at least some element of support on your side.

@WastingAsparagus, thanks so much for your support. It IS very hard - coming up with so many articles, PLUS all the keywords.

I don't have anyone to commiserate with, but I do have some amount of support from within my team and company. I've only been there for about 6 months, and it's 100% remote, so there's little opportunity to socialize and get to know people. On calls, it's all business and no side convos about life. I miss that.

I feel like they just want me to quit. Like they're giving me all the crap tasks so that I will be forced to leave.

They are still 100% remote? Most either offer some combination of remote and in person or give people some choice at this point. Do they not have offices at all? I think it’s bad for mental health. Sure some people like it as it might work for their families like some people watch their kids while working or something but overall it’s just not healthy to be home all alone all day and don’t socialize. I hope when you find a new job, it will not be all remote. It sounds miserable in addition to everything else

My company is only remote and always has been. The company I’m interviewing with will be 100%remote for me as they are based out of state. I don’t mind this, as long as I can have contact with people during the day. Remote work opens up many more job opportunities.

It’s understandable if it’s out of state. My brother has been fully remote for the past 10 years because his company is out of state and they don’t want to move there. My nephew actually wants to return home from the West and continue working for his company remote. It does open a lot of options so i get it. I just personally think it’s important to get to know your coworkers if at least occasional interaction in person.

I agree about getting to know your co-workers, which is still possible when working remotely.

So, I have COVID now, and this other company wants one more half hour interview with me. I said yes, without delaying. It's on Thursday. I had a fever yesterday of 100.2, but that's gone down. I don't feel all that great, but it could be because I took Advil PM to sleep last night. I still didn't sleep well and kept waking up every couple of hours.

I really hope I can make it through this interview.

Good luck, Have Hope! hugs kit

My job is also 100% remote and was even before COVID. I've made some close friends (some of whom I still haven't met in person!) over our messaging - right now it's Teams) and the few I have met were met during a work trip to Chicago taken a few years ago. I haven't worked in an office in years, even my prior work as a medical transcriptionist was totally remote, and that was back in the 2000s.

Thanks so much!!!

Yeah, exactly. It’s definitely possible to make friends even in a remote environment. Although I have not really made friends with anyone in my current company. I’ve only been there six months.

I hope you feel better. Good luck on the interview!

Thanks, @Bill3. Today, I feel awful. Yuck.

And thanks re: the interview!

Wow. Am I miserable at work. ALL they have me doing now is content ideation. That's it. And now that I've finished content ideation for the quarter, I have to start on 90 more articles for that one client that I have to do 30 a month for. This is insanity. I think they want to drive me out of the job. I think that's evident.

I thought on this all weekend and have been dreading Monday. And here is Monday again.

I am astounded that my company is making me do this, and ONLY THIS ONE TASK. I have made it clear to them that I've wanted more responsibility for the last 2 or 3 months. I've made it clear that I wanted to "grow into" the role I was hired to do! YET, they keep me at a lower level, doing lower level tasks, and they won't even give me a chance to grow into my role or to take on client work. I don't get it.

My 90-day review is due from my supervisor. Let's see what he says this go around. I bet it will be a negative review again.

I feel stuck inside a nightmare that I cannot awake from. And literally, coming up with 360 articles for this one client IS A TOTAL NIGHTMARE.

I am beside myself with depression and grief. My career has gone down the toilet with this one job and all because I had to take a mental health break for a full month. And now, they won't let me do any client work, and I am stuck doing just one single task, which is going to make me go insane. I already am going insane doing this one task.

It's SO UNFAIR. I am worth more than this.

I'm so sorry to hear.

Thanks so much @Bill3.

Wow… I don’t think I’ve ever been more miserable in a job. Stressed, yes. But this level of misery? Nope.

Every day at work is most painful. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve this. I know they want me to quit. That’s obvious by what they’re doing to me. I’m calling in sick on Friday. I don’t give a rat’s ***. We have a company meeting on Friday where we each have to speak of something new going on in our field of expertise. Well, since they refuse to let me participate in my field of work, I have nothing to offer. So I’m calling in sick. Screw them.

I get that they have to pay unemployment tax based on how many people they fire. But waiting for and encouraging someone to quit means they continue to pay that person's full salary. It sounds expensive, so aside from being cruel and inhumane, from a financial perspective their approach puzzles me.

@Bill3, thank you… so you think what they’re doing is cruel and inhumane?? Thank you for saying it!! It feels like that to me! Doing just one task only each and every day?? Coming up with blog article ideas for 12 full months for every client?? And only that??

It doesn’t make financial sense to me either. And it does feel very cruel.

I need people's advice. Do I say something to them about how I need greater variety and how I am going completely nuts doing only blog articles? Do I risk saying something to them about it? I am at the point where I feel I need to say something... like, isn't there anything else that I can do?

Also, can I ask them to just let me go????? Can I tell them that this isn't a workable arrangement and that I wish they would just lay me off and let me go?