LogFAQs > #962615221

So lately it's been really rough where I work, at least by my perception.
A little background: I work at a call center for some car dealerships and due to staffing issues, I've been overworked and really stressed. How it works, in brief, is my team is supposed to have six members in order to balance the amount of vehicle inquiries we receive from all the dealerships we work with/for. This ensures all members of the team aren't getting so many leads that they can't keep up or so few that they can't make enough commission. But a little while ago, one of our team members quit to move on to a better job, his replacement quit because the schedule was "interfering with his wrestling league", another team member quit because she got a work from home job that suited her better since she was pregnant, her replacement didn't even make it through training before walking out on one of her shifts and not coming back with no explanation (which was weird because she was a recommended hire due to being the sister of an employee on our service team so you'd think our own employee would have faith in her own family and not give us a garbage hire) and one more team member is still employed, but hardly shows up for work due to a mysterious medical condition that keeps him bedridden for days, even weeks on end. He missed almost all of December, only showing up maybe five days out of the month. Because of this, I and our remaining team members have been getting overwhelmed with doing the work of six when we're only three. Not only that, a manager quit out of nowhere, so one of my team members has been filling in for some manager duties and when he does that, he's not on leads due to having to do those aforementioned manager duties. There have been several days where I get too many leads and ended up staying late to finish all my work so I don't fall further behind. With how many new leads I get, I find it more and more difficult to keep up with the ones I already have. Like, I'm so busy calling the ones I get fresh that I don't get to call the ones I already have more than once and my work queue is completely out of control. This is made worse sometimes when I'm scheduled to work a Saturday, of which there are only two people per team scheduled that day, and that sick guy calls off leaving me to field all the leads that come in when it's supposed to be split. There's also supposed to be three people Monday morning to field all the leads that come in Saturday evening all the way through to Monday morning when we're closed, but it's only been two people due to not enough staff and they won't schedule the sick guy because they know he's not reliable, leaving us to keep doing it every week even though you're supposed to switch off (open one Monday, not the next Monday, then open the Monday after that, then not the next Monday, rinse and repeat). Pretty much since Christmas they've been scheduling me to open almost every Monday since then. And then there's the random stuff that makes it harder. For example, we only have one shift on Friday since we close early so it's all hands on deck at the same time rather than in shifts so the leads are spread out. Unfortunately, this past Friday the one girl was scheduled off because she worked yesterday, the sick guy called off, the guy who does manager things was moved to Saturday and nobody told me he'd be off on Friday, and the new recruit we're training wasn't on leads because someone didn't set his settings right nor did they notice until it was too late in the day leaving me to get all the leads myself again. I've just about had it with this overwork and reliance on only a few people to do the job of six. My morale is low and I'm not putting any effort into my work because it feels so pointless, like I'm not getting anywhere. I'm not even doing what they need me to do properly because I'm so burnt out and bitter that these problems keep multiplying and compounding. That's why I was thinking of using one of my sick days tomorrow to take a personal day and try and recharge more. I open tomorrow and I just don't want more leads until I've sifted through the ones I have. I must have over 600 tasks in my queue by now. Not all of them are equal, but they're still there.

On the other hand, I always feel guilty when taking off, even when I'm legitimately ill or something because that means more work for my fellow teammates and it's just not good work ethic. I would become the very thing I hate and put pressure on those that come in. Also, I'd use a sick day and I only get a few of those a year and I already used a couple to do things like enroll in a research study and I've been called for jury duty, which they legally have to let me off for, but not pay me so they'll just use one of my sick days automatically. I don't think I'm in danger of being fired as they can't afford to fire me with such low staff, but it's more about the precedent that sets and the consequences for others. I want to help and support the team, but I feel like my proverbial back is breaking under the pressure in which case I'll be useless either way. It's a real moral dilemma.

TL;DR I'm overworked and want another day to recharge, but I feel bad when I take off for any reason and would be contributing to the very problem that caused me to be overworked in the first place. Let me know your thoughts, CE!!