So I started a corporate / office job about 6 months ago, I took quite a pay cut from what I had earned before, but I was ok with that because I had been out of work for a while for various reasons so this would a good opportunity for me to find my feet again and I thought a great deal with them because I was vastly more experienced than what was required for the job and was at a salary point they'd only get someone more junior and inexperienced.
It started well, everyone telling me what a great impact I was having and the feedback from around the place was excellent etc. etc., but they just kept piling more and more work onto me.. like, crazy amounts of work, to the point I was working most evenings and some weekends just to keep up, but the whole time I was telling myself, “wow I'm knocking this out of the park, I'm the rockstar of the company!”
Month after month I'm working late, working weekends, covering for my boss all the time, taking on additional responsibilities what felt like every single week and I started to get really burned out, but kept going. My think was these are unprecedented times for the company, they can see the contribution I'm making, this will pass and then I'll be in a great position after about a year, I'll probably get promoted, have my own team and I can build back towards where I was before, before I was unemployed for a while with various issues.
Anyway, fast forward to the last couple of weeks and I mean I'm done at this point, the job is taking a physical tole on me, I'm exhausted, I can't sleep, motivation is waning, the pay isn't great and there's literally no let up, I keep asking for support, keep getting fobbed off, I made a deal with myself to not work at weekends any more because I need to relax and enjoy some time off, so now my weekends are me sitting around, anxious, thinking about work, but finally, FINALLY I felt a reprieve was coming. My 6 month probation and performance review.
So my boss sat me down, went through why I'm good and had a very complimentary piece about my work etc., and then gave me some “work ons” to do, they were fairly insignificant and probably the most relevant one was one that when I was asked to look after it I immediately flagged that I had no capability to do that and would need a bit of training to get me going and was told not to worry about it, the bits im doing already are enough to cover that responsibility… and I got my grade. Essentially a A, B,C,D and FAIL grade.
They talked me up like a rock star, gave me a work load for about 3 people that I somehow kept up with, and then gave me a C grade… and then said well done….the grade determines if you'll get a pay rise, by how much and considered for promotions. I literally gave every ounce of energy and my whole life revolved around this job for 6 months, it consumed me night and day, a job that I'm vastly over qualified for … they worked me like a horse, kept feeding me bullshit so I'd keep doing everything they threw at me, but when it came to the rating that actually mattered, that had financial implications, they gave me a shit grade with a smile and told me it's an excellent grade… patronizing me like I'm an idiot.
I've started looking for a new job.