Hi. So I don’t even know where to begin with this. I work in a call centre at a dealership (well actually several dealerships, we cover open road so 25 in total.) which is already stressful enough. Lately, I have been working myself straight to burn out. The work environment is super toxic, they constantly change procedures, give us “coaching” lessons every month where some of our perks get taken away(extra pay/bonuses and working from home) and also get threatened and berated and bitched at if we don’t follow procedure and they threaten to discipline us. We get sometimes even yelled at for making tiny mistakes they say they don’t want “perfectionism” but that’s all they want. I feel like a robot working here.
Anyways, thats besides the point. My boss is super two faced(they literally talk shit about everyone, sometimes we overhear them and they don’t think we can hear them – either that or they don’t even care) and she’s super bipolar and unpredictable. One minute she’s understanding the next she’s yelling at you for something. I’ve really been needing to take time off due to burnout, I don’t even have the time to take care of my self such as go to the doctor, have dental or medical appointments, talk to a therapist and get some much needed mental care in. I’m really afraid to ask her and I’ve been stalling because I’m afraid of her answer or what she is going to say.
Anytime I call in sick to work she wants to know every detail. She got angry at me one time because I told her I was going to be either off for the day or working from home and she was angry that I offered to work from home and that I wasn’t going to come into the office. I later found out that specific day was because my “coaching” scores were lower than expected for that month so my punishment was I had to be at the office(people who have high scores are able to work from home twice a week, which although that’s a little nice we cannot choose the days.) To top of all off the play their annoying rap music all day and it’s the same 15 songs on repeat all day every day which is enough to make anyone feel crazy in an already toxic environment I seriously want to take a bat to their iPad sometimes.
So I guess my question here is how can I approach her and appropriately express my concerns and politely ask for time off to take care of my physical and mental health? The only thing I’m thinking here is that I’m just going to have to be straight up honest with her, and just tell her how I feel for example something along the lines of “I feel like this place comes first before health it’s like fuck you and your health(yes we’re allowed to swear here she does all the time and so does everyone else)work comes first. Even if that’s not the case that’s how I feel.”
I feel like I just don’t matter here job aside just in life in general hence why I need to see a therapist and have a few other things taken care of. typically I’m Monday-Friday and have weekends off, but by the time the weekend hits I’m too burnt out to do anything. Hell even after work, too burnt out to do anything it’s like I’m selling my soul and have no other hobbies other than going out with my friends sometimes and getting drunk (I’m a high functioning alcoholic too) because I just have no fucking energy anymore. The only reason I’m here is because of the money and pay being good also the benefits, but it’s just like what’s the point of providing an employee with benefits if we can’t even use them because I have to be here all the time.
TLDR; I’m extremely burnt out from a super toxic job, I have no energy for anything else and I would like some advice on how to properly ask for some time off.
Thank you.