I work in accounting/business advisory and I’m in my first year of uni, for reference. I’ve been in this job for a bit over a year and had no experience in this field whatsoever.
Back in May my manager/mentor quit because he was overworked and under-supported which I 1000% understand. In fact, the longer he’s gone, the more I understand why he left.
The sole practitioner is very knowledgeable, but I don’t know what she does with her days here. It feels like she doesn’t do anything — which would be fine except the vast majority of the work comes to me — the 2nd most senior full time employee.
The first senior is trying to transition to retirement and really only does the work for the huge, long-standing clients.
After the manager handed in his notice, the SP hired someone right out of uni with no job experience. So she’s basically learning everything from scratch, because uni is worlds away from the job.
And we have a permanent casual staff member here 15 hours a week who has refused to do a specific type of workload that only the SP can do — none of the rest of us have been trained. I just know this will come to me.
So all up that’s 4 full time staff members, two of which are basically complete newbies, and 1 casual who refuses to step outside of the box she’s created for herself — not that I blame her. And we’ve got just under 500 clients, so. Basically me, the new girl, and the casual would have to pump out 3.5 jobs per week to be done by EOY, which between bookkeeping and waiting for clients to give us info is basically impossible.
SP advertised for a manager/senior straight away but nothing has come of it.
So now, I have no support, I’m pumped with work beyond my capabilities, and there’s nothing I can do. The only thing keeping me here is living in a small town, the office is 7 blocks from my house, and other workplaces in my field would be 45min – 1hr away.
This is why we have “quiet quitting” — a term I hate, btw. This is why people job hop, to find better pay and better working conditions.
If I weren’t also studying online, I’d honestly consider getting work at one of the grocery or retail stores around town, maybe even get my alcohol service qualification and work at a bar or winery to supplement my income, but between work and uni my sanity is hanging on by a thread.
Anyway, I just keep reminding myself that I’m a baby in this workforce, I don’t have that much responsibility, and I can only do what I can do. It’s not worth stressing over. But still, it’s quite annoying. I miss my mentor.