I've been working for a small tech company as a graphic designer for almost a year now (graduated last year). I'm too tired to even get into too detail cause I'm just so tired from the day and burnt out, but my small team and I wear a lot of different hats and work with a lot of mediums (print, layout design, packaging, web design, motion graphics, photography, video editing, ux/ui, 3D — I can keep going lol)
I feel like a lot of the tasks handed off to me have unrealistic deadlines to be able to digest the content or even new platform and I've voiced out my concerns on the workload amongst other unrealistic expectations. I've worked so much overtime, I've lost my weekends just to meet deadlines or get extra time during working hours to catch up and it feels like it's still not enough. I'm so over it.
I'm just at that point where it's like, you either get what you get with the time allotted, but dont expect anything pretty OR you give me more time so you receive a better product. I'm not gonna try that hard anymore. I'm setting boundaries.
Lately, I decided to just do the work within working hours and do my best with what I can and leave by 5, saving the rest of the work for the next day (if it isn't done by then) regardless of if I miss the deadline by a day or so (I still communicate with my manager and department heads about this if know I won't be missing a deadline so they aren't wondering or think I'm slacking off).
But I think I'm just paranoid for setting boundaries to keep myself sane. Am I the only one? Is this normal? Sometimes I feel like I'm underperforming just because I'm drowning and there's no light at the end of the tunnel.
TLDR: Feeling burnt out just to constantly produce work and fulfill tasks. Asking if it is normal and okay to set boundaries and not feel so guilty about missing deadlines from constant unrealistic time frames and expectations. Feeling like I am underperforming this way.