Gonna avoid being too specific for reasons.
I used to work for a company. Fresh after graduation I took a job in an office somewhere because I needed income.
It was a processing job. Honestly, it was the worst job I've ever had. And yes I'm including when I did fast food and retail part time while in high school.
My processing job was a very intensive one that was very detail oriented and high volume. On our team specifically in that department. There was one data entry person, and two processing people. (In addition there were part time assistants that were tremendous helps and people in other areas that also did other portions critical to the roles)
When hired, I was to be one of the processing people. Let than a week later, the entry person on this specific team put in their notice. I was told “okay, well, you're gonna do their job now until we can find somebody”
I had two weeks to learn an entire position then that would be it. I held my tongue and did it with no fuss.
But it SUCKED. Shortly after starting I learned that the office had been on overtime and PTO blackout unless you had a doctor's note for months.
Every little thing required a hands on person to do it. It was the most mind numbing yet overwhelming experience of my life. No matter how late I would stay, and empty a crate of documents that were processed, there'd be another the next day. It's a two person job that had always been done by one person.
The sheer volume of what we were doing is what got me. At one point, word came down from up top to be “caught up” by X date. We were asked to work as much overtime as we could stand with a mandatory minimum of like 8 hours.
We weren't getting paid for it either. We were getting “comp time” at time and a half which we couldn't take. Because blackout.
We did not get caught up. As such, a high ranking woman was brought in to learn what we were doing, and what was wrong with it.
Every suggestion she had came with problems. Some of which negatively affected our clients. I can't say how because that might reveal too much. But it wasn't pretty. Several months later we were finally able to convince them that their changes caused a big enough discrepancy to stop it. Like, bad enough that if word got out, it could have gotten the company investigated by the government.
Eventually. The new person was hired. I had to train them and begin training for what was supposed to be my job like 7 months prior.
Now, in doing that job, it was very intensive as well. It involved research pretty often. We actually voluntarily kept track of how much processing had been done and supplied our numbers so we could justify when it was low any given day. We felt we had to. We were never told we had to. That'd just the environment it was.
They brought in people from other departments who had previously been in our positions. On task pay. At over time and a half. To help.
No matter how much we did, it was NEVER enough. Unending.
I left. After a non-specific amount of time, I had enough. I got a job elsewhere which was significantly better. It had better pay and was what I wanted to be doing. It had its own set of challenges not worthy of a antiwork post.
I eventually left that position as well though. And took a job at the original company. Totally different department. Better pay. Awesome boss so far. Nobody in my original department knows I'm back. And they're not going to find out because HR and the company is too big for them to even notice.
But my original department sent out an email asking for volunteers. Just, volunteers. To work in overtime without pay as indicated in their flyer. They said something to the effect of “despite our efforts X task has continued to grow and we need help” basically.
Honestly, if they knew I was back, they might ask me to help for pay. I would say no. I know I would. Unless they made a desperate number offer because I don't think I could say no to $50 an hour. Which would effectively be be a little below double what I make now since I'm salaried at 40 hours a week. Which when you consider that my health insurance has $0 premiums, ain't to shabby. Not bad, but respectable in my area of my country for somebody with my level of experience in my industry.
It's hilarious. After two years since I've been gone they STILL haven't fixed their problems that are causing severe backups. I let out the ugliest laugh.