Hi all,
I work supporting victims of domestic violence and abuse. I advise them, emotionally support them, make safety plans, educate them on how to spot signs in the future and how it affects children, write letters to legal professionals and housing services to help them get moved and get legal aid entitlement, liaise with other professionals… lots of other things fall into the role.
Lately I've been finding my cases are becoming more complex and needing so many more actions. I manage my own caseload so if I don't do it then it doesn't get done. Each case is taking longer, and taking more supervision conversations with my manager. I was finding myself in the overtime trap of 'doing myself a favour for tomorrow' because there just seems to be too much to do within our paid hours (overtime accrues TOIL but isn't paid, as such)
It's absolutely mental because I am NOT this person, I have typically been staunchly anti-overtime and pro-boundaries with work, but I think it's the underlying paranoia that come with this job that, should the worst happen to a client, there will be a serious case review and a finger of blame will be pointed at professionals. So I think that fear is making me act in ways I normally wouldn't at work. It's also frustrating because I'm good at this job, like genuinely an asset and my manager sings my praises about my quality of work… but I'm getting absolutely overloaded.
I had to go off with stress a couple of weeks ago for a week and have had a phased return with no calls to clients, just admin. However I'm back to normal again from this week and I'm experiencing some sort of anxiety and on the edge of panic attacks. I'm also feeling very very low and like there is no point in anything. I was literally doing this job to a high level less than 3 weeks ago and now I feel like I 'lost it'… like my mojo and ability have vanished into thin air.
I'm scared because I just signed a mortgage on my first house ever 2 months ago.
Anyway I know only I can fix this/make a decision on this, but I just wanted to vent with some like-minded people.
TLDR – I'm burned out at work and it's just a vent really