I'm feeling a little overwhelmed today. I've been having my good days and my bad days, but today is a bad day. My team at work went from 7 people to 3 people and the 3 people that are left are having to pick up the slack for the entire team. It is really wearing me out and even though I have been extra careful about taking time for myself and making sure I take my breaks...we are going on the 4th week of this mess at work. It is starting to get to me. I feel like I barely have the energy to get through the day, and when I get home, all I want to do is take care of my body by relaxing and letting myself rest; but I can't always do that. Laundry is piling up, I need to vacuum my house, clean the shower/bathtub, scrub down the kitchen for a thorough cleaning and fold the huge pile of clean laundry I have sitting in my room. My husband has been so helpful lately, but I feel like I can't keep up. The longer I wait to do the chores, even with my husband's help, the more there is to do. I'm struggling to keep up with work and home demands. Because of stress at work, my pain has been slowly increasing over the past month. I know when things get better at work, I will start to feel better, but it is difficult to wait for that to happen. I was thinking about using some of my FMLA leave (2-3 days) to rest and help myself feel better, but I know that will only make things worse when I come back to work because there is essentially nobody that can cover my workload while I am gone. I know what I need to do, but what I CAN do and what I NEED to do are conflicting with each other.
Sara, I can sooo relate to what you are saying. I have been feeling a flare coming on for about a week now. Last night it hit me at full force. I could not get out of bed this morning & did not get up unless I had to use the restroom. The exhaustion is far worse than my pain right now. I used FMLA today & will most likely use it again tomorrow. I won’t go to work tomorrow feeling like this, & if I have to use FMLA for another few days until I feel like a human again, then so be it. Work is crazy–but I have already learned that the world won’t end if I am not at work. I can only do so much, whether at work or at home. My house probably looks about like yours, lol. I have to take care of me before I can tackle my house work & my job. I try not to stress over it. One thing is for sure, the housework will be there when I feel more like myself. My job will be there too thanks to FMLA. Sara, yours will be too, hon. Take care of yourself first so that you will be better able to handle the work load at home & on your job. Feel better soon!
HUGS from Deb
HI Sara.. I dont know your business so please excuse me if i am being too personal. Actually what i am about to say can be for anyone and everyone . If you and your family can squeeze it into your budget perhaps hiring some one to help like once a month with all the heavy work. maybe even a teen ager who is looking to make some pocket money. Do all those scrub downs, kitchen , bathroom, dusting , laundry piling up . A teen can get all that done in a few hours and would be a huge help.
Hugs to you all and thank you for the supportive responses. I'm hoping to utilize from FMLA leave very soon, even if only a few days. I applied for a new position at work to reduce stress and move to a different department, but unfortunately, I did not get the job. Good news is that I interviewed perfectly according to the manager that interviewed me, but the other candidate that applied had more years of social work experience than I did. The manager told me, "There is no feedback I can give you to improve because you are a top performer in your area now and you did great on the interview, it simply came down to years of experience". This made me feel good knowing that.
I have considered hiring a cleaning service once a month to help me out a little, but with my husband's and my finances right now, there isn't really room in the budget for that. I appreciate the idea though and it is something I have in the back of my mind and will keep for a future possibility. I will have my annual evaluation soon and should get a small raise so that might be able to go toward getting someone to help me around the house.
I agree that I do need to take care of myself and my job will be here when I get back, thanks to FMLA and the protections it offers.