This Is Not A One-Person Job

So I used to love The Third Department.  It seemed really easy, and all the tasks I learned I seemed to have done pat in no time.  That allows me to sneak in some downtime, and since I'm tucked away at a back corner, I feel as though I can do that without prying eyes.  It was absolute bliss.

Was, because since my co-worker was laid off/fired (or both), and everything fell to the only person now in that department, I could sense that all the work that was easily covered by two people easily overwhelms one.  No wonder why she wanted to take a couple days off.  And so, for yesterday and today, that whole department falls on me.  And, it sucks.

Maybe I was dragging yesterday/Thursday because I had to take my folks to the airport.  Or, I needed to make sure I got to work on time (after doing the McDonald's drive-thru; I thought I would have enough time after dropping my parents off at the airport, but for some goddamn reason I missed the 55 exit and had to take 35WN all the way instead, and that took extra time) because the new tardiness rules kicked in yesterday/Thursday.  Or, I was flummoxed when I was told I now take the seat vacated by my laid-off/fired co-worker. 

Probably all three factors conspired to start me on the wrong foot.  I have a checklist of things I need to do and when, but there was just so much stuff first thing in the morning that I didn't make headway.  Then, the big task with this department dropped on my head like an atomic bomb: Testing samples that came from a different lab.  There is a long list of things to do with each sample, I got more than a half-dozen of them.  They are such a high priority that I am supposed to drop everything and do those stat.  And since there were several of them, that took the majority of my day.

My supervisor had to bail me out by stepping and doing some of the work.  And yet more of these important samples that now have to be sent to other labs pretty much eliminated any chance that I would get to finishing all the things I was supposed to finish.  In fact, I had to leave one sample undone because I was under strict orders from my supervisor to not stay past 6.  I shrugged as I left.  There were messages in the inbox I hadn't even looked at and calls that needed to be made but weren't.  I didn't have the time to get to everything I needed to do before I was told to leave.  That doesn't make me feel any better.

This department is not a one-man job.  It simply isn't.  There was slack when two people shared the load, but it feels as though one person now must do the work of, like, 1 1/2 people.  And so it stands to reason that work will be left over for the next day ... when more work might pile on at the end of that day, and so on and so forth.  Things could snowball so badly that I would be so triggered and snap over the burden I am being told to carry.

I really don't like this.  I got help and the work still wasn't finished.  Am I expected to do everything by myself, especially when I only work there some of the time?  I can't believe my boss thinks that should be the case.  Because if he does ... well, another reason to look for another job!