I Hate The Third Department Now

I used to love it.  It was in a quiet part of the building, I got up to speed on my tasks quickly, and it felt as though the workload was so manageable that I had plenty of downtime to sneak in Internet surfing.  And if there was a buildup of work, or work that was difficult, there was always one person in that two-person department you could rely on for help.

That cushy cushion is gone after my co-worker got laid off/fired (but we don't talk about it).  There is now only one person dedicated each day to The Third Department, and when the person who wasn't fired needs a day off, someone else has to step in and try not to skip a beat.  That was me yesterday/Monday, and that is me today/Tuesday, and seeing how yesterday/Monday went, I fucking hate this goddamn job again.

What basically felt like, oh, a day where you could relax for a quarter of the time with two people now feels like 1 1/2 days of work for one person.  Add to that all the work that seemed to pile up both Sunday and Saturday (which surprises me; someone is supposed to work on at least some of the stuff that goes through that position on Saturdays), and I was behind the eight ball from the moment I stepped in.  And I hate that feeling.  I have a checklist I rely on to make sure all the stuff I absolutely have to do gets done.  And I got frustrated, perhaps visibly so, as the day wore on, more high-priority stuff came in that took precedence over what I was working on at that time, and I saw that I wasn't going to get done with all the stuff I needed to get done.  There were tasks that I was going to do that I didn't get to, and I'm not sure if I'm going to catch hell with my supervisor and/or boss.  If I do, I might snap at them and say that I only have eight hours in a day.

Oh, by the way ... yes, I would stay late in The Fourth Department.  This is different.  For one, I have never had a history of working overtime in The Third Department, so I'm not starting now (well, I stayed 20 minutes late yesterday/Monday because I was waiting for a fax confirmation that never arrived).  Second, I felt, and still feel, pressure that every piece of new work in The Fourth Department has to be worked on that day.  I don't feel that kind of pressure in The Third, and besides, new stuff comes much more frequently in The Third, so if I had to touch every single new form that came my way there, I would regularly stay past ten hours.  Things are so open-ended in The Third that staying late to accrue overtime would raise many, many red flags, much more so than the hell I catch in The Fourth if I stay late.

With that being said, my stress level yesterday/Monday was off the charts, and it blindsided me.  And it didn't help that my co-workers kind of got under my skin.  Nothing I want to type out here, but little comments from them rubbed me the wrong way.  I usually jam my earbuds into my ears to block out the noise, and even though I still had a bad day, encasing myself in my own aural bubble remains the best way for me to work.

Still, after all I've said and tried to do, there were calls I needed to make but didn't, and forms that needed to be filled out but weren't because I didn't know what to do.  And since it's a new day, there's more crap that I need to do.  I am hoping the backlog of work isn't as bad as it was yesterday/Monday, but I think there will enough crap to make today/Tuesday a headache.  And again, who knows what trouble I will get from the mistakes I have inevitably made yesterday/Monday?

The Third Department isn't a one-person job.  The Fourth Department might be, and I surprise myself when I say that, but I have learned enough of it to say I can "handle" it.  Not with The Third, at least not right now.  It is too much, and more days like the one I just had will friggin' break me.