Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Support Group
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) describes a sense of exhaustion and post-exertion malaise, even when you have gotten enough rest and sleep. The disease is characterized by six months of incapacitating fatigue experienced as profound exhaustion and extremely poor stamina, and problems with concentration and short-term memory. The cause is unknown, but it is a...
Hi all
I am really dealing with a dilemma at the moment which is stressing me out.
I have just come off having 6 months off my job. I started increasing my hours 3 weeks ago to Mon-Wed-Fri 10am - 1pm (or 2pm) then the following week only Tuesday 10am to 2pm, this gives me a chance to leave the city and really relax in my dads holiday home.
Anyway since working I have crashed once and had some bad h/aches plus a couple of days of feeling pretty crapy.
Anyway I feel like I am slowly going down hill again but obviously did not want to make any decisions for another 2 weeks, just to be sure it's not just a bad patch, rather, just needing to adjust to using my brain again.
OK so to the real issue. My company took over another company a few months back and now their accounts lady has resigned.
My boss decided that I would be best for the job of learning their processes and taking over.
This really concerns me as what I was meant to be doing was some discreet projects.
Also the lady who does the job now works 25 hours per week and still struggles to get everything done. I'm only planned to work 12 hours per fortnight!
I don't mean to be negative but I am feeling very over-whelmed about taking this responsibility on.
If I was just doing the projects, time limits were relaxed but taking over being in charge of invoicing, time lines are a bit more rigid.
I also do not want to be the only one who can do this job as that leaves me with all the responsibility and pressure.
My stress thermostat is broken and it does not seem to take much for me to feel physically stressed even when I don't feel emotionally stressed. Right now I feel physically and emotionally! I am really wondering if 12-15 hrs per fortnight is worth decline in my quality of life.
p.s my old job has now been given to my temp
I am thinking of asking to share the responsibility with my temp or taking my old job back (which I never agreed to letting go) so that I would be working with a system I have used for over 5 years.
Sorry if this is too long and been a ramble but writing it to you all and your advice means so much to me and such a great help in dealing with all the issues this illness brings.
Thanks in advance!!
I am really dealing with a dilemma at the moment which is stressing me out.
I have just come off having 6 months off my job. I started increasing my hours 3 weeks ago to Mon-Wed-Fri 10am - 1pm (or 2pm) then the following week only Tuesday 10am to 2pm, this gives me a chance to leave the city and really relax in my dads holiday home.
Anyway since working I have crashed once and had some bad h/aches plus a couple of days of feeling pretty crapy.
Anyway I feel like I am slowly going down hill again but obviously did not want to make any decisions for another 2 weeks, just to be sure it's not just a bad patch, rather, just needing to adjust to using my brain again.
OK so to the real issue. My company took over another company a few months back and now their accounts lady has resigned.
My boss decided that I would be best for the job of learning their processes and taking over.
This really concerns me as what I was meant to be doing was some discreet projects.
Also the lady who does the job now works 25 hours per week and still struggles to get everything done. I'm only planned to work 12 hours per fortnight!
I don't mean to be negative but I am feeling very over-whelmed about taking this responsibility on.
If I was just doing the projects, time limits were relaxed but taking over being in charge of invoicing, time lines are a bit more rigid.
I also do not want to be the only one who can do this job as that leaves me with all the responsibility and pressure.
My stress thermostat is broken and it does not seem to take much for me to feel physically stressed even when I don't feel emotionally stressed. Right now I feel physically and emotionally! I am really wondering if 12-15 hrs per fortnight is worth decline in my quality of life.
p.s my old job has now been given to my temp
I am thinking of asking to share the responsibility with my temp or taking my old job back (which I never agreed to letting go) so that I would be working with a system I have used for over 5 years.
Sorry if this is too long and been a ramble but writing it to you all and your advice means so much to me and such a great help in dealing with all the issues this illness brings.
Thanks in advance!!
I definitely feel it would be best for you to be honest with your boss about your limits, if you have a good relationship with her/him. Perhaps the person who took your old job might be thrilled to have the new one you were offered? Sort of a trade?
Also, I'm thinking you are in the UK? (going by the use of the word fortnight) If so, I don't know at all how the disability system works there but here in the US if you ever planned to go for disability you'd want to be very careful how much you do work. And either way, do keep track in a journal of all your crashes, days you go home early or have to call out, etc. It's important as time goes on especially with our faulty memories....
hang in there, and good luck!
I am actually in NZ. I am on a full sickness benefit at the moment which I have been on for over 6 months now, that's when I seriously reduced my hours.
If I can manage my new hours I will reduce my sickness benefit in two weeks. I really wanted to give myself one month to be sure I can cope with the extra hours before telling the government.
Thanks for your great advise.
p.s I have started a journal since I increased my hours.
Thank you for bringing this issue up! I hope you are a little less stressed since you seem to have a "plan of attack" now. Sound like your boss is willing to work with you on this, too, so that's a huge plus.
I've been taking medical leave every couple of weeks now for the last month, in hopes of fighting off a crash myself. I've been covering an additional job since July and they finally hired someone to take over my old responsibilities so I can soon start focusing on the new ones. Unfortunately my apprehensions came to fruition and I got way behind on both job responsibilities. I'm assuming that will be taken into consideration as I'm sure other departments I deal with have noticed.
I am the only Project Manager in my area that does not have a degree, and the new Superintendent is very big on having that piece of paper. when I was offered the job 5 years ago, my 20 years of experience in the industry was good enough in lieu of the formal education. If I had to apply for the job now, I wouldn't even be considered.
I guess my fears are of getting written up since I haven't been keeping up and am taking so much time off. That happened about 4 years ago when I first crashed. It was so stressful. The current Superintendent was a peer at that time and she thought the whole thing was unfair then, so I hope she keeps that in mind! .
This just brings up the whole issue about the lack of understanding of this illness, and what we have to go through to try to deal with life with it. My case isn't as bad as many of you, buy even so the struggle is definitely there.
My