All i can say is hang in there. Can u call off one of those days? I'll get through it.

I've texted all the girls from work trying to get someone to take a couple of those shifts.. just crossing my fingers that they will... and really hoping that when I go to work tonight my boss hasn't put up the next schedule and still has the availability sheet up so I can X off a shit load of time... .

Can you get a letter from your Dr. to say you need to have a few days off for stress / health related reasons? They may be able to help that way.

That may be possible. If I can't get some of my shifts covered, that will be my next recourse.

I will also be speaking with my prof for the class with the 25 pager, because he had handed our paper proposals back about a week late and he had said that he may consider giving individual students an extension if we come talk to him and describe the situation we are in. He seems like a very accommodating man, so I have the feeling he may give me an extra couple days if I talk to him and explain my financial, work, and transportation situation (I rely on transit so a good hour and a half of my day is eaten up going back and forth to school and every time I work at least 2.5 to 3 hours)

can't you just tell him you asked for 2 nights only and can not do half of those shifts? explain the school load and see if that helps. he is a human being, right?

the doctors note is a good idea, one the boss cant just blow off either.

also if you get that, show it to your professors, i would go talk to all of them. focus on your health matters more than financial or other factors. sometimes instructors can be hard, when it comes to assignments, but fighting illness is a much more a valid reason to some than working to much or being over stretched from both. you know how some of the pompous types can be.

i know how it is to have to much like that. but after speaking with your profs, you need to plan your homework time, prioritizing and then working on only that one assignment till its done. ive been to graduate school, went straight through summers and all and worked at least part time too, so i understand the boat you are in now. if worst comes to worst, and you wouldnt finish, some profs used to give incompletes for the course, rather than a bad grade, that way the student had time to finish what needed to be done. as a last resort that may also be a possibility. but just go chat with them all first. the docs note would be a good bit of help, try to get that first. good luck

Tell your boss to go f*** himself.

KIDDING ONLY!!!!!!!! The Bear has put me in this mood. Sorry.

Think outside the box, you'll figure it out.

I think venting was a good place to start and the list of actions you've come up with to tackle the situation and relieve your stress is great. I know it's hard - that's how I ended up in such a huge rut recently, but you're doing the right thing by being proactive. Try not to think of the worst case for all of these things at once because it is overwhelming and even more stressful. Try to focus on what you can do and just take off the bite-sized pieces. Good luck. Kudos for trying to fix it before it becomes a train wreck. Huge hugs.

Thanks everyone for the support and the advice.

I`m feeling a little more calmed down now.

It`s definitely not a good idea to be thinking about all of this stuff at once. I totally agree that I need to worry about one thing at a time. I`ve gone through my planner and set specific goals to be reached each day for the next month and as long as I stick to that plan I should be able to get everything done. It will be crazy, and I will probably be completely exhausted by the time December rolls around, but I think I can do this.

I am going to try to take a week off work not this coming week (cuz the schedule is already up) but next week, and then again the week before those final two papers are due I will try to take a week or at least a good 3-4 days straight off.

That's great and thinking ahead to taking time off is really smart. Despite how much you need to get done, if you don't take time for yourself, you won't be able to get those things done in an effective way. And remember, you have the list, but you have to be flexible with yourself. Don't beat yourself up if things go a little off. You can get through it. Bite-sized pieces.

Good luck!

I sooo feel your pain. I'm currently in grad school and working full time at a stressful job. I'm in a profession where I'm supposed to be helping people although I've decided after today that I hate everybody. I'm so kidding (well, kind of..rough week). Until this week, I had a billion papers due and a billion tests in all of my classes. I wasn't sleeping. In three days, I averaged maybe about five hours of sleep total. As you know, it's extremely damaging to your mental and physical health. It sounds like you have a good plan set for yourself though. If you could possibly take off from work, I think that you definitely should for the sake of your sanity. Good luck!!! :)

Soo apparently one of the girls I had texted yesterday while trying to get some of my shifts covered told my boss (before I got to work last night) that I really can't be working that much and explained to him how difficult things were getting for me (she is also a friend, not just a coworker though we met at work) and when I got to work he surprised me by having changed the schedule.

I walked into work and he walks over to me with a big scowl on his face and says "you and me need to talk" I was like oh shit I'm in trouble! So as we're walking to the back he's like "do ya love me?" with a sneaky smile and I'm like "well that depends what we're about to talk about I guess!" He takes me to the back, pulls down the schedule, puts it in front of me to look at and says "now don't say I never did anything for you!" I was like ooohhh thank god!! He had taken off 3 of my 6 shifts for next week, and the ones I had most wanted to get rid of!! Now I only have to work wednesday night (which will be a short little shift cuz we're not busy during the week), Friday night and Saturday morning! I wil be done by 2 on Saturday and have all of Sunday off now!!!

I know in the original post it sounded like I have a really shitty boss.. but he's actually a really good person.. he just doesn't use his brain sometimes when he makes the schedule so it gets really frustrating. I've asked him sooo many times now to drop me down to 2 - 3 shifts a week and he keeps forgetting about it! Buuut, he really does care and tries his best to keep us all happy, he's just forgetful. But he makes up for it by doing things like what he did yesterday.. and when one of us has plans after work or things he have to do he will make sure we're the first one cut or whatever, and never questions us if we call in sick (unless it's ALL the time)... really good boss.