ajcjobs > BlogBreak > Archives > 2006 > October > 12 > Entry
Are you sick of your job?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Are you sick of your job, or is your job making you sick?
A recent Integra survey found that 12 percent of employees have called in sick as a result of stress.
Alice was a paralegal and was off to a great start with her job at a big, slick law firm in Atlanta. She couldn’t wait to get to the office each morning.
Nine months into the job she started getting somewhat lax. Arriving a bit late in the mornings … not quite making the deadlines for reports. From having car trouble to calling in sick, Alice’s enthusiasm had left the building.
The result?? Her job wasn’t getting done. Her coworkers were the first to notice, since they had to roll their sleeves up and take up the slack. Sound familiar?!?
The bosses finally caught on but it wasn’t so simple because she was really sick.
You know the routine … sneezing … coughing … the ‘no-make up’ exhausted look. Dropping hints about headaches and tiredness.
What was the real problem? Alice was getting sick! Her symptoms were real!
Have you been stuck in a job that you hate so much that it is making you sick? Or have you been the person who has to make up for someone else’s absenteeism?
Did you stand by and gripe or make your voice heard? Do you desperately need a lifeline thrown out to you before being forced to go down because of a coworker’s neglect? Or do you have a similar coworker?
Comments
By writer mom
October 16, 2006 04:40 PM | Link to this
For about six months I worked for a small company as a writer. The firm was family-owned and they hired a much younger woman to act as my supervisor. She was determined to make my life hell. She questioned every decision I made, second-guessed everything I wrote and generally made my life utter hell. I started immediately having health problems. My blood pressure went up; my heart would race the moment I got to the office. It was common knowledge I was having health trouble-she did NOT care. She even had the NERVE to call me on the cell one morning while I was at a family funeral. I was at the cemetery on the phone with her defending some insignificant decision or phone call I had made. Then my doctors found some lumps in my thyroid-and they told me they suspected cancer. I waited two weeks for the pathology, all the while taking crap from her. Finally the report came in-no cancer. But I quit anyway, and my blood pressure went down and I no longer had heart problems. Best damn decision I ever made!