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Job Hazards-- When You Love Your Career but Not the Increasing Unhealthy Parts
I am in the legal profession and a year out of the last 10 that was relatively bearable demand. Because of my ADHD, I thrive in fast paced, complex, think out of the box, get it done work like th ER :) Problem is recently I have had to go back to the unbearable schedule after a year "off" with an assistant or two, now it's high demand and no assistant at this time. Also, I have no time to train anyone other than to do clean up office work as I right now have 100 active cases with at least 50 tasks on each. Yes, it's busy, but I am starting to realize this may not be the right job for me, the career is excellent as I cover about 10 areas of law and it is exciting, giving me great personal growth and opportunities all around the world.
My problem is handling the small stuff, the emails, case management, follow up memos, review, review, review. I can work 40 hours a week on the core needs and what I excel at. The other 20 is the misc. admin items that now I had to take over again (for corporate reasons) and I can't hand it off to a temp or part time admin as it is very complex and too time consuming for me to watch over. Sad to say, better if I do it myself but not for my stress levels, anxiety, and insomnia.
On top of it, my boss is overly unavailable or completely a maniac working 100 hours a week and he has no sense of organization or planning at all -- he is amazing at what he does but he doesnt know how to manage staff just bark orders and dissapear.
My plan is to become a consultant to some companies and take what I can handle and have my own support staff and my own policies to answer to. This I am sure will be a good start if not an answer to using my talents and interests while managing what I am not good at with other resources I need such as an assistant and so on.
So #1 I am thinking I need a coach ASAP, I already see a therapist weekly for my ADHD & busy life. I need a coach I think to help me focus on what will work for me, let me put it into effect, and remind me of what worked didnt work so I dont forget or feel like I am treading water or even guilty that I just can't do it on my own. My self esteem goes down when I just can't do it all and I face reality that I am not a robot with endless 24/7 energy. I know in my heart I give it my all but I need direction on what's normal, healthy, and the expert guidance from an outside professional.
#2 I've met with my boss two or three times of late, I made it clear to him I won't go back to the old schedule in crazyville law 24/7 and he has be trying to make himself availble by adding time in his schedule weekly for me, it's a start. I'm guessing I can, at most deal with the situation for 6 months but any longer, I'll need to leave, focus on my child (I am a single mom too), clean up my house finally and for work, become a consultant, take a part time gig, get my MS International Operations, return to my writer roots or some combo of those items and a seriously break from working the last decade.
So I knew where to go, HERE, thank God I found this site a few months back... the newsletters kept triggering the thought to connect with other ADHD Adults struggling like I do. PLEASE PLEASE if you have any advice to assist me in this phase, I would so appreciate it, someone who knows what I am going through or has been here themselves would be a lifesaver.
Thank you in advance!
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