Hi Ava,

Hope you are keeping strong. In a business environment perhaps you need to think a little more strategically. Asking key questions like – Why are you still there, What is in it for you and where will it take you? Often you can handle the heat a little better once you have clarified this.

Prospect: Think about the benefits, if you do stay. You say you are learning a lot. Is this useful (or useless) for your CV? Perhaps you want to stay longer with the aim to learn more and then find another/better position in the same/other company? Is there room for growth, a raise or both? What (evidence or experience) is required to move on to other jobs or get a raise? Once you have thought about this or have questions, telling your bosses what you desire or expect can help, if you reckon they are considerate. In this way the conversation is ‘less emotional’ but more performance oriented, which they might prefer.

Perhaps you even want to set a time-scale or review milestone for when you might want to make a change in working life. When identifying what you want out of the current situation and for how long, it therefore becomes a conscious decision about why you choose this for yourself and the family, rather than something that is just ‘happening to you’. Herein, the impact on family life will also be ‘agreed’ instead of unexpected.

Workload – I don’t know your line of work, so the following could be useless advice 🙂 if you are a perfectionist and care about the work/people. Seek opportunities when you can produce ‘just good enough’. This means you will spend less time ‘perfecting’ when the ‘sheen’ is ‘nice to have’ and not required, of course still maintain the best level of accuracy. Abstracted, a similar approach can be applied with choosing how you emotionally invest in your co-workers to save your energy in general and for family.

Cheers