Career Horror Stories: I’m Completely Buried

“I wonder if they know I’ve been looking at the job ads on LinkedIn. Can they see that?

“See the thing is, if I’m totally honest, I’d love to move into a new job. But I’m just way too far underwater at work to make any moves right now. And I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

“It’s almost like every time I’m able to get a task off my plate, something else pops up and I need to focus on that. Sometimes it seems like they’re doing it deliberately. But it’s not like I can push back on my boss, right? I don’t want to burn any bridges. Besides, if I don’t handle this work, who will?

“Maybe next month when this batch of projects dies down I might be able to carve out a few minutes to get my resume together and really start the search. I could probably make some real headway once things clear up. But I’m completely buried at the moment.

“My friend Anja just switched jobs and from what I can tell, she’s doing really well. New car and everything. Who knows how she found the time to line up a new career? Some people are just lucky I guess. As for me, I’m under so many deadlines I just can’t swing it.

“There was that meeting last month about how they understood that everyone is a little over capacity right now, but that has to be every company that’s like that from time to time. I’m sure they’ll give us a break soon.

“My friends who work in finance work crazy hours, at least I’m not them right? Besides, if I pushed back to my boss and let him know how I really feel about working late all the time, wouldn’t that look bad? I’m pretty sure he would be able to mention that to a new employer. Don’t they check your references all the time nowadays?

“Anyway, I like what I do and I’m good at it. I’m working extremely hard so my boss has to know I’m valuable.

“So why am I being paid so little?

“Fingers crossed that next month I won’t get assigned so many projects. Then I’ll be able to see what else is out there and start making some real progress.”