"Life moves pretty fast"
So of course as soon as I decide to start expressing and documenting my thoughts/feelings/observations/concerns, I find myself too inundated with the distractions of surviving the day-to-day. I haven't really had the time or space to properly ruminate on much lately. Tonight is the first time in a while that I've been able to step back a little and reflect, but even now I'm still feeling pretty overwhelmed with everything happening (or which should be happening but isn't) in my life. This entry isn't what I had in mind when I started this back up, but I'm hoping that just recounting things from the past couple of weeks will help me uncouple them from my headspace.
Two weeks ago things in my immediate life were looking like they might finally be on somewhat of an upswing rather than continuing on the unprecedented downward trend of the past three years. Then an announcement was made at work which started a bit of rumbling within the rank-and-file, but mostly seemed to pass with reluctant acceptance. Unfortunately, one employee was absent due to a conflict with a prior engagement, and when he was informed of the new necessary policies, he threw a tantrum and quit. This happened to coincide with one other employee being off for the entire week for personal reasons, and an additional employee taking a few vacation days (for his sister's wedding out of state). Both the employee that quit and the one taking vacation were tied to the job task that I have been transitioning out of. It is natural and expected that I am to fulfill that role as backup, so while I was expecting to have to cover for the one taking vacation time, I had also been counting on the experience and reliability of the other (who had just quit) to help carry things through smoothly. So while we started the week shorthanded by one, we ended the week effectively shorthanded by four in the store as another employee and I were called upon to cover the P66 business. Add to that other employees being off a day here and there due to prior schedules or unexpected illness and it would have made for a stressful couple of weeks. But then you can also toss in being tasked with some additional duties related to the job task that I'm transitioning into, a deadline for getting the store inventory completed, a substantial inventory relocation/reorganization project, preparations to receive a visit from the VP of the (inter) national corporate office, a steady stream of unusually large factory orders, and one employee in particular being more lazy *and* incompetent than usual, all of the things in my personal life that have been neglected and are coming apart at the seams, plus the miserable climate of South Texas in the summer... and it's just been soul-depleting couple of weeks. Both my body and mind are feeling very distressed right now. I logged about 60 higher-stress-than-usual hours this week and am scheduled for about 50 hours this coming week... At which point I am then supposed to start the substantive training for the new role that I will be taking on in the company. I'm hoping that it will mark a reduction in stress but I'm sure that it won't be an immediate change, as it will likely take some time to settle in to the new responsibilities.
P.S. I seriously hate mosquitos and high humidity. Why am I still living here?