Nothing makes a job more miserable than a superior who enjoys overworking their team.
However, there is a limit to everything, and when you feel that you are being exploited, it may be time to reevaluate your position. Of course, there will be instances when you are requested to perform some additional tasks and you will be forced to take one for the team.
Most of us already have too much going on outside of work, but not every employee is willing to speak up to management for fear of coming off as unmotivated or lazy.
Additionally, there are situations when a person is just unable to change employment and must instead put up with the environment until a better chance presents itself.
The moral of the tale is that burnout at work stinks, especially if you’ve ever been in a situation like this Reddit user did when her employer “surprise” her with a long list of tasks that needed to be finished in an hour.
Employee revealed a list of activities she was instructed to perform in an hour by posting them online.
“My workplace warns me if I don’t finish all this in an hour I’m fired,” a frustrated online user complained to the r/antiwork community on Reddit about how her employer had given her an hour to do three pages of work or risk being fired. The post has garnered 23.2K upvotes and 3.1K comments debating the issue in less than a day.
If she didn’t complete the three pages of obligations, management threatened to dismiss her.
The entry, kitchen, living room/dining room, bathroom, bedrooms, and balcony all had detailed duties that needed to be completed on the housekeeping list. A “daily special assignment” and unrelated paperwork were among the other tasks.
Some Redditors speculated that the author of the post might be fabricating the entire story because the list’s first item says “housekeeping supervisor’s checklist,” but the woman responded to one of the comments and assured the community that she is, in fact, a cleaner.
Some of the community members expressed their feelings.
There were only about 85 tasks on the list, which made some commenters try to lighten the mood by laughing. Others said that at least the author was given some latitude to “express herself” through the work, as evident from the fact that the very first task appears to have given her the option of sweeping, mopping, or vacuuming.
But u/pandalynn78 was able to identify with the OP’s emotions. The user said they were expected to clean eight units, wash and dry all personal belongings, and clean all communal spaces in a three-story facility. The user had some expertise with cleaning and laundry-related activities in an assisted living home.
Additionally, it was suggested that simply mopping and cleaning the floors takes at least thirty minutes, and that the length of time may vary based on the size of the room. How is it possible for someone to expect their staff to finish such a lengthy list in just one hour when taking the garbage out takes another 30 minutes?
Someone advised the OP to exert herself as little as possible to avoid burning out and added that even if management kept their word and let her go, she could still apply for unemployment and consult a lawyer.
Folks in the comments have plenty of ideas; this Redditor suggested she put the manager on the spot and ask them to show her how all these tasks could be done in the space of 60 minutes.
The author of the post also revealed that she only gets 12 bucks an hour, meaning that she’d get that exact amount for completing the 3-page assignment.
Many people have experienced toxic work environments at least once in their lives. Whether it was a cleaning nightmare like the one this user is currently experiencing, or maybe it was sharing space with coworkers who made life miserable, not everyone is able to stand their ground without having to worry about losing their job.
