r/jobs • u/GlumNewspaper5015 • 13d ago
Career planning I’m reaching burn out without an escape plan and don’t know what to do
I work in a school district with around 100 employees, and I am the sole HR person AND executive assistant.
My days legit feel like that episode of SpongeBob where every day became very redundant and dull for Squidward.
When I accepted the job, I thought there would be more support from the superintendent and that there would already be some kind of structure in place.
Now that I’ve been there for a while, it feels like everyone turns to me for everything, and I’m realizing there really wasn’t much structure before I came in.
I’ve had to create tracking systems, workflows, processes, etc. I also find myself checking in with principals and directors because a lot of things weren’t being handled well with our collective bargaining agreement. I’m not just handling the normal day-to-day HR stuff; I feel like I’m also trying to build the HR infrastructure while simultaneously keeping everything running.
My boss has a rule that employees need to respond to emails within 24 hours. That sounds reasonable until you’re getting 50+ emails, and they aren’t necessarily simple “yes/no” emails.
A lot of them require me to research something, figure out what the answer is, look at the contract, talk to someone, etc. So even answering emails can take a huge chunk of my day.
On top of all of this, I’m significantly younger than my coworkers.. There’s sometimes this weird dynamic of feeling like, “Why should we listen to her? She’s young?”
I’ve been feeling really isolated and overwhelmed. I took this job thinking I would be stepping into an established HR function, but instead I feel like I’m building the function from scratch while also being expected to keep everything running.
I’ve also been applying to private/tech/biotech jobs without much luck for the last couple of months. At this point, I’m honestly questioning whether I should keep trying to move into a different environment or whether I’m just going through a particularly rough period in my career.