I work in the nonprofit space which I think is an especially challenging environment to manage in because people tend to be much more emotional than in other industries. I used to work in tech and much, much prefer it personality wise.
Today 3/4 of my team are out. Each one of them did not send me an email as I’ve told them multiple times. Instead I’m getting multi-paragraph texts with way, way too much information - they started at 10pm last night and go to 8am this morning. I feel like an asshole when I just respond with “thanks for letting me know, feel better.”
Like, yes, it sucks that your husband is having an emergency (but also safe and routine) gallbladder surgery. I know it’s safe because I’ve had one. Of course you can have time off to take care of him as necessary.
Do I need 5 paragraphs and a full schedule breakdown on how his surgery impacts your childcare? No. Send me the requests. Have a I ever once in 3 years denied or even questioned a single request? No. Do I feel like an asshole when you send me 8 texts in a row and I respond with 2 sentences that make me seem like a cold robot because I have 16 other things I’m handling? Yes.
Other messages include a play by play of someone’s car registration process and an in depth description of how someone’s babysitters sick and today’s a teacher’s professional day. I send something vaguely empathetic and a gentle redirection to just email me but I’m still shocked. I had to be out due an emergency with an elderly parent last week and I sent a one sentence email to my boss.
These are white collar workers - I’m not managing wait staff or bus drivers or whatever where showing up and not missing work will completely derail operations.
I’m applying elsewhere because I can no longer handle the management environment for so many reasons but until then, I need to pretend to care.