Increasing demands at work and in your personal life may be causing you to feel overwhelmed. This can increase your stress level. The longer you experience high amounts of stress, the greater your chances of experiencing burnout.
To alleviate these feelings of overwhelm, ask your boss for support. Talk with them about the source of your problems and potential solutions. Your boss can work with you to make things more manageable.
Implement these tips to ask your boss for support when you are feeling overwhelmed.
Determine the Source
Consider what is causing you to feel overwhelmed. Think about the reality of your situation and what may be increasing your stress level. Use this information to decide the type of support to request from your boss.
For instance, a coworker may not be contributing as much to the team as you are. If so, you might want to ask your boss to redistribute the workload for increased balance.
Or, your child may be ill and need you at home. In this case, you could ask your boss if you may work from home.
Talk with Your Boss
Set up a time for an in-person discussion with your boss. Let them know what is causing you to feel overwhelmed and how it might be resolved.
You could say, “I am feeling overwhelmed because of ____. This is making me feel like I cannot ____. Because I want to be a productive employee, I would like you to help me ____.”
Remain Honest
Be upfront with your boss. Keep in mind you do not need to share all of the details of your situation if the source of overwhelm is personal or outside the workplace.
For instance, if you have a medical issue, you can leave it at that. However, if the problem is within the workplace, be as specific as possible. This lets your boss support you in solving it.
Make a Specific Request
Talk with your boss about a specific way they can support you. This shows that you thought about the situation and how it can be resolved.
For instance, “I am caring for an ill family member. This makes it difficult to work at the office. I would like to work from home so I can care for my family member while handling my work tasks.”
Or, “I’ve been overwhelmed with the amount of work I have. Delegating some tasks would help.”
Is It Time to Find a New Job?
If finding a new job would alleviate your feelings of overwhelm, partner with ektello to find the right role. Visit our job board today.
