New on the job in a time of COVID

[wareagle]

I could retire this summer, and it is growing ever more attractive.

This sentence seems most important.  If retirement is a viable option, you are in a MUCH better position than most for whom walking away, any day, isn't realistic.  Should take a lot of stress off as you move forward and contemplate next steps.  Why not take things day by day?

This is pretty much what I am doing.  Some days I find reasons to consider staying.  More days I feel that retiring is the better option.

I plan on making one more serious attempt to communicate the coming trainwreck to my boss.  I won't succeed in getting hu to change courses, but at least I will feel that I did everything I could to prevent it.

[Vkw10]

  Yet somehow the remaining staff have succumbed to the "do more with less" mandate instead of pointing out that we do less with less.  Hence exhaustion and overwork.

I like the idea of listing out the things people feel they're responsible for, and cutting that down to a manageable level.  I'd like them to identify what they feel essential services are, and nix everything else.

Be explicit with your staff about doing less with less. Tell them flat out that you are worried that they are stretched too thin, that it's impossible to do your best work or to innovate when you're exhausted, and that you need them to help you select the top 3-5 tasks that make your program great, then focus on those tasks and start dropping other tasks. We lost three positions last year, but my staff were reluctant to drop tasks for months. When they started focusing on what makes us great, they gradually began identifying tasks we could stop doing. Good luck!