The Overwhelmed Manager

Amanda arrived harried, overwhelmed and very stressed out. She’d had not only a difficult day, but a difficult week and a difficult month with considerable overtime hours working on projects she wasn’t really enjoying. It was quickly apparent: Amanda needed help.

Her team was not coping well — one team member was leaving soon as her contract was ending, and another team member seemed very needy and unable to work independently, causing Amanda a lot of extra work. Two other team members were at odds with each other and having frequent petty disagreements. One team member was doing well, but Amanda didn’t want to put all of the important projects on one team member’s shoulders — that didn’t seem fair or right. So Amanda was picking up the slack on what should have been front-line work. Needless to say, she was overwhelmed.