Overwhelm

10 Nov, 2024

I rarely get overwhelmed. I like to think that I actually react best under stress. I enjoy being involved in live stage productions, because everything is on a time schedule, and if you mess up, literally everyone knows.

With that in mind, I typically really like my job. I work in the pickup/delivery department at walmart, which involves a whole lot of “just-in-time” actions. Everything has to be done promptly and swiftly and well. And typically, I thrive in my work.

But today was different. Today was the first day that I’ve really felt overwhelmed at walmart. And I’m still trying to process why that was. Here are a couple factors:

1. I had just come back from a lunch break on which I had fallen asleep and woken up half an hour after I was supposed to be back to work. Nobody actually cared, and I didn’t get in trouble, but it did mean that I didn’t have a good mental transition from sleeping to “go time.”
2. Right after I came back from lunch I was working a different position than I usually do. I was the “prepper,” who is solely responsible for preparing orders as customers arrive for the dispense team to take out. I had only worked this position by myself a few times before, though I was pretty familiar with it, as I had helped others with it in the past.
3. I didn’t know how to ask for help. I think this was the biggest factor. The levels of orders that I was dealing with really were too big for me to handle on my own, and so I should have asked my team lead to assign someone to help out. There’s no shame in that—I just don’t do it very often. I think I like to be the “strong, reliable person” who never needs help. But that’s not true. I need help too.

Eventually I did ask for help. With about 20 minutes left in my shift I asked my TL for assistance, and immediately she had someone who could help. Honestly I wish I had asked way sooner, but I guess that’s a lesson learned: don’t be afraid to ask for help, especially when I’m overwhelmed.

-Jakobus

P.S. the fact that I got overwhelmed today by a bunch of things coming in at once might reflect poorly on m my current top career choice of air traffic controller. That’s the sort of thing that I assume they deal with all day, every day. So if I’m going to succeed in that career, I’m going to have to get way better at this. Not to say that I don’t think I can do it—I can—but it’s just something to keep in mind.