Imagine working from home for a non-profit organization during the social distancing days of the pandemic when you and almost everyone else are working from home. Would you be bored stuck at home and eager to work on as many projects as possible, or would you be burnt out from working overtime and want a chance to chill?

In this story, there are only two full-time employees at this specific non-profit organization which include the boss and one actual employee. Everyone else is hourly and part-time or a volunteer. The boss is bored at home and wants to work as much as possible, but the employee already feels overworked and doesn’t want to work anymore overtime.

The employee is wondering what to do about this situation because she’s already buried in work.

Keep reading for all the details.

WIBTA for using the fact that my charity would fail without me as “leverage” to not work more overtime?

I work at a small local nonprofit organization (not healthcare, but we connect people/groups with community funding and legal help/awareness basically).

We have <10 employees. My boss (the leader/founder of the organization) and I are the only ones who work full time on salary.

Everyone else is part-time/hourly or volunteer, so they get paid when they work “overtime,” and volunteers aren’t committed to any set hours.

We are all in our late 20’s and that this is a classic “nonprofit attitude” progressive office where all genuinely feel good about the impact of our work.

She works a lot of overtime.

Our workload ramped up during the pandemic, and now with the protests. This hit at a bad time, because we had already taken on new ambitious projects this year that were going to be a big hurdle.

I’ve worked 60+ hours a week almost every week for the last 3 months.

Everything we do has a detailed plan for how we spend money. These plans arguably take more legwork and effort than actually doing the things.

Because my boss and I are full time we tend to be the ones who work more in flux with new projects.

Her boss has turned into a workaholic.

The whole staff votes on new potential projects.

Usually we are on the same page about big decisions and work well together.

But ever since social distancing, my boss seems to be… bored? and only interested in working.

We keep doing new projects with the reasoning of “Well, we’re all stuck at home, what else would we be doing?” and “Times are tough, so why wouldn’t we want to keep helping people?”

Here’s some more context about OP’s job compared to her boss’s job.

I have mad anxiety about everything going on AND am feeling burnt out/overwhelmed since all I have done is work.

My job involves the paperwork and other tasks that can’t be done by other people or volunteers.

My boss has not had to put in as much overtime because we also have had more volunteers lately.

That + boredom leaves even more time to seek out EVEN MORE new opportunities.

Nobody seems to care that she’s working a lot of overtime.

I love my job, but I don’t love how demanding it has become.

I have complained about my hours but my boss just says “Haha, that’s the nature of this job!”

I even submitted a timecard for my overtime just to show how much extra I have been working already and my boss was IMPRESSED? Not sympathetic?

When I say anything negative explaining my heavy workload at voting time for new projects they all “remind” me of our mission as a charity.

She’s thinking about threatening to quit.

But I know my position is irreplaceable, especially right now.

We have a meeting soon about another new project that will mostly fall on me. I want to tell them all that I personally can’t afford to take on any more work, so if they really want to do it and all the other things we’re doing I’ll have to quit and they can replace me.

But I feel bad using myself as “leverage” against actual potential impact we have in our community when there is so much wrong with the world.

WIBTA for “threatening” to quit if we take on more work?

If I were her, I wouldn’t threaten to quit unless she really means it. It might backfire. It does seem like she’s working an awful lot of overtime though. She sounds burnt out.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who just let clients complain after her boss refused to approve overtime.

Let’s see what Reddit suggests.

Here’s a vote for honesty.

Another person suggests finding a different job.

Burnout is real!

But they’re not paying her for her overtime! She’s on salary!

She needs to be honest with her boss that she’s working 60 hours a week and can’t mentally handle any more work. Just because she’s home all day doesn’t mean she wants to be working all day. If her boss is really that bored, maybe she could take on the new project.

It’s good to know your limits.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who rejects a low contract offer and leaves the company instead.