I work in a health care related (adult foster care) facility that offers 24 hour care to clients. For the past few years I have occupied a position which involves special responsibility regarding monitoring of health care needs and medical documentation and follow up of all kinds. Without having supervisory status, I must monitor also the documentation and follow-up of my colleagues. Our facility is supposed to have two people doing the job I do. When I signed on, there were two of us. The last person resigned almost two years ago and I have been alone since then. The post has been advertised without success to date. To help things along, I have been given focus time, or paper days, twice a week, where I do nothing but catch up on documentation, including tracking and fixing documentation of my colleagues, which may have gone awry. The manager has also weighed in, both hands on working on stuff, and "encouraging" my colleagues to "keep up". (This is a type of group home,and subject to monitoring from several agencies).
About 3 months ago administration changed. My paper days were taken away. When I requested them verbally and in writing, pointing out that I was doing two jobs, I was told that they could do nothing about the fact that the position had not yet been filled. There was also a move on to query me about any overtime I did. Everyday is a struggle, not to keep up (forget about keeping up) but to survive. I believe my new administration does not know how much I have to do. However my failure to convince them to even take a second look is not a good sign. I feel like a rat in a maze. I feel I am becoming adversely physically affected as a result of this chronic stress.
Is this a labor or even a legal issue?