Anxiety Over Change of Routine/Work

Hey everyone,

I haven't been around in a while as I have been managing my anxiety quite well lately (go me!) but unfortunately today with work things have made me super anxious.

I am a vet tech and work mornings, 8am-11am Monday-Thursday and either 8am-11am or 3pm-6pm on Fridays. This is a casual postion although I have been there for almost a year working the same shifts. On the Friday's I work in the afternoon, I get quite nervous in the mornings. I never sleep well, even though I can sleep in, and when I wake up I always feel a anxious. I try to go about my day and when I finally do go to work I feel OK. Today I was bombarded at work by the other tech asking if we could switch a bunch of our shifts around. She is full-time but got a 2nd, part time job that requires her to work afternoons. So her and my boss, want me to now work Mon,Wed,Thur 3-6pm. The whole thought makes me anxious. I don't like change of routine as it stresses me out. I spoke with my fiance and he said, just say no if you don't want to do it. So I called my boss and said I don't want to. My boss basically said I have no choice and that because I don't have "reason" not to, that she will cut my hours and find someone else to do it. I said I didn't want to be the person who everyone gets mad at because I said no and she said well you will be. I feel really upset about the whole thing because honestly I think I'm a good employee. I have literally never called in sick in the year I have worked there and I always try and accommodate everyone else when they go away on holidays or whatever, even though sometimes it makes me unhappy. I'm afraid now I'm going to lose my job over this, and honestly I will probably end up in a really shitty mental place if I do because I really do love my work.

I haven't told my boss about my anxiety. One day we got on the topic of mental illness and she basically went on and on about how she wouldn't hire someone with a mental illness because they wouldn't be reliable and how they should just get over it etc. (all the usual stigmas). So after that I never mentioned it because I was afraid of her judgement.

Does anyone else hate change in their routine? How do you deal with it? Thanks for reading, any other comments or suggestions welcome.

Hi Sarbear :)

Your boss doesn't sound very nice but in my experience they never are, plus it's totally an employers' market these days. Those hours sound manageable though.. I'd actually prefer those to the ones you have now. No anxious types like change (noone does really) but I'm sure you'll adapt pretty quickly.

Do you have a therapist or anyone you can talk to about your anxiety?

All the best,
Gypsy x

Look I understand, I hate change too! However, your boss isn't really more of an asshole than anybody else. Usually bosses do get to set your schedule as they see fit. You can't expect your job to accommodate your anxiety.. And really why would you want it to? That would be letting the anxiety call the shots in your life.