I am at my wit's end. And trust me, I am the kind of person who DROPS something if it's not working for me. But I can't stop being a vet. I came to the UK and I want to get UK residency, but with the changes the government wants to implement, I am either 1, 3 or 6 years away, depending on what they decide. And they wont say anything until october. It is excruciating.
Before they announced the possibility of longer routes to settlement, I was already burnt out. A year ago, whenever I had a bad day, I thought ''no worries! Just two more years, you can get settlement and then find another job, or have a break''. Now I can't say that. I don't see the end to this.
I am so tired of working sole charge, of the entitled clients, of the long fully booked days and, when you think you can't do it anymore, someone books an emergency on your admin time. Because fuck the vet, right ? how could I not want to save this animal. What good am I going to do to this poor animal if I am completely exhausted, thinking I'm going to, after I'm done, be shouted at by clients who have been left waiting for 25 minutes?
I have a cat dental scheduled and the owner called asking if they could see the x-rays before the extractions happen, because their husband is a human radiologyst. This dental will happen IN TWO WEEKS, it is currently my day off and I am overthinking it. I do not have anyone in house who is good at dental x-rays and I only had 30min training, so god forbids they are not perfect.
I just don't know how to not overthink, how to claim my own days off as mine, like honestly, THIS DENTAL WILL HAPPEN IN TWO WEEKS AND I'M STRESSING. I don't know what to do. I am literally loosing sleep over how much everything about this job stresses me out and about the immigration situation. I already made a big mistake at work because of the lack of sleep, luckily everything was fine but it could've been worse. And I don't know if I should let my team know, because on one hand I don't want to harm an animal, and on the other hand I don't want them to feel like they can't trust me.
Every comment is appreciated, however please bear in mind:
I can't take a break from the profession. I'm on a visa. If I stop working and leave the country to go home and rest, I will break my continuous residence. So the four years I've been here will be for ''nothing''.
I could change employers - but I have been in this job for 2 years now which gives me a lot of protection against unjustified/unfair firing, which wont happen if I go somewhere new. And my team is excellent, we are just very understaffed. The problems with clients, etc will follow me everywhere - but I will say my team is great at handling those and supporting the vet.
I can't change fields as I wont find a sponsored job. The immigration situation in the UK is very shit right now.
If you read all of this, thank you so much. I don't really know my intentions behind this post, I guess everything is appreciated it.