Every job has its stresses and strains that mean sometimes the pressure just seems unbearable. I’ve had a couple of weeks where that has been exactly how I’ve felt about things.

One of the things I’ve been involved with has meant I’ve spent much longer than I’d like (and much longer than is healthy) with solicitors and legal teams. It’s a long and sorry tale of woe and fortunately for me all I have had to do is pick up pieces and try to stick them back together. Nonetheless it has made my (working) life a complete misery.

I’ve fretted and worried about it, lost sleep and generally taken the company’s cares onto my own shoulders. It’s so pathetic of me really, I can see that fretting won’t help but I just love my job so much (sad and more importantly SICK but true) that I can’t bear it when things don’t go as planned. Especially something that was, in essence, very well intentioned.

This has been at the expense of poor David, who remarked at the weekend it was nice to see me smile for a change. That depressed me immensely because I have always tried not to take my work woes home with me. I’ve been terribly crabby with him.

Still, I think the worst of the problem is now resolved and I have been hearing from other people what they thought of the issue. My ex-boss, Christine popped in to see me to sympathise and said that anyone who knew how to read between the lines of a letter I’d written would see easily what had happened and would be sympathetic so that cheered me up no end. She said it was a ‘sledgehammer to crack a nut’, which I knew already but it was nice to hear someone else shared my view.

Later, my good buddy Jon (also a client) emailed me to sort out our next meeting and commented on how he’d seen it all as very positive. Phew – thank goodness, my reputation remains unsullied!

Somehow all of this has made me feel very ‘unloved’ at work. That’s not because I expect a lovefest (to quote Gary Becker) from my colleagues, simply that I just get loads of flack for not being committed enough and yet I lose sleep over things regularly and I just don’t think that’s fair.

So, tonight I’ve come home, having spent my journey psyching myself up so I don’t bring the work worries in the door again. The house is really tidy and David has also backed up all my important files onto DVD so I don’t have to fret about losing my precious photos like poor Jill. Why has he done this? Because I commented yesterday about the house not being ‘straight’ and he thought I was criticising him for not doing it. (Because I’ve been so crabby.) Anyway, that wasn’t the case, just so you all know – he is and always has been my hero! But I’m very glad he’s done it anyway.

PS - Ann- I'm so glad you borrowed this book on my recommendation - it's wonderful.....and George dubbleya - go screw yourself - San Francisco is right - not your bigoted ways!