[Hiraeth]

How did the appraisal go?

A good manager should listen to your concerns and step in to help. If other people are asking you for assistance and dragging you away from the work that your direct manager believes it's most important, you should let him know, and it should be his job to have conversations with those other people and say that you're not available to help them right now, because you have many other deadlines to fulfill. Good managers know how to set boundaries for themselves and their employees. I see it every day in my workplace - there's a lot of deadlines and a lot of tasks, and various team leaders are always negotiating amongst one another for a bit of each other's employees's time. Very often the answer is "I can look into it, but most likely not".

Wise leaders know that overworking people is unhealthy and will lead to burnout. It's not productive, it's short sighted and causes more problems in the long term. If no one up the chain of command at your workplace knows this and lives by it, then it's not a healthy place to work.

You've been working here for a while now. Were there times in the past when things got this hectic? How was it dealt with back then?