Kate Adams had been working for the same advertising agency for nine years when the recession began to bite.
Round after round of redundancies put her and her remaining colleagues under increasing pressure, and the hours became unbearable
Some days she would get home at 2am and be back at her desk at 7am. The stress soon started to have an effect. ‘I became a different person as soon I walked through the office doors,’ says Kate, 39.
‘I don’t naturally have a short temper but it got to the stage where the littlest thing would set me off at work. I’d throw my BlackBerry across the office when I got a message I didn’t like, and I cursed constantly.
One day my sister came to see me and said she could hear me swearing down the corridor. She made a joke about it but seemed shocked.
Another day, I found myself yelling at a colleague, who was also a good friend, when he was two minutes late for a meeting. The meeting wasn’t even important. I don’t remember what I shouted but I do remember the look on his face. He was appalled, and I went back to my desk and felt awful. It wasn’t like me but I couldn’t seem to help it — I was just so angry every single day.’
After a year of this, things came to a head. ‘I had what my friends refer to as my “Jerry Maguire moment”,’ says Kate. ‘I was so frustrated I wrote a memo to the managing director, outlining everything that was wrong — the “clueless” heads of departments, the “unchecked egos” — and the dire management that led to some of us working round the clock.