How can I carry on as a store team leader now it is beyond stressful?

‘Staffing levels have got lower and lower, so we are run ragged and told we need to make sure customer surveys come back glowing.’ Photograph: Dave and Les Jacobs/Getty Images/Blend Images

Twice a week we publish problems that will feature in a forthcoming Dear Jeremy advice column in the Saturday Guardian so that readers can offer their own advice and suggestions. We then print the best of your comments alongside Jeremy’s own insights.

I have worked as a team leader in a store for six years for a large retail company. In the past six months the job we are expected to do is getting beyond stressful. In addition to my job – that is, head of several departments and taking care of deliveries, merchandising, setting up sales, refits, daily recovery of departments and dealing with colleagues’ problems, we now also have to become duty managers.

This means that on one or two days every week we have to take care of the entire store after 5pm until closing time as managers go home. We are responsible for taking off tills and cashing up the safes. We then have to take care of security and deal with any mishaps that occur on our shift, and secure and lock up the stores at 9pm, but this can sometimes be much later.

When the living wage went up, we had a pay rise but we also lost any double pay for bank holidays. We only get a 30-minute break (which is constantly disturbed with inquiries from other members of staff), so really there’s no time to ourselves. Staffing levels have got lower and lower, so we are run ragged and told on almost a daily basis that we need to make sure the customer surveys come back glowing.

I am questioning whether I can continue with so much pressure put upon us team leaders with so little remuneration.

Do you need advice on a work issue? For Jeremy’s and readers’ help, send a brief email to dear.jeremy@theguardian.com. Please note that he is unable to answer questions of a legal nature or to reply personally.