How difficult or demanding is your job?

Nearly everyone at my department and I are at a near constant pace. You absolutely never get ahead. If you aren’t constantly droning away at your computer, you will get further and further behind. We are swamped from the second we enter the building until the minute we leave. Everyone is miserable and negative. Nobody ever has anything good to say everyone is stressed the hell out. Our department higher-ups regularly admit that we are overworked and underpaid but nothing ever changes from a policy standpoint due to budget.

We are also constantly putting out large fires and letting the small ones sit to the side until they become big enough fires. I’d love to put out the small fires but there’s never time to address them. There’s no work-life balance. I am constantly behind no matter how much OT I put in. I also make sub 50k a year so there’s that... also, no paid overtime but we are asked to work it.

Is this normal? Is everyone’s job like this? I was in the military for 8 years prior to college so this is my first real civilian employment but my experience has been absolutely terrible. Should I do some looking around? I’ve stuck it out for 2 years, which is what I planned on staying for when I accepted the position.