What happens when there's not enough people to work in the office?

What happens when there's not enough people at work or in the office to share the workload?
When I was in Dell as a 1st level tech support I'd pick up the slack left off by my colleagues. I could take up to 70 calls a day working 12 hours a day. Luckily my boss appreciated my "sacrifices" at that time and I was dearly rewarded. Just so yo know my colleagues only took 25 calls a day and I did double almost triple =P
Things got easier when I was a team leader. Well sort of anyway. Why? Coz I did not have to share my work with anyone nor did anyone shared their work with me. All I needed to do was to take care of my people, make sure they work as they are required to meet their metrics and just some paperwork or reporting. It was easy in some terms but it was very very very hard trying to understand certain people and help them harness their skills to their advantage and improve on the things they were weak on. Every single word spoken must be thought through first or else you're gonna hurt his feelings! Lets say I enjoyed it yet I hated it!
Now I'm landed in the same position again. I averaged 30-35 tickets per week compared to my colleagues who do 18 or so tickets. Again double!?!?!? Why must I always be working harder then everyone else? WHY??? Can't my boss hire more people? Can't my boss manage the other guys and get them to work better? I always asked this question when I interviewed people, "If your colleague is not performing, how would you as a colleague, help your friend perform better?". Now I'm asking myself this, "How can I help the WHOLE TEAM, perform better?", so that I don't freaking do so much work and burn myself out eventually. Hmm... any ideas guys?