feeling a bit lost

[waitofevidence]

I am in a highly specialist job (don't want to say too much in case I could be identified) but am hating it at the moment. I love my actual role but the organisation I work for and the senior managers are just terrible. Although I am in a senior position with a small team, they are making decisions about the team and the service without including me or my colleague (who is in the same role with another team).

This often means they make decisions without all the relevant information and we have to run around picking up the pieces and putting things right. Our managers are not in the same professional role and don't fully understand what our jobs entail (though they think they do!). They have meetings with us just to tick the "consultation" box but we don't have any influence on decisions.

Posts at my level don't come up often and I recently learned that I was unsucessful at an interview. I think this is partly because I didn't really sell myself and because I am so ground down in this job. I am now wondering if it's because I really am rubbish at my job and they were perceptive enough to see this. My team are great, and supportive of me and they all work hard but senior management never acknowledge this. I do, though but it feels like I treat my own team in a way that I am not treated myself. It is so disheartening. I work in an area that is very stressful, too , one where people often burn out.

What my rambling post is about, is to ask if anyone knows if there is an agency somewhere who could give some advice about retraining. I realise I'm quite old for this but can't see another way out at present. In the past people have just looked at my qualifications and laughed at the thought that I might be considered for a training post or a different job. It doesn't help that there is a lot of competition just to train for my job.

Apologies for the rambling rant!

[Angel786]

Sorry, I don't but feel your pain. Senior management seem to be like that almost everywhere... Is there anyone in senior m you could take for a coffee and chat about how much better you and your team could do if more involved at earlier stages?

[waitofevidence]

Thanks for your reply, Angel. I think they would die of shock if I suggested a coffee. There is one person who might be responsive to this, but they are to some extent bullied by their boss. As you can see it's quite a hierarchical structure so difficult to change things from below. Maybe I should just start saving hard for early retirement!

[GrendelsMum]

I once went on a very good training course on project management, which talked about how to manage your bosses among other things.

One key tip was to find out what your bosses want (i.e. does X want to go home promptly every day? does Y want to build up an impressive list of successes on her portfolio so she can go for a promotion), what makes them look good, and identify who influences them. Then you phrase your needs in terms of how it will help them achieve their key goals. You also get to work influencing the people that influence them - e.g. getting a piece about your project in the company newsletter, or whatever the issue might be. This might be a possible strategy?

[waitofevidence]

Food for thought, Grendelsmum, I could work on that idea. Unfortunately one of the main influences on them is government targets which may involve some creative thinking to influence!

[GrendelsMum]

Well, TBH, the person who was getting this advice (it was a long term training course tailored to individual needs) actually found a new job, but I think it made them feel that they had some kind of plan, and that the problem was a normal one.

What was most helpful was that this particular course also acted as a confidential support group (someone had realised there was potential for stress in the projects, all public sector change management stuff), where you could speak openly about how shit it all was with people who would understand.

[waitofevidence]

Oh that sounds really good, I must look for something similar. Thanks for taking the time to reply.