A very difficult work situation

[Bakingberry]

I’ve been with my current employer for over two years. In that time I’ve progressed on to other roles and been involved in various projects. I made a permanent move to a new department in Feb. It started off well but as time has gone on it has become apparent that there are important things related to the job I’m not being told about. I spoke with my manager and she has said just to ask other team members. The thing is, when I do ask, I never get the full answer. If I ask different people I get told different things. I feel like it’s got to a stage where they either think I’m incompetent or I’m being a burden asking so many questions.

At first I didn’t take it personal, I just thought they couldn’t be bothered with new people asking questions. The team get on well with my manager and I feel like if I say anything else it will look like I’m complaining about them. But I can’t help but feel it’s getting personal.

I’ve looked into going back to my old department but they just recruited someone new and the department manager was a bit annoyed at me leaving, so going back is not an option.

I ended up being made ‘redundant’ a few years ago because a manager started bulling me in another workplace. It lead to a big bout of depression and even though I didn’t take any time off work they were scared that I was going to be sick or sue them so they let me go.

This current situation is making me feel depressed again. I’m worried that I’ll end up back to how I used to be. The last time I went to the Dr about this they just told me to check to see what support my employer can give me.

I don’t know if I’m looking for advice or just to vent. I’m annoyed because I got on so well in the other teams, I still see many of them socially. I feel like I’m made a silly mistake moving to this new role.

[FanSpamTastic]

What kind of things do you think are being missed out?

Might it be possible to change the way information is provided? Eg if you currently request verbally then could you start requesting by email - or set up a workflow that they have to complete?

Maybe even ask the people involved if they have any suggestions of how to improve information flows?

[Bakingberry]

We work in a very heavily regulated role. It’s not new information that I’m missing out on and they are generally good at communicating updates. The major problem I have is there are a lot of legal processes that we have to follow and there is a lot of background information that I haven’t been given. There isn’t an official ‘how to’ guide, believe me I’ve asked! The nature of the work means that an individual has to make a decision based an investigation. There seems to be an assumption that I should know the correct process for each case, even if it’s an area of the business I’ve had no training in. Recently I was handed a case to work but it turned out it was supposed to be handed over to another area and I was expected to know the contact to send it to which is on a database I don’t even have access to.

I’m coming home exhausted every night because I spend all day stressed.

[TERFragetteCity]

In a situation like this, i'd probably bring it up at a team meeting, and start writing out my own processes to clarify things. This sort of stuff needs to be documented not just on various people's say so.

Eg
contact list
terms of referral for different scenarios
internal chain of command for queries
access for databases, what databases are held and who authorises their use

[Pigpigpig]

You need to meet with your manager and go through the training you need.

[WiseDad]

If it’s regulated then keep notes of the issues just in case..... if they let you go for poor performance you might be able to negotiate a better settlement given the regulator might be interested in your notes. Never does any harm to keep notes in a contentious circumstances.

[Bakingberry]

Thank you all for the support.