I need some advice please on dealing with a frustrating situation that’s honestly making me question my capability. After 14 years away, (I was working but part time jobs to fit in around childcare) I’ve just returned to a formal workplace office. I’ve got a solid track record and extensive experience and my last role was as a senior manager. But it was a long time ago and a different sector so a lot of this role is brand new to me, like working in the gas industry when you used to work in water, added on top of that new systems, all meetings on teams, its a lot!
I'm back now as a junior, quite happy not to have the stress of anything more and I like leaving at 5pm and not having to worry about work. Except I am now because of this.
I’ve got a supervisor two grades above me who’s constantly nitpicking my work.
I fully expect to make some mistakes — it's overwhelming being back in an office environment, and there's a lot to get up to speed on. But this feels next level. A few examples:
I get called out for thin minor stuff like one time they saw double spacing between two words in an email.
Sarcastic comments if I get a person's title wrong like ' this person is Head of blah and blah unless you know better than me' WTAF?
If I make the same mistake once, I get called out again, in front of the head of the department, like I’m a kid being reprimanded: " I told you to be more careful."
If an email bounces back, I get an email asking what I did about it and I should double check the addresses. It was one bounced email and I wasn't to know a person left?
Called out for not having the corporate background on a teams call, when nobody else did either!
And worst of all: after my first week, they posted things I hadn’t done correctly in the shared project doc. After one week of training. (And no formal, written process to follow, by the way.)
Oh, and I got a lecture today about how I was sending the wrong emails to a senior manager, even though my email was exactly the same as what everyone else sends!
I’m trying to take it all in stride, but I feel like I'm stuck in a cycle of being publicly criticized for minor stuff that everyone else seems to doing. Am I being too sensitive here, or do I have a legit case of being micromanaged?
How can I handle this? Anyone been in a similar situation? I’m starting to wonder if this is normal or if I’m just getting bad vibes.
Thanks in advance!