Please can somebody tell me if this is normal for a job or not? I am going mad

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I started a job three months ago, and my manager was working at a different office from two weeks after I joined. Before he left he spent half an hour chatting about a list of vague projects he wanted me to make a start on but with no guidance at all apart from one sentence per project. The projects were all on different things I have no experience of with varying from researching legal documents etc (I don't work in a law firm, rather a marketing agency that wants to break into the legal area) to researching how to run a film festival.

I did initial research but it was all quite vague as I had no idea in what direction to take it, and there were more pressing day to day client needs that I had to attend to. Again there was no guidance with these clients and I feel I have been winging it. Any conversation I grab with my manager is rushed, ten or twenty minutes here or there, and I just get emails fired at me with tasks. It just all seems chaotic and with no structure?

I feel some of the tasks thrown at me have been highly unrealistic, such as a target trying to get 150 new people to sign up to our company newsletter in 3 days, approaching them in person at a summer school, in between the other jobs I was doing that week.

I have got a lot of criticism for my poor research skills into the legal stuff and for my lack of success with the newsletter sign up, but not sure if this is fair or not. Or if I should just get real and suck it up?

This is my first job out of uni (have been succussfully employed in part time jobs all through education) and before uni I spent my early twenties caring for my nan, live in, until she moved in with my aunt. So although I am not a young grad I feel like I might just be being naive and this is what the working world is like??

Sounds like a rubbish manager to me.

no, not normal. Sorry. How big is the company?

Only 8 of us. I never see the MD and my manager is in the office maybe one day a week.

I hate it, but want to make sure I'm not being unrealistic about my expectations. I want a job with more structure, and calmness and clear instructions on what I'm supposed to be doing.

Have you got a job description?
Is there a company protocol for line management and for time management?

Not normal these days but when I was your age I got taken on to do something similar with no experience and no training and my so called manager on holiday for 3 weeks. I sat at a desk looking like a pork chipolata at a Jewish wedding until he came back. He introduced himself and promptly sacked me ! There were no employment laws in that country at that time and I do hope things improve massively for you OP.

I think this is quite normal for small companies - not that it should be, but it is.

Sounds like it is disorganised and confusing.

However, if you can, try to see it as an opportunity. Instead of allowing random projects to be thrown at you, and then failing to achieve the impossible, try to make a realistic set of goals for yourself (from all the things being thrown at you) and say to your boss - this is what I aim to achieve by x date. Eg "yes, I want to work on increasing subscribers to the newsletter but I don't think it's feasible to do it by then, how about I try x, y,z?" Ask for specific help where needed and if he won't help, try and find others who can.

Basically, it sounds like you will have to create your own structure....this can be a real blessing but requires confidence!!

I'd say not normal but not uncommon either to have a crap manager.

Just got to do the best you can, always be polite but stand your ground. The longer you are there the easier it will get to work out what you should be achieving realistically. Always have something to say about what you have been doing, never lie, but make it sound vital.

Unless the company is truly shit and making you miserable, in which case get jobhunting!

Thank you.

I'm not sure I can face staying there. They are all sneering at me in the office because they think I'm thick after manager has been snippy with me and called me out for a meeting.

I just don't feel it's fair, and if there would be better structure in a big company then I think I want to escape and go for something like that.

Whether it is normal or not, and as its a tiny company (and its a marketing agency I would say its possibly normal ish for the sector, although that doesn't necessarily mean that its OK) it doesn't sound like it is the right thing for you, or the right thing for you just now. Maybe with some solid experience under your belt you might be happier in that kind of improvised environment. IME the MD sets the tone of a small organisation and if that's how they want it, how their organisational culture works, you might want to look elsewhere for something that is a better fit for you. But look before you leap.

Can you do emails re each thing? Eg email 1 (or topic 1 of big email):

"News letter
Aim: to get 150 sign ups in xxx weeks
To achieve this I shall do x y z
Does this agree with your expectations/do you have further comments?"

To me it sounds like there is LOADS of scope for using initiative and getting on with things.

Someone on MN said to just go for stuff at work if it's not illegal/if it's a good idea, instead of always asking permission.

If you put everything in an email then a) they can see you've thought about things, b)they will hopefully give clearer guidance once they see the task in black and white and c)you can refer back to the email.

Also - call them out on their shit instructions. Politely but firmly.

It sounds daunting for sure and lacking in direction for someone just out of uni. Having said that, I'd suggest trying to be as confident as possible in putting forward ideas. Perhaps your manager isn't great at providing direction, but would be willing to critique ideas before you implement them.

I do quite well these days, but if I could go back to my graduate self, the one thing I would tell myself is not to be afraid of making mistakes. Everyone does, but by waiting for the 'thing that will definitely work' you can easily be paralysed by indecision and achieve less than you would with a less-than-perfect plan.

It sounds crap, but it's not unusual sadly. If you're going to stay in this job, you're going to have to learn to manage your manager. As others have said, done correctly this can actually be rather good

Learn his preferred communication style and ways of working. Accommodate these as far as you can, as you'll get the best out of him this way. Learn his particular hobbyhorses (it might be that everyone in HR is a wanker, or that the most important thing in life is to sell, sell, sell, or whatever) and play up to these as far as you reasonably can, so he starts seeing you as a like-minded person.

Most importantly (from what you've said), ensure you get much more clarity on your tasking. Don't put up with all this vagueness and wishy-washy crap that leaves you second-guessing what he actually wants you to do. For every task, elicit what he wants, when he wants it, how he wants it done (if he cares) and what resources you can use. From the sound of it he doesn't like going to this level of detail, which actually will work in your favour. After every tasking conversation, follow up with an email to him summing up your discussion, giving the clearest possible account of the task, emphasising any points where you need to ask for more clarity, or are making assumptions because he hasn't given you enough detail. Obviously feel free to weight these in your favour - leave it for him to come back and challenge you and say "no, actually I did want this done in two weeks, not four". Then in future when he tries to pick on you, you can calmly go back with your nice written record of your understanding of the task; you sent this to him so you don't really understand why there has been this confusion? Nine times out of ten, this will shut him up instantly as he either won't have read your email to begin with or he just won't now remember it, and can't remember quite what he said about the task either. If you've got proper contemporary records, it gives you a lot more power.

Finally, try and find a senior sponsor. Ally with someone in a position of power - preferably someone senior to your boss, maybe his manager if you know them - and ensure they are sighted on your experiences of working with him. With any luck they'll realise you're ten times the employee he is, sack him and give you his job

Good luck!

Thank you for all the replies!

I don't know if I want to stay there though, to be honest. Right now I feel so hurt and mad and just want to walk away but I should probably take my time deciding the next move.

Sadly I don't think there's any danger of him being let go and me getting his job as he is the son in law of the MD who is never in the office and has nothing really to do with the company on a day to day level. It's all a bit messy and annoying.

Sounds to me as though he's expecting you to use your own initiative to complete the tasks but you aren't confident enough and feel you need more instruction.

Calmness and work don't happen IME There's the base level of ticking along and daily disruptions and altered priorities as a matter of course.

I'd go with the idea of email follow-ups and I'd also observe the other people, how do they work, if they have the same poor instruction, what do they do to get the job done that you don't?