To think I have fucked up my career

[Corporatedisaster]

Name changed for this.

I started a new job 2 months ago and I’m sat here sobbing because its turned out so badly.

I was brought in to head up a department and take over from an agency who had been doing it. The agency were supposed to take a step backwards and allow me to direct them. But the owner is childhood friends with the owner of the business and they talk all the time, leaving me out of important conversations. Now they have decided 'we must all work as one', yet we are not even in the same building!

Since my first day barely any manager has spent time with me and I have been left to fend for myself. I haven’t been given a laptop or a phone, so my mobile bill has doubled. Other members of the team constantly undermine me and go behind my back doing elements of my job and I feel that I have no control.

The company are in financial difficulty and I am petrified I am going to be made redundant as there seems to much secrecy and game playing. I don’t feel that I have shown I can do a good job as the perimeters for my role are constantly changing.

I am 27 and I feel like I have messed up big time. I have lost all confidence and think I must be terrible at my job.

How can I move forward from this?

[roasted]

Most companies offer employment contracts where the notice period increases upon passing probation. You're still within your probation period and you haven't received a contract, so your notice period currently is statutory only and it's one week in this case. What does this mean? As soon as you find another job, you can get out of there easily and quickly. Great stuff.

I think it's perfectly reasonable to state that you were brought in to head up a department and due to the financial health of the company, you don't have an adequate budget in line with what was promised to deliver the changes you were brought into achieve. I wouldn't focus on the agency undermining you, rather the company financial side.

Make friends with an agent. Your confidence may be shot, but a good agent will spend the time with you to understand your strengths and establish where would be a good fit for your personality. If you don't currently think you're the best employee in the history of the world ever, delegate your own marketing to a professional.

[SandyY2K]

what Sandy says is great but it isn't really worth stating things to HR as mostly they will be on the side of the company and will either try to make you stay or leave.

As a HR professional myself, I disagree.

When employees come to me with these type of issues, I speak to the manager and tell them exactly where their going wrong and how they will have to take the stand in a tribunal and defend their actions.

I have managers saying they want to take staff through capability and I've often said they have nothing to back it up with, so they're getting no support from me, which means they can't do it.

It all depends on your HR people have and the culture of the organisation.

[wowfudge]

I think you can just say the job wasn't as described and it has become clear in the time you have been working there that it isn't going to change despite your best efforts.

[ComputerUserNotTrained]

It's a step down maybe, but if money is an issue you could possibly pick up a temporary Christmas job to tide you over. Rather that than risk your mental health.

[SuperFlyHigh]

Sandy I beg to differ on this case, in the vast majority of organisations where I've worked aside from long term temping in civil service almost always HR are on the side of the employer, at least in a case like this.

Even when I worked for a large accountancy firm with a dedicated HR team who were very good with HR and staff - when I said I'd been "threatened by my boss" (she threatened to sack me like another member of staff) I was told by HR "if you try to take us on you will never win", then offered a capability period where I promptly left as I felt I'd been "set up to fail".

I can give you details of a few cases of friends of mine where HR have by and large been on the side of the employer and NOT the employee. This includes a HR manager working for a London council! Rarely did HR or the union stick up for the employee.

good for you Sandy if you help the employer but in my experience by and large really this is not my experience at all!

[2kids2dogsnosense]

As others have said - get out now!


You may (as another poster pointed out) have a claim for consecutive dismissal), you certainly shouldn't be using your own phone for work - give them a bill for the costs associated. And point out that if they don' give you the equipment, you can't do your job.

As you can't do your job, use our in-work time to look for another one - as it is they are preventing you from doing anything productive, it's not your fault at all.

[liletsthepink]

At 27 you must be competant to have got this job and you also show good awareness of how badly this company are being run. Many people have neither the competence or the intelligence you have shown but they have the confidence to bullshit their way through. You haven't messed up your career in any way as long as you leave this job as soon as you can. Good luck!

[Labyrinthian]

I had a similar job. Was 30, headhunted for it, big management role, got job realised company was a disaster, total financial disaster - I've done the crying and the stress. I decided to stay as long as I could - walked in one day to find a letter on my desk, firing me, they didn't even speak to me, just a letter, no redundancy (which is legal if you are there under 2 years). I was used as a total scapegoat.

What I will say to you is you are dispensible to them, they can get rid of you in the morning.... But play their game. Get your CV out. Start looking and while your looking they can pay you to be there. Its easier to get a job when you have a job so don't resign until you find something. But don't expect them to treat you better, just use each day as a path to the next job then leave.

Wishing you the absolute best of luck

[MaudlinNamechange]

OP - none of this is at all your fault but please be careful about what you say in your next interview. I know you don't plan to "slate" them but I think you are comfortable with a degree of openness that won't reflect well on you at interview - when they don't know you yet.

"No progression opportunity in the role after the description was changed"

Be careful how you say this one. Saying "I thought there was more opportunity for progression than turned out to be the case" sounds fine, but saying "they moved the goalposts" sounds a bit like you're whining about them as an organisation. It might also sound like there might have been opportunities, but you weren't being offered them as you hadn't convinced them by your performance. It's tricky to get the tone right so be careful you don't sound like one of those "everyone is against me and it's always someone else's fault" people.
Can I just say that being discreet and positive is always looked upon well. They might suspect the truth - your previous employer was a shower - and respect you for not bluntly saying so.

"2. Company is in financial difficulty "

A tricky one. Might sound indiscreet; might sound like you weren't succeeding and blaming everyone else.

"3. Existing internal relationships made it impossible to do my role (the agency issue - I found out late yesterday that their is a silent partner investing in both businesses - hence they will never end this relationship despite, in my opinion, the agencies incompetence)."

Again, this is the basic truth - you were misled about the job and set up to fail - but don't say it! This sounds indignant, critical, and a bit self righteous.

I interview and for me is a real red flag when people come into interviews full of criticisms of others. Even when I know that the person is leaving because their boss is a twat (because I have personal knowledge of that boss and know they're a twat) I respect them far more when they don't come in all full of indignation and bitterness about being expected to work for a fool and no one recognising their genius. At work, when people share out credit for successes and take responsbility for fuck-ups, they all go up in my estimation.


This is a real learning experience for you. It's horrible but look at it in terms of how you can evolve as a person. It was a massive step change in my career development when I stopped thinking about justice and righting wrongs against me and making sure people knew I was right; and started thinking about to get out unscathed and manage nasty people without getting drawn into their swirl of acrimony.

I would say something like: "The relationship with the agency was deeper and more long term than I realised, so it was less of a hands on role and more about managing the agency - which is a great job, but not where I want to take my career right now, so I am looking for a job that can take me more back into doing x,y,z directly rather than managing an external team"

(Obviously if that makes sense for your line of work and what you want to be doing!)

[Corporatedisaster]

A long overdue thread update!

So after reading responses on this I registered my CV with a very reputable recruitment agency I have worked with in the past. They were not phased at all by my predicament and sent several job specs to me.

In the meantime I had my three month probation review at work last week. I failed on the grounds of poor performance and they extended my probation by four weeks. My line manager has no experience in my job role and simply doesn't understand how long some tasks take. I was told I need to get more done in the time I have. I literally can't afford not to have a job so have been working 12-14 hour days to meet their expectations.

Later I've been told that my manager had done this as 'a test' to see if I could cope under pressure.

Last week I came into the office to find a guy from the aforementioned agency was now working for the company in a secondment and that I was to report immediately to him. I hadn't been told this privately and instead it went out in a company-wide email which led a lot of colleagues to believe I was being sacked or made redundant.

I took a chance yesterday pm and left early to go to an interview that the recruitment agency had set up. The company was fantastic and so sympathetic to my reasons for wanting to leave after a short time.

This evening I have received a call with a job offer which I have accepted. My current salary plus bonus scheme, more holiday and benefits.

I'm absolutely over the moon and finally feeling the pressure easing off. Thanks so much to everyone that gave advice, I owe it to you

[OpheliaMoo]

Well done!!

[ThePinkOcelot]

Congrats Corporate. Well done!