Aibu to feel upset - work

[ImNotUseless]

My colleagues think I’m useless. We are a team of 10. I won’t go into detail as the industry would be very outing but I’ll try and find a comparison.

Let’s say my job is a bakery. They make all sorts of things. I replied to a role for ‘Victoria sponge expert’ and got the job. I had been trained at ‘the Victoria sponge institute and did a masters in it’. A couple of people there had done short courses there but let’s say I really really know how to make a perfect Victoria sponge but am not that good at much else.

None of the staff ever gets to eat anything made on site. So no one can really taste what anyone else’s food tastes like, but you can obviously see what’s burnt etc.

Even though I was hired to bake Victoria sponges my manager says we have just taken on a contract to supply bread and scones to a local school. We occasionally need cakes for the staff room but it is mostly bread. The cakes I make sell for 30 but the bread is a pound a loaf. The manager says we need all hands on deck to make bread.

So I make bread. However I’m not that good at it. I can make 5 loaves an hour. They are ok. The rest of the team can make 30 an hour, many of them are burnt and shitty but they bung them out. Whoever picks up the phone will make scones or vanilla sponges when asked. I can make 5 sponges an hour. They are the best sponges people have ever tasted. No one on the team gets to taste them. Sometimes they need scones and generally John makes those because John has always made them. Mine are pretty much as good as Johns.

Sometimes they will ask for 100 Victoria Sponges. The whole team will make some. Some will be shitty, some will be perfect but no one can tell which is mine.

The job is next to my house and the hours are perfect for school run the pay is meh. If I went to be a specific Victoria sponge maker elsewhere the pay would be about double but the Victoria sponge making industry does not tend to offer flexi working.

I am quite mousy and quiet. I can only make 5 loaves an hour. I make excellent cakes but no one apart from the boss knows. I know they think I’m lazy/slacker/useless because I can only make 5 loaves an hour. I don’t know what to do.

The bakery is just an example as I don’t want to say my actual job.

I think you need to expand your skills. Can you learn these new skills? It might be that what you are really good at is too niche for your industry. Every job I have ever had has involved a wider range of skills than just one particular and those that I haven't had before, I've had to learn.

You analogy confused me slightly but I think your saying you were hired for one specific role which you are good and but are being asked to other roles which you are not so good at and feel that your colleagues think you are generally useless now which is a shit feeling.

You have 2 options leave which it doesn't seem is what you want/what works best for you or try and improve in the other areas. I would speak to your manager acknowledge the issues see if you can Get training in the areas you need either formally or with colleagues.

Why is it only your boss knows about your cake-making skills? It seems as though this knowledge should be shared with your team. I've known people at work of whom others say 'what does he/she do all day?' and it can be annoying if someone appears not to be contributing to a team; but often that person is doing a great deal and the issue is one of communication because no one knows about it.

Your analogy is confusing but it sounds like you need training to expand your skills. Can you speak to your boss about that?

Sorry but nowadays you need to be multi skilled at least.

Be a writer. I enjoyed reading that. I'm drunk though.

That sounds frustrating. Is it actually a product that you are producing?

Have you talked this through with your manager?

I'm hungry now

I want a Victoria sponge!

Learn to bake bad bread faster?

Ok, find whoever is the best loaf maker on the team and offer to swap sponge making training for loaf making training.

Everyone gets better at their job, win-win.

Id say with the loaves, the emphasis is on quantity, not quality because you have to turnover more to make the money so it's understandable if they say you arr too slow.

With the sponges, you were allowed to be perfectionist because the emphasis was on quality, being at a higher margin.

Solution - just bung them out like everyone else. My job is similar . They tell you they want it a particular way but, really, they want it done as quickly as poss. Learn to play the game

You’ll probably get better at making bread with more practice.

Make sure it’s you who answers the phone and then you’ll get all the Victoria sponge orders.

Email boss and say you have a great idea - you make all Victoria sponges from now on as you are so good at it. But you won’t have time to make bread.

Can you do the equivalent of a charity cake sale and let everyone appreciate your brilliance?

I think this is the most hilarious analogy ever misses point of thread

I really want a Victoria sponge or scone with jam/cream now.... completely missing point of the thread....

Also are you saying everyone can see when you've done something shit but no body can see when you've done something amazing.

If I use another analogy, is it like you are the only one in the team who speaks another language so no-one else knows if you are really fluent in Mandarin or making it up as you go along?

I get it. You're Paul Pogba, an attacking midfielder who is now being asked to play a holding role that you're not very good at.

Chalk it up to experience and move on. You're just not a good fit in this team but will flourish in the right one.

Disquieted1

Brilliant!

If you dont enjoy where you are working it can really impact your life - its a lot of time, especially if you work full time at it. I realise that its really convenient and it must be flexible if you say that other places may not offer flexi working - but unless you look you will never know.

There is nothing wrong with being the quiet type, but just occasionally every mouse needs to roar! Keep those peepers open for any new opportunites that may spring up!

Have you considered talking to your boss about this and explaining how you feel and that you are not happy doing the "loaves" as you feel its not a good use of your skills? it may be with a bit of a chat your boss has a think about whether he/she is making the most of your skills and productivity.

Failing that I would look elsewhere. I know you said its convenient but other places can offer flexi working, even if you have to travel a little or pay for childcare, if you are on the "victoria sponges" and shine out as a talented invididual you may open future opportunities to further your career and earn more, but more importantly, feel happy in your work.

Usually quiet mouses are good workers but find it hard to change to a new place - I wish you the best of luck in whatever you decide, but do some research, practice interviews and put yourself out there for new opportunities, especially if you can let a potential new employer taste that "victoria sponge"!

Hmm, I know a similar case at my work.

Lady had 8 years experience doing X in a big company, but now works at a small one that mainly do Y. She had to move off a client that just did Y because she couldn't do it, and can only be assigned tasks doing X, which the company don't get much of.

Ideally, she'd need to learn Y. You're at a company that mainly bakes bread, so yes you might have been duped when you applied for the job that's not what you thought it was - but unfortunately, you should probably just learn to make bread. Or get another job. Because it's not really a Victoria Sponge company.

You need to practice and get better at loaves. Everyone likes a cake from time to time but most people want bread every day.

I want cake.

You need to develop skills in other areas.

I think I've just cracked what your job is. Are you excellent at writing analogies (Victoria sponge) but rubbish at idioms (Bread). That's it, isn't it?