To leave new senior management role because life is too short

[Guccidowntothesocks]

I started a new job in senior management for a private company two weeks ago. Previously held a similar position in the public sector for many years and accepted this opportunity because of the significant pay rise on offer. I absolutely hate it. Thrown straight in at the deep end with huge responsibility and no support or training whatsoever. Since my first day I’ve been absolutely bombarded with an unmanageable amount of work to do. In addition to the volume, the work is far more complex than I’m used to and I can only conclude that I’m not as competent/experienced as I thought I was in the field. My manager is based at the other end of the country so I have no direct support. The management colleagues I sit with in the office have not been at all welcoming, so spend most of my day in silence, which feels very isolating.

I realise now that I have made a terrible mistake leaving my previous role, which was stress free, I was good at it and I worked with lovely bunch of people. I now spend my working days feeling anxious each time yet another email comes in to my inbox. With each day that goes by I seem to be receiving more and more work through and not only is there far too much to manage, it feels beyond my level of capability. I have barely slept over the last two weeks worrying about the expectations of my role and the volume and complexity of work. I left the office at the end of the day today in tears and have reached the point where I don’t feel I can continue.

WIBU to leave straight away so that I can miss this off of my CV, start job hunting again and just put it down to a lesson learnt? DH is insisting that to leave after such a short time without at least finding another job first would be career sabotage, but I’m not sure I can stay long enough to find another job, in fact I can barely bring myself to go in tomorrow

Any advice/opinions would be gratefully received.

Sounds like my current public sector job workload wise! I'd try and go back though as a low stress public sector management job is like gold dust these days. With any luck they won't have recruited yet as it takes so long to sort things out in the public sector. Going back into Public Sector you can just say you quickly realised private sector ethos wasn't for you.
I left a job after several months at the start of my career and did the same - I have to CV it but it's never held me back in the public sector.

I've never regretted leaving a job, but I've sure as hell regretted not leaving sooner.

I left a job after 6 weeks and went back to my old one. It was 2 jobs ago now so I just leave it out of my CV completely.

private/public jobs night and day private companies want there pound of flesh and TBH thats why you are paid more .
2 weeks in is early days problem is you could probperly do your previous job with your eyes shut and 1 arm behind your back.
Don't think it's fair to dump all finical responsibility on your DH and doesn't look good to leave a job after few weeks.
I would be VERY reluctant to leave it off a CV as these thing can catch up with you . One guy at my work was sacked months later because they found out he'd missed something off his CV.

I've done it the other way round - moved from a 16 year private sector career to public sector. I've never had such a culture shock in my life - everything moved glacier-slow, no one took responsibility for anything, people spent most of their time in meetings and committees and most roles had two or three people covering work that one person could have easily covered. I worked with about 300 people and can say hand on heart that there were probably only 7 people in the whole building that weren't actually acting like they were 'retired in post'. I hated it, and although I stuck it out for a couple of years, in the end I left and went back to private sector. Obviously this is only my own personal experience and not indicative of all public sector, but it was definitely how it was in Primary Care Trust land, anyway!

I wonder whether going back to public sector and the slower pace therein might be better for you. Life is far too short to be miserable at work!! And a gap of a couple of weeks on your cv won't be anything that anyone will question. I wish you luck.

Apart from it being middle rather than senior management, I could have written this post. Been in the role a monthband cry most mornings before work.

I have applied for an internal move and sitting down with my managers manager today. Feeling stupid and on edge everyday is so hard.

I think you should leave if you can afford it.

If you are a senior manager do you not have staff that you can work with to get through the tasks coming in and also to request that they talk you through what they are doing, projects etc and then peers that you can arrange time with to understand the company more?

2 weeks is not remotely long enough to decide whether the job is right for you or not.

It sounds like you got used to your previous "in your comfort zone" job, and now you're out of your comfort zone you have panicked.

Your employers presumably thought you were up to the job.
Go in tomorrow / today with a plan to what you are going to do to change things. If the volume of work is too high, then there might well be the expectation that you don't get through it all.

Be pro-active. Talk to your manager. Set up meetings with your colleagues to get to know them. I think you have to give the job a proper go - or you might always find the same issues with any new job.

Can you ask for your old job back?

Give yourself some time OP, the job is different, it will take some adjusting. Two weeks is not long enough to decide.

If you decide it’s completely unworkable and leave, personally I would add it to your CV as your P45 will state your last employer, it may lead to complications otherwise.

I hope it gets easier, speak to your manager without delay. Good luck.

I've done this, for my first management role a couple of years ago. I absolutely hated it. Like you, my superior didn't offer any training or support and then all my ideas were rejected. Even simple things like using a proper ticketing system and now allowing clients to call before our starting time . . ! I left after 2 weeks, got a new job fairly quickly and am now again in another management role but which is much more suited to our needs as a family. I also have felt very supported by senior management (directors of the company) since day 1. They make getting in touch with them and providing feedback extremely accessible.

I have never put that job on my CV, I just say I was taking time out to spend with family before looking for a new role. It hasn't adversely affected my career.

You can get the feel of a company in a couple of weeks, in my opinion. If people aren't willing to take the time for you in the first few weeks, then that says a lot about the company's culture, and not in a good way.

I think your DH is right. Two weeks is too soon to chuck it in. You need to be proactive in this, in asking for support and whatever extra training you think you need. If this isn’t forthcoming or if you still can’t cope after getting what you ask for, then think about standing down after 2/3 months.
Don’t expect too much of yourself, you are still very new in the role. I’m sure they aren’t expecting you to behave like a seasoned expert at this stage. They know you will be getting a feel for things and finding your way around. It might be that they are aware the workload is too much for one person and are expecting you to be making the changes necessary to spread the load. Or perhaps,they don’t know it’s too much and you need to explain it to them. Whatever, you need to speak up, as a senior person you need to show some initiative.
Try not to panic about this too much. Finding your feet in a new job is always hard. It takes time to put down roots, learn the culture and get to to know people. Hopefully in a few months time you will look back on this as a steep but useful learning curve.

I've been where you are OP and I did leave, I was totally out of my depth and felt like I couldn't handle it. I dobt regret leaving as such but looking back I wish I'd not bolted at the first hurdle and tried to get into the role, it was 10 years ago now and when I think of how much better of financially we would have been, had I stayed, it makes me feel a bit sick. I left a senior management role and went into an entry level reception type role and whilst I had a stress free job (I've slowly worked my way back up now), the money I lost meant we really struggled at times and I'll always feel guilty about it. If money isn't and wont be an issue this may not apply to you but I guess I'm saying think long and hard about whether you could try to salvage this before making any eash decisions. Good luck OP, it's a horrible situation to be in.

don't off *rash need an edit button!

It's been 2 weeks. You need to give it some time.

I agree that there's a huge difference in working in the public and private sectors. I've worked in both, and now work in private but volunteer in public. I get so frustrated at how slowly things happen when there are no shareholders involved demanding a return in their investment!

I'd stick in our for a few months at least, and ask for training. It takes a good 6 months to really understand a new job and to start giving your employer his money's worth.

If you are sure, you should leave now, you can simply state in any future interview that the role was not as described and you weren’t happy to tolerate the culture.

If you stay for six months, it will look like you can’t cope. Take clear and decisive action.

Plus it’s not helping your frame of mind, which you need to be positive, to find another job.

I've been in a similar situation. I stuck it out for nine months before quitting. I only then found out that I had lasted longer than the four previous incumbents in the role!
Some jobs are just toxic. Some environments are just toxic. Find out why they could not find an internal recruit for the role (you may be getting kickback from internals who applied but didn't get it. They will undermine you and make your life hell) and why the previous incumbent left.