to be so fed up of feeling like a dumbo at work

[Sarah510]

I'm so tired of being a 'thick' at work. In a new job nearly 4 months now, but my colleague is getting a bit impatient with me. I'm trying my best but the new system I have to learn is so confusing, with jargon, and I don't understand it. She keeps saying 'don't you remember' and I kinda do, but I don't IUKWIM. Am thinking I need to start studying in the evenings or something I don't know what to do. I'm keeping a journal, writing everything down, studying the manual, but I think it's like until you've actually done the tasks a few times even if you read about them, or someone shows you, you don't 'get it' until you remember how to do it yourself. She's a lot younger than me and been here 8 years so is very very fast and knowledgable. I feel like such a dumbo.

Is there a training course your company could send you on? Is what you do now a change from what you did before?

Maybe you are not getting enough “on the job” experience?

You are not a dumbo. Everyone learns differently. I have to do a job to learn it
Can you ask another colleague to help you instead of her ?

Am thinking I need to start studying in the evenings or something

i don't know what your exact role is, but surely that's what everybody does in a new role?

Do you work on your own, why is she on your back all the time? Better be a bit slower than messing up frankly.

It depends on the level of job but I’ve never studied in an evening.

If the knowledge/skill isn’t going in, it suggests to me that the mentor needs to try a different approach - as a previous poster states, everyone has different learning styles. Maybe you need a change of mentor, or learning method (practise one thing over and over, or record the steps on your phone and play back, or visual diagram/flowchart/shadow someone in the same job are a few things you could try.
Anxiety also affects performance!
You WILL get there