Does anyone else just wing it in their job

[Sullyssorryeyes]

I have just recently started a new job in middle management. This is my first management role. Oh. My. god. I feel like I'm drowning. The technology, The meetings about meetings, the putting together ideas about anything and everything.
Did anyone else go through something similar? How did/ did you cope?

TIA

Urgh.

???

@Motnight What the guy said!

Ask if you don’t understand management jargon. You won’t be the only one.
if you don’t understand an instruction repeat it back and clarify exactly what they mean. I do that all the time and I’ve been a manager 15 years!

Ah! I thought that it was a response to my actual post!

@Motnight Haha sorry I should have been more specific! I'm very annoyed on your behalf.

Not management but took my first ever office computer job. No experience whatsoever full training given. I'm in my 40s I like the job but am totally overwhelmed. A few tears and deep breaths in the toilet get me through.

In my last corporate job before I moved into healthcare, I was a senior manager. I reported regularly to the C Suite on my projects and the work my team was doing.

If you think you’re winging it, let me tell you the C Suite are barely taking off. I spent a lot of time explaining fundamental processes that you would expect mediocre white men people at that level to understand.

Your senior management are winging it too!

Yes!!!
I’m not even management but likely will be one day, how tf I would train someone up to do my job I have no idea 😅 I like what someone said above about time wise, it’s still only been a month or so, I’m hoping by 2 years to be the expert they all think I am!!
I’m sure you’re all bossing it really 😀

this sounds very familiar to me!

I think if you have great colleagues around you you will be fine. If you have a toxic boss then the balance tips and it can all feel chaotic and stressful. If you have a good boss who is open to questions and discussion then great - you will settle in and wing it well!

Me too OP! You'll be fine though 🙂Fake it till you make it - that's what my first boss told me when I took a photography job with his studio - I was shitting bricks at my first photography job but it was fine in the end.

I needed to read this today, thank you. Five years as SAHM, then was lucky enough to get back into an interesting job, at a decent level and with great working conditions around the family. Constantly feel like I’m about to be found out and sacked, desperate imposter syndrome! Similar to PP, I was introduced as the ‘XX expert’ at a meeting with SLT last week and wanted to run away screaming. Winging it every single day, but I think overall I’m doing OK. YouTube videos of complicated excel functions are saving my ass too……

Fake it til you make it!

I can tell my manager just wings it. They have no technical knowledge of the job which is frustrating as I then have no one senior to go to when issues arise. They also deflect having to deal with people who specifically ask for management and spout to team what to say and we have to parrot them. Often find myself in situations way above my job remit because they are incapable of dealing with it.

This week has been a rollercoaster. Some moments of clarity and some of pure winging it. So I have made a list of questions for my manager who has no idea about my job role. Every time I ask about processes or something technical I get jargon. What Do management have against basic English?
I am a bit like homer Simpson with a cloud over his head with the monkeys playing tambourines.

Fake it till you make it, you'll be surprised how many people feel like this.

Sounds like you are more capable than your manager - give it a few months you might be running the place

I've been middle management for a few years now and I'm totally winging it. Apparently I'm very good at my job so I must be doing something right!

I am no longer in the workplace but I remember and recognise so much of this .... Just keep going op !!!!

I hope things get better for you OP. I had one job which was a disaster about 20 years ago but not for the reasons you have.

'Winging it' for me describes how I manage in some languages when on holiday abroad!

I think in any fairly senior job being able to wing it a bit is part of the job description.

The difference between a junior role and a senior one (at my gaff anyway) is that junior people essentially work to a template and being good at their jobs basically means following the process to the letter. If you’re doing this you can’t go far wrong.

Senior positions require a bit more creativity and an ability to think on your feet and rewrite the rules if you have to. You can’t just take as read that the tried and tested method will always work and you have to be open to changing it.

To have the capability to actually lead, as opposed to just sticking to the template, you have to have the ability to think on your feet sometimes.

As a PP said I think if you don’t occasionally feel a bit out of your comfort zone you probably aren’t being challenged enough.

Some people are fine just to follow the rules and do it well and every organisation needs people to do this but these are not the people who can lead a company through disruption and difficult situations.

It’s the “feel the fear and do it anyway” mindset. Cliché but true.

I remember my first middle manager job, I was always 'on the tools' prior, and it was a massive change.

Not sure if its industry specific, I was a creative, then leading a team of seven.

I made it my job to protect my team from the rest of the business, positioned myself and the person who stood between them and the other teams and enabled them to do their job brilliantly without having to deal with any nonsense.