6o find these things at work stressful?

[Pinkneonballoon]

I'm 6 ish months into a job and there are a few things I'm finding stressful. I'm wondering if these feelings are legitimate or I'm being a bit of a baby. It's a non profit small org. I'd rather not say the sector as I know people in my workplace use MN.

One of things is within my role I need others to do things so I can do my bit this isn't ongoing but quarterly and to other dealines through the year. They are always late with the work and it's often incomplete. So I have to chase and clarify. This means I have to work late to meet deadlines and rush. I've tried various way around this including setting dealineds way before I need to submit. Having a regular slot in our staff meeting and making their contributions as easy as possible. This is constant as by the time there are quarterly deadlines plus the evidence for them and other deadlines it's monthly at least I'm working on something like this. If it was less regularly I might be able to cope. But it's one thing like this than another.

Additional things are the staff not doing some evidencing of work as required. So then it's in me to scrabble this together so we can prove our work. Some of this happened before I started, I was aware of this issue and then sent out docs and guide to support this plus had meetings. All side they understood the requirements...

There is money being spent on things without proper processes being followed again despite this being made clear. It's then up to me to make sense of this and justify it to funders or work into the budgets. It's also as far as I'm concerned unethical spending.

I'm finding the situations in themselves stressful as it makes time planning and doing my job hard. But I'm now starting to worry that it's impacting my professional reputation. I work in a sector where people know each other as it's small. The people I'm dealing with now I've worked with on other roles. So if I look shit and incompetent which I feel I do because my organisation isn't following the processes they should.

I'm also not well paid despite being a more senior manager due to the sector. So it's alit for poor pay.

Sorry this is long! I know aibu is brutal but I'm losing perspective in my stress. So just wonder how others might feel about this. I do know that if I find it stressful that's nit good but maybe if others wouldn't then I can look to cope?

Sorry title should obvs be To! Gah!

I've been in similar situations in badly run orgs and my advice is to leave as soon as you can. You can't fix the culture within the org, and they will drag you down.

This stands out as it is potentially serious;
There is money being spent on things without proper processes being followed again despite this being made clear. It's then up to me to make sense of this and justify it to funders or work into the budgets. It's also as far as I'm concerned unethical spending.

I know! This just happened last week, well me realising! Which then makes me feel like I should have been more across things. But it's not part of my role to approve payment. Plus I didn't realise I needed to check people were not doing wild shit!

It then also adds another thing to my to do list yo be across. Because I'm now thinking I need to check our accounting software regular in case there's other payments like this!

But I do think having worked in other places with poor culture you are probably right.

Yes you need to leave

Leave...save your reputation... you'll change nothing.... this is how they work.

I didn't realise I needed to check people were not doing wild shit!

Put this in writing and save a copy to protect yourself - ''managing unethical behaviour is not part of my role.''

Yeah thanks that's good advice. Therrs already am email trail of me basically going wtf are these payments?!!

But also it's the seriousness of this but the lack of anyone thinking it's serious. I emailed about this mid week last week and got an initial reply but no more follow up. I haven't been in the office since. But to me that shows no one else thinks it's serious!

Does your function/department get audited at all? Any chance of using that as leverage?

So it kind of does in that one of our funders asks for sample evidence. Both financial and for the outputs. But not fully audited in the sense of accounting for spending and we do detail spending fully by item.

I don't know if this is too outing but the financial issue was something like giving individuals money for equipment or travel or professional development. As a bursary and the project did have some grants but they were not publicly advertised or open to all. They were literally just given to a few people known to the org.which is not how the money was intend I know the funder would def have expected any financial opportunity to be advertised. It's not loads of money a few thousand.

But it's also unethical. Even if we justify it to say they are people who get or have had support through the org. Which they are it's not transparent to just give some people money and not share the opportunity with others.

It sounds like you have a couple of different issues

Chasing people for things is not unusual. You mentioned you were a manager. If you are their manager then you need to manage them. This could include finding out why they are running behind (maybe they need help prioritizing these quarterly activities), more early interventions-break down the work into smaller pieces and earlier deadlines, and repercussions as a last resort (improvement plans, etc).

This one is more concerning…
As for the the weird spending- new policies, including a wider approval matrix for spending. Failure to follow policy again leading to repercussions.

Is the dysfunction widespread or can it be traced to a few individuals.

Also people saying I should leave. I think I always knew I needed to long or medium term. But do you think this sort of thing is something that needs acting on urgently? I do think the financial thing has made me feel more uncomfortable.

It is an urgent problem but its not currently your responsibility so don't take it on, refuse to handle it.
Leave, get your new job, then think about whistleblowing.

I think you need to look to go elsewhere.

Lateness I detest, people unable to meet reasonable deadlines likewise.

Hmm, this sounds eerily similar to the role I just left - did you replace me?

I'd leave, but whistleblow too. I kept my powder dry, so to speak, and made sure everything had a paper trail.

Presuming you’re a functional manager relying on people not necessarily reporting to you to provide data:

are people not following process because they are ignoring internal procedures (training, job capability, disciplinary), or is it because no internal procedures exist and you’re falling back on what would be general good practice. In which case you have the opportunity, should you wish it, to introduce the necessary procures and turn it around. Make yourself a star.

@thecatsthecats its a newly created role which is probably a bit of the problem. Some of the projects and functiona are new to the organisation.

@nonumbersinthisname i get what you mean and early on I was very set on turning the organisation around and professionalising it! Like I can really show my knowledge here. As it's a mix of needing to put new things in place and existing things being ignored. But clearly in need of a big shake up. However literally every last thing is so hard I'm now feeling burnt out! I'm not sure I've got the energy to keep trying to shake things up. I'm also not sure one person can change the culture.

But it's a good perspective and that's kinda why I'm asking. Am I being a wimp?! Lik doineed to just be a big girl!

But it's a good perspective and that's kinda why I'm asking. Am I being a wimp?! Like do I need to just be a big girl!

when it comes to stress and burn out, only you can answer that one. There is absolutely no shame to say - this task is too much for me to take on with the current levels of buy-in and support in the company.

Have you an agreed big picture of what you’re trying to achieve, or are you fire-fighting? You need some kind of strategy or risk assessment (whatever document gets attention in your organisation) that lays out what the problems are and your recommendations. Eg issue is grants being given not following good practice. This is a problem because process is not followed and we are open to accusations of nepotism or fraud. The solution is …. If we don’t do this, then the consequences will be…

Then use this as a basis for discussion with your management. If they shrug then you have your answer and I’d be running out the door. If they engage with you and are willing to support you in fixing things, then maybe it’s worth finding a way of staying.

@nonumbersinthisname thanks that's a really sensible approach.

Thanks for the various replies I feel less like I'm just making problems!

I always assume management don’t understand the issue are too busy to read a long document, so I use tables, often on a PowerPoint slide. Preferably colour coded with red for the stuff to be fixed NOW yellow for danger and green for all ok. And then as you fix stuff and the colours change from red to yellow to green you can show progress and produce as evidence for a big pay rise at your end of year review.

These all sound like bigger issues within the culture of the organisation than would be expected within your job role. I would certainly raise everything you have said here with someone more senior and document everything. Now that you know you can't ignore it or when the sh** hits the fan one day you do not want to be implicated.

Does your organisation run and review a 'risk log'?

I know it sounds trite, but when I ran major projects, we would go through all risks every fortnight and what we had done/what we had to do to mitigate them as a team.

It sounds like your organisation could use a swift kick up the arse.

I have raised some of the issues they are sympathetic and do agree there are issues. They are trying to support me to address them. But as you can imagine in an organisation that has these issues there are many more issues.

But I think you're right about protecting myself.

I've had a really hard day and I've just found out through doing some reporting iam the lowest paid of the managers and only get paid 300 quid a year more than the other staff who have no line management responsibility and way less stress and responsibility. I think I'm going to quit I'm fucking furious. It feels like a smack in the face after all the other shit.

Looking on the bright side - at least now you know what salary you should be asking for in a new job?

Just include all the spending in the funder reports- if the funder queries it direct them to the Project Manager.