AIBU to think my handover should actually be a handover, not me being snapped at?

[Slightlymalted]

Everyone knows the job market is tough at the moment. I’ve read on here and elsewhere that the best way to get ahead is to reach out directly to companies you’re interested in and to lean on your network. I did exactly that at the start of the year and managed to line up some consultancy/advisory work.

It went well, and people at the company were really positive about me. They even said at the time that if there was a vacancy they’d love to have me properly on board. At that stage there wasn’t a role beyond the consultancy bit, so I just carried on.

Then the woman who heads up this area decided to resign. From what I gather she was competent enough, but she didn’t gel with the leadership team and there had been a bit of friction. The company seemed pretty happy about her decision to leave, and to be totally honest, so was I because it opened up this opportunity for me.

So now I’m doing the handover with her, and here’s where I’m struggling. The role is a lot bigger than I thought, she’s been juggling a huge amount. I really want to do well in this position, and I am committed to it, but I’m finding the handover process frustrating.

We’ve already had something like 15 hours of handover sessions. At first she was going through things properly, but now she’s very obviously losing patience. She’s started snapping and when I ask questions, instead of explaining, she just says things like “you just know this” or “you just do.” Which is not helpful when I’m trying to understand how things actually work in practice.

I appreciate she might feel resentful that I’m stepping into her role, but that’s not my fault, and I’m just trying to learn. I’m frustrated because I feel like I’m not being given the best chance to succeed, and I don’t want to start off badly in what should be a really positive step for me.

So, AIBU to expect her to stay professional and actually hand things over properly, regardless of how she feels about me? Would you raise it with the CEO/leadership that the handover isn’t being done properly, or should I just muddle through and piece things together myself?

Fifteen hours is an incredible amount of time for a hand-over. And as for "still being on the payroll" one of the first rules of management is that you never expect any serious work from somebody in their notice period".

you will do your best learning on the job

If you need “proper training and support” to do the job, then are those going to be available? Handover is not training and it’s not a source of support. Is there any other training coming your way when she leaves? Who will you turn to? Are your responsibilities clearly set out and what the company means by those? after that you’ll just have to get on with it.

To be honest, this reads as if you've bitten off more than you can chew. It also sounds as if she knows this and is a bit fed up with babysitting you.

2 people trying to do 1 role where 1 person doesn't know what they're doing and asks a load of questions makes things much harder and take longer than just doing the work yourself.

OP make sure you have looked for yourself as much as possible before asking any questions. People often ask questions about numbers on excel where if they looked at the formula they could easily work it out for themselves, and if you don't know how to use a system become familiar with it as much as possible. That's what your predecessor likely had to do, so it can be frustrating if someone wants their hand held when you're very busy and you didn't get that support yourself.

Reporting her to the CEO will do nothing except make you look difficult and not up to it after so much training, and if it gets back to her she really won't want to help you.

I’m in my late 50s and worked in private and public sector. I have never had a handover in any job I’ve had.
In most cases because the company doesn’t have the luxury of having 2 people paid to do the same role at the same time. Currently work in public sector, and a manager is retiring on our service, they leave next week and their replacement arrives 4 weeks after, it’s very common there is no handover.

Assume you will have a team OP @Slightlymalted ? so sit down with them 121 and find out what they do, their specialisms, their current reporting systems, their actual roles, the regular reporting ‘up’ they have to do.
Then sit down with MD or your CEO ( new boss) and find out their aims and objectives, what they want from you in first 30 / 60 / 90 days etc, then make your own way in the world and make it what you want to do in your own style of approach.

to replicate her daily work so the department output doesn’t suffer during the transition.

It is not realistic to expect no dip in output - the output will suffer. That is always the way with a change of staff. Your managers should know this.

It is not clear how senior this role actually is. You say in your OP "the woman who heads up this area", so most posters here have assumed it is a senior Head of Department type of role, i.e. management.

Yet it sounds like there is a fair amount of daily tasks which require detailed knowledge - so this is not like a management role?

For management, you get zero or minimal handover, but you are not expected to know the details of how junior people actually carry out tasks and work the computer system. You role is to manage, strategize, plan, understand the business and market, do the hard thinking. (Or as @Cinaferna so pithily says "bumble around the office doing nothing, spouting blue sky thinking managerial word salad")

For junior roles, where you have to know every file and every keystroke and get it all absolutely correct, where you are expected to slot in like a new cog to a machine, then yes you should get two or three weeks minimum, maybe more, of detailed step-by-step training.

The third type of role is a technical specialist. You do a small bit of daily procedure (needing down-to-the-keystroke training), but also have a massive amount of background skills and knowledge, e.g. programming languages or engineering or medical knowledge, and your job is to 'create new stuff and solve technical problems'.
This type of role varies hugely depending on how many staff you have in your team under you. Could be none, or a dozen. The more staff under you, the more you should delegate and become 'a manager', but unfortunately many technical specialists fail to delegate (because the stuff they do is their strength and what they enjoy), so the job becomes too big and the management side of their role is under-developed.
If this is the situation you are in, you need to delegate, and lean into becoming a 'manager'.
If there are not enough people to delegate to, then it is a poison chalice. Make the case for recruiting more juniors ASAP.

She IS doing the job she is being paid for. She’s just not going above and beyond to spoon feed you which is more than fair enough. You sound incredibly hard work and if it was me I would go of sick for the remainder of my notice period because the stress you would be causing me would necessitate it.

I also think the 'checking out' on notice period is not acceptable. I've never done this myself and I cannot understand people who do - you are being paid to work, I find it's unbelievable people (senior apparently) just don't bother- where is your self-respect?

In this particular case, the OP’s predecessor’s self-respect probably took quite a hit when, despite being very good at her job, she was actively pushed towards the exit door because her face didn’t fit with senior management. That kind of thing can be pretty damaging.

I left my last job on good terms because I was offered a better opportunity. I wanted to make life as easy as possible for my manager, who had always been great, and my wider team, so I covered as much as possible, as well as finding time for a call with an internal candidate to replace me on my last day.

The job I left 15 years ago? I was virtually forced out by a senior manager who’d taken against me. She invented a role that sat above me (but that actually covered most of my responsibilities) to weaken any potential case for me to claim demotion. Once I resigned I did the absolute bare minimum, because why should I help a) a company that had treated me like shit and b) someone who was happy to take a job knowing I was being pushed out of it?

What industry is this in?

I’ve only seen a few cases where the replacement is in place before the current incumbent leaves. It simply isn’t practical a lot of the time - even if you open a vacancy the day the person resigns, you still need time to process applications, hold interviews etc. before you even consider that the successful candidate will have to work their own notice period. Additionally in some companies it’s not possible to hire someone into a role that’s already full (even if that person is leaving), because the vacancy effectively doesn’t exist yet.

In my case, I was asked back - in a short term non-managerial role after my successor left. (I had retired on a reduced pension and was willing to step in as a classroom teacher for two days a week to help out my former department.)

To my consternation, there was an expectation that I do my non-managerial job plus mentor the temp manager…

There was a certain amount of emotional blackmail involved and I finished up doing more than I should have done in order to avoid the disaster of pupils failing a course through no fault of their own. (The exam board had decided to verify a sample of coursework and the temp had no idea of how to deal with this.)

You needed ChatGPT to craft a response to a comment on MN? Why?

well, I am in a Scandinavian country. I guess we just do things differently. I did wonder about the chaos at some of the British companies but I guess that you just explained that.

A 15 hour handover is ridiculous. Also this lady resigned so frankly the company and your job are not her priority..

It is also a complete red flag that she was expected to do so much on her own.

I would not want to work for a company like this.