Work advice

[WorkDilemma123]

I've NCed in the off chance that any of my colleagues know my MN username.

Basically, I would like advice if anyone has it on work issues I have at the moment (and if the advice is - get a new job, I'm looking at the moment but need strategies to cope in the meantime).

Towards the end of last I was given a new role (as in, Big Boss came to me and said "you're now also regional head of x. I assumed you'd be fine with it"), in addition to my existing responsibilities. For my existing responsibilities I'm fine - I know what I'm doing, I have a lot of subject matter expertise, whereas the new job I'm not. There was no handover, and there's no one in my office who I can discuss issues with on a day to day basis. The global head was on Mat Leave, and returned a couple of weeks ago. I really admire her, but I totally feel like I am letting her down (and she's based in a different country, so all our contact is phone/email and of course there's no budget for me to go out there and visit). At the same time, the audit team are coming in in a few weeks, and will be focussing on this area as one of their priorities, so needless to say I'm freaking out a bit.

The workload is crazy, and despite asking for asisstance from my line manager, or at least someone who could act as my back-up, I've gotten absolutely nowhere. By comparison, the other two regions have 2 or 3 people doing the same role (whereas I'm on my own, AND I also cover my existing responsibilities).

At the same time, I do not trust Big Boss. I was in line to be promoted last year, but wasn't (had again taken on a lot of additional work, completed a huge high profile project) whereas one of his direct reports (who does less than I do) was. He then said sorry, but I would be compensated financially, and I wasn't. He has frozen out team members he doesn't exactly gel with in the past. He's a very good politician - nothing obvious, but treating people very differently (e.g. expectations on turning up on time - his direct report turns up late all the time, no comment, whereas as soon as anyone else is 1 minute late it's an issue) and taking credit for their work. He was promoted last year, and I suspect that the project I completed contributed to it - once it was completed, he never mentioned it publicly (e.g. in team meetings) but only thanked me via email.

Any advice? I just feel like I'm drowning and any requests for support are completely ignored.

If this was me, I'd be treating the arrival of the Auditors as a godsend.

Theres nothing that speeds up management action like an Audit action to complete.

Start keeping evidence of the areas where you have sought advice and guidance, and where the areas to be addressed are. ime auditors like to be handed the problem instead of having to find it themselves, and if you can provide it in a positive manner (instead of coming across as moaning about lack of resources) you may well find yourself with an ally.

Not much you can do about Big Boss being a dick, other than wait for karma to catch him up.

Thanks squirted. It kind of feels like I'm being set up for failure - I've just had so much thrown at me in such a short space of time.

I've already been notified that I'm one of the people who'll have to meet with audit directly. Big Boss is also someone who prefers the path of least resistance, so even though I've already highlighted some risk areas, he constantly comes back with "no, it's not an issue". But then ultimately if things do go totally tits up it's on his head, not mine.

Prepare a report in advance of the audit and send it to your line manager and the global head.

Include a list of all the issues, the action required and the target date for completion.

Some of the items might include training for you, additional resource, a travel budget to meet with the colleague in a different every 3 months.

This will show that you are capable of identifying what needs to be done and what you need in place to do to achieve it.

I'd also negotiate a pay rise for the additional duties.