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Crisis of confidence at work

3 replies

Millionairerow · 18/09/2014 21:42

A lot going on. I've been at company for 3.5 years. Want promotion. Undergone acquisition. Thought I was getting somewhere as manager finally said to snr management should get promoted. We acquired another company with oodles of senior folk (directors and snr directors). No where to go at the mo but my projects have gone from getting great feedback to more challenging ones and now I'm coming under criticism from snr folk in the company. The reason is simply overworked, going into an area which is new to me with no real mentoring plus not having my diary cleared to work on the project so I can do it well. I have line management, do business development, have to do all my own admin, have to develop staff, do all the finances to ensure we get paid and have to do LOTS of training to keep up to speed with client requirements. Then I have projects. Loads of them and trying to keep my area of expertise current so I develop myself but the criticism is not helping my confidence. I have 3 small children, work from home and am full time. I got told to scream, which I have! But no one is listening. I don't want my credibility ruined due to being overworked! What do I do? Don't wanna be a whiner but something gotta give!

OP posts:
madamemuddle · 18/09/2014 23:46

If no one is listening to you then you either need to lower your standards or vote with your feet.

Is there anyone out there who is not overworked?!

bbcessex · 19/09/2014 14:54

Wow - sounds like you are extremely overloaded with multiple tasks.

Working from home has its pros and cons - especially with young children. I assume you have childcare, but it's still a drain on your own head space if you are 'around' all the time.

I frequently work from home, and find that in addition to a million hours working week, I'm also the home 'project manager' - I do have childcare, cleaner, gardener etc., but I have to make sure that it all gets some (unlike my DH who works out of the home) and it makes my head explode sometimes.

Workwise, I would check first to see if you really have too much to do in the allotted time, or if you just have too many threads to follow, which can make you feel suffocated when you're finding your feet in a new area. I can sometimes feel overwhelmed if I have a project(s) that needs me to purely focus on it as an intellectual task, because I can never clear the decks of all the other tasks and get on with it..

To look at things objectively, I'd start by creating a weekly work resource plan with you as the sole resource.. Create a matrix of all your current work regular tasks / responsibilities / activities, plus adhoc projects . Putting it down in a spread sheet or similar should give you a view of all the tasks in one space. Allocate approximately time to each tasks and look at how that corresponds with your working weekly hours.

It might show that you should be able to do all the tasks in your allotted time, if you were already experienced in your role, or if it shows that you can't physically accommodate the work in your working hours (regularly), book some time and go through it with your line manager.

Looks like you need to make your management see that by overloading, you're risking becoming ineffective in all areas or taking time off with stress.

Good luck; you must be very capable to have managed so far xxx

bbcessex · 19/09/2014 14:55

sorry for the typos and grammar errors above; too much to do ;-)

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