Feel like I made a career mistake - what next

[MeltedBunion]

I moved into a promotion this year. I am really not enjoying my role at all. I felt stressed when I was one rung lower, but at least all the responsibilities were not just on my head. My manager was an amazing delegator. Now I am the senior manager everything is on my head, the whole sector I work in is basically on fire (healthcare) and nothing productive ever really gets done.

I’m managing to get through every day just good enough - managing every crisis as it happens. But I have no opportunities or time to plan ahead to avoid crisis in the first place. Staff are more motivated than they were before not they are under me, but they are all point and do and need to be told repeatedly what to do all the time or it doesn’t get done. I feel like everyone’s parent and housekeeper repeating myself to try to get them to do their basic jobs. I’ve inherited a rubbish lax ‘structure’ that has no KPI’s, no appraisals and everyone is resistant to change and the directors won’t put any money in, so I have to set up targets and expect them to perform better… for no more money? To embed a new structure in place will take months and months of battles and I am too tired and demotivated to face setting it up.

I feel like I am not leading anyone I’m just managing them like they are my kids. I’m not being innovative or proactive, just reactive. I can’t see it changing either. I write a to do list and never end up doing any of it. It feels like the entire organisation needs an overhaul but how would I ever do this with just me, and no spare time and no budget?

I sometimes feel like I want to run away, work remotely in a team of one forever. Maybe I need a new job.

How long have you been in the new role? Bottom line is if it's making you unhappy then time to move on. You have written quite in depth about all the negatives but haven't listed any positives at all. Did your previous manager feel like you did and that's why they jumped ship?

What are the positives? And what are the quick wins and opportunities?
could you put a business case to hire more people you can delegate management duties too so you can focus on leadership?
you sound like you are doing an amazing job and the right person for the role

If you think the problem is the organisation rather than the industry you could look to move to another employer. If the problem is resourcing and pressures in the industry that’s trickier!

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

Positives - I’ve learnt a lot of new skills and my confidence is much stronger in my decision making now. It’s been a heavy but good learning experience for me. If I walked away I would have so many new skills I never had before! I also have strong working relationships with people and I think they respect me (well I hope!) but I am not friends with people as such, just have a good rapport with them. I love my patients too, I care about them and spend time trying to get the best outcome for people, adapting, changing and listening. I also think I have seen improvements, due to some of our projects, they are just quite small and feel like I still have a mountain to climb.

I am a people person naturally so a lot of my frustration is that I have inherited a lot of bad habits and historical burdens. People in management jobs due to their length of service, not skills. People hired as they fit a demographic not their skill set. People who are working with IT systems who aren’t confident with IT! How I am meant to train a large team of people basic IT skills who don’t want to learn them is incredibly tedious and frustrating.

I have an amazing assistant I cannot fault her, she’s brilliant and I couldn’t do it without her. In all honesty she’s the reason I am still here, I couldn’t do this on my own.

The organisation/sector I work in is on fire like I said, so I am battling many National/government unresolvable issues that I can never tackle on my own. However, the directors are profit driven for themselves and not investing back into the organisation. Not helpful.

However, I would like some small internal wins at least, to make a difference, otherwise what is the point in doing what I do? I am not going to be satisfied with just putting out little fires all day. People work in healthcare to make a difference to peoples lives. To me it just doesn’t feel like I am doing enough.

Sometimes it is just such small things that frustrate me. I set up an out of work project for us all to do together, to benefit everyone (overtime on offer), no one turned up apart from me!

I haven’t been able to secure the staff a pay increase yet despite all my best efforts, so I have an unhappy workforce who I am now trying to motivate to learn new skills.

I’ve been in the role 6 months. My previous manager brought the business out of significant financial difficulties, got bored with the BAU and left.