Promotion: when to admit it was a mistake and what to do next?

[Notsogoodhousekeeping]

I accepted a temporary promotion at the start of the year. Went from being part of a team to functionally managing that team, but still being asked to do aspects of my old role. I haven't had time to do any training (not that there's a training plan, just a handover document) because it's been in at the deep end since I started. Emails are building up and the to-do list is getting ever longer while I just seem to work reactively to whichever issue (internal or external) pops up on a given day. Feels like I'm drowning. It's stopping me from sleeping and I am getting more and more anxious.

I have raised a stress report with my manager who advised I take some time off but it's just made me feel worse, because the work just piled up while I was off; there's nobody I can delegate to because they're all busy themselves. On top of this, a team member is challenging my decisions and my confidence is nosediving.

My old role has been backfilled but there are vacancies in the team, although I don't particularly want to go back to that role. For the sake of my mental health I feel like I need to step down as soon as possible. Taking this role was a mistake, but I think they will try to make me stay in the promotion job.

Any advice/experiences welcomed.

Is there extra support and resources they can provide to you to delegate some of your list to? Delegating things also takes time but at least frees up head space.

How long is the “temporary” position meant to last? Will you have a formal review at the end where they can listen to what you need to make it work?

If your old role has been backfilled, why are you still doing some aspects of your old role? Perhaps if you can work out a timescale for the old role to be completely off your desk then you would be able to focus on the new. I’ve seen this loads of times that people are “moved” but actually just have their work doubled because they still have to cover the old work as well.

Thanks for responding. The person backfilling my role hasn't started yet but they won't be given my old work because a) they're in a different geographic area and b) it will take them too long to get up to speed, it's quicker to keep involving me. I have tried to draw a line under my involvement (and my line manager supports this) so that I can focus on my new job but I then get told to attend meetings and respond to work requests by senior managers. It is supposed to be a training position, ie I have space to learn the various aspects, but I don't even have time for our standard mandatory training let alone anything to support me in the new role. If I were completely new to the organisation none of this would be happening, I would have an induction plan.

It's for 12 months but likely to be permanent eventually (at which point they would advertise the job and I would have to apply for it as a permanent role). As things stand, there's no way I would apply for it permanently. I have considered applying for other jobs internally but I think I would be blocked from moving as nobody else applied for this promotion.

So it's technically a secondment at the moment? I would revert to old role if there were vacancies in the team. It's not worth sacrificing your health and wellbeing for. Sounds like it's the role, not you. You've tried it and it's hell. Who wants that?

I do think it takes 6 months to find your feet with job changes. Even in places you already work.

Emails, I try to be inbox zero. At the start of the day go through and drop them into folders for action, read, or I have a filling cabinet divided by subject for things I just need to keep in case I need to refer in the future. It does take time to set up but does help.

I am old school so I still use onenote and have different pages for different projects. You can put emails, notes etc on there. Keep things together. I use it for a to do list and to help prioritise. I have to keep organised little and often.

I block out time in my calendar to work on projects, if I'm really against in. Otherwise the whole day gets filled with teams meetings.

You could block out time for training.

Confidence wise, a certain amount of fake it till you make it? There's not going to be anyone better placed to make decisions than you.

Sorry you're struggling. I'm doing 14hrs with a different team at the mo, and the rest with my old team. The juggle is real. It's been a steep curve and plenty of times I've not known what I'm doing, which is uncomfortable.

I think that six months to find your feet even when you already work there is the problem, @Curlewwoohoo - because I've come up from within the team, I'm being treated like I already know everything, but I don't. It's a good thing in one way, because people think I know what I'm talking about, but it's the sheer volume of work and conflicting priorities that's impossible. I'm actively trying to reduce the number of meetings I'm attending but my calendar this week looks crazy. I have blocked out a whole day tomorrow to attempt to catch up with myself somewhat but one or more of the spinning plates is going to drop soon. Maybe I just need to start letting them fall. I use various work management tools and they help to an extent but then the numbers of tasks on the to-do list just feel overwhelming.

I think I will use my blocked out day tomorrow to start getting myself organised and put some sort of strategy in place. But if it goes on much longer like this, I think you're right @Floopani , it's time to ask to go back.