Brace yourself for a long one!
I started a new job last month as a manager, in a field I used to work as a supervisor in for a different company for 3 years where I knew the job inside out. I enjoyed supervising and got on great with my team, the messages and emails I got when leaving were so touching and I really didn’t want to leave. However this role was a 60% increase for me and for my family that just was impossible to turn down., as well as being a step up from supervisor to manager that I felt so ready for but my old company couldn’t offer.
However even though this is the same field, the new place do things very differently. There’s a lot more that falls within the scope of the job, that in my previous place would’ve been handled by entirely separate teams/functions so I had no experience of. Since I’ve joined I’ve been sort of just thrown in at the deep end. There’s been no training. The team is about 20 people and there’s a few gaps so even in my first week I was going interviews for replacements (kind of awkward answering questions from candidates when you’ve been in the door 5 minutes yourself) and being asked to take on projects and shuffle the team around etc.
For the most part I’ve just taken it one step at a time and tried to find stuff for myself but honestly now I’m feeling so overwhelmed and I feel sick every morning. The team are all very demotivated and some have been so rude to me when I’ve asked them to do something or help saying they’re already over worked etc. They are really resistant to change but also miserable about how things are. Nothing is documented, no processes etc so I feel so lost.
I have two supervisors under me, one is part time and the other new to the role. They’ve both been off for blocks of 2-3 weeks since I started 7 weeks ago. My own manager is also off at the moment for 2.5 weeks while one of the supervisors is off. I’m getting bombarded with questions from more superior people expecting me to know the answers and my team are always so busy I feel like I can’t ask for help.
I think I cried once in my last job in 3 years (which was also a completely new field for me when I joined but they trained you and everyone was so helpful) but in this new place I am crying nearly every day
So little of my previous experience has been helpful and I feel complete imposter syndrome. I know if I was shown stuff and trained a bit I would get it but it’s like they want and expect so much from me when there are massive problems that need fixing that have been there for years.
I’m at a complete loss at the moment. I’m off next week when my boss is back and I’m trying to just muddle through this week but things keep landing in my mailbox and I’m staring at these emails thinking how the hell do I answer this? At what point do I throw the hands up and say I’m lost here?
I’m on probation and absolutely terrified of failing it. It would be catastrophic for us financially if I lost this job, but I genuinely never thought it would be so different and that there were would be so many issues to fix and so many people issues as well.
Has anyone been in a similar position? Any advice?