Still struggling with job 12 months in.

[sunnyday2025]

I wrote a post about 9 months ago detailing how stressed I was getting by one large function in my job.

I work for my LA in a very low band business admin role. I support 3 teams all with different priorities. My role was original covered by 4 people who rotated the work so they could all support eachother. This was “efficiencied” down to one person and I joined.

A year in I am up to speed with most of the role but am still struggling massively with the finance aspects. The systems and processes are archaic, complicated and horribly easily to fuck up. I have no finance background (they knew this) but I just feel like I’ve been thrown under a bus.

I am still making mistakes as am made to feel I can’t ask questions; what makes it worse is the system itself is prone to glitches; I’ll spend hours stressing over if I’ve done something wrong only to then be told it’s a system glitch!

I dint know what to do; I am starting to feel unwell with the stress and feel utterly inadequate. I sense the eye rolling when I get something wrong.
I did raise the issue with my line manager sometime ago and ask if the role could be reviewed but it was a firm no - that finance is an integral responsibility. Things did improve a bit but it’s starting to escalate again. I think it’s because we’ve had year end and the invoicing itself is becoming more complicated.

i have my annual PDR next week and am worried about that.

@sunnyday2025 keep going for now but make sure you are checking the intranet your LA has for other jobs in admin and apply for as many as you can until you get interviews.

The role you have is not going to change because the budget won't allow for it. So you are stuck until you can escape.

Give yourself permission to not care as much. Take longer on the finance tasks and make sure you let your TL know why.

Hang in there for now. Something else will come up soon.

Thank you for being kind. It’s so stupid really, I’m in my 50s, well educated and reasonably intelligent but just feel so useless.
I got divorced last year and desperately need this job but can’t carry on with this level of worry. I’m not sleeping, getting migraines and heart palpitations

sorry to hear this OP.

Are the processes you run routinely well documented? That’s a reasonable ask if they are not. You could possibly document what you know and get someone to review it and sign it off? It is really hard to stay positive when you feel unsupported, I feel for you. You aren’t inadequate at all, but no one can perform miracles or do their job effectively without the right tools to do so.

There are very basic procedures ie how to raise a purchase order, how to pay an invoice. I am generally ok with that. But 80% of the time it’s more complicated, not helped by the person making the request not really knowing what they’re doing either!

i often feel like the middle man between the requestor and Finance team and expected to know everything!

Did you used to be inn academic environment op?

You have given it a year so it is time to start job-hunting.

It is completely their failing for thinking one person can do the job of 4 people.

If you stay there you are just going to keep losing your self-confidence and feel more and more stressed.

In the meantime, while you look for a new job, I would ask for a meeting with your line manager and make it clear that the workload is unsustainable and list the issues with the finance systems. Stop trying to make it work, they set you to fail from the start...

No, previously corporate but I was a SAHM for 10 years. My confidence was already shaky when I took this job 😔

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