Signs of bad management?

[FishOnTheTrain]

recently got a new manager who gives me SO MUCH work. She doesn’t give any priority to these tasks, just throws things at me and then chases me for each thing.

am I just terrible at prioritising? I feel like I can’t read her mind as to what she wants first. I’m becoming overwhelmed.

m I’ve asked her to give me priorities but she forgets. She’ll just forward me 20 emails in an hour asking me to action with no context.

I would ask her again directly for a time line / priority, don't let her forget just stand infront of her or phone her.
Emails are to easy to avoid answering .
Or once you have been given your list of tasks make your own time line in what ever order you prefer, add extra time to cope with any unforseen problems, eg a project you think will take 3 hrs tell her it will take 3.5 or 4 hrs .
Email your time frame back to her making sure you add 'subject to changes beyond my control ' at the bottom of your plan .

If she doesn't like it tell her you asked gor a time line / plan and she chose not to provide one.

In future she will either provide one or leave you to your own devices.

@FishOnTheTrain I think you need to be honest with her and firstly actually let her know that the current process is leaving you overwhelmed. (We can’t make assumptions that she is aware of this). Therefore change is needed for your well being as well as the work.

Then tell her you do have a suggestion so it’s not like you’re moaning with no solutions. Personally I would set up daily 5-10m calls where you go through the latest email focussing on tasks without context/deadlines to ensure that you understand how they need to be prioritised. Also, it’s a chance for you to escalate any in danger of overlapping/missing a deadline so you can ask her to make the call re which needs actioning first.

It’s one of my absolute bugbears tbh to have managers just email me stuff as even the nice ones just never fully explain the context properly and all it needs is a very quick call. Also it feels a more human and personable way of working also this way. Good luck!

If she won't prioritise, you should do it, then send it to her so you're covered - something like

Dear Twat Manager

Acknowledging that you've asked me to do Task X. Working that into what I already have on my plate, I think a timeline will look like:

Task Z - EOD today
Task Y - 11 am tomorrow, as needed for 12pm meeting
Task X - EOD tomorrow (added today)

Tasks A, B and C will push to early next week.

Let me know if you need me to switch up the order of any tasks, or if you have any other additional context that will help me prioritise.

So long, and thanks for all the fish,
@FishOnTheTrain

I’ve just sent a message with all my tasks for the day, in what I think is the priority order and she’s just put a thumbs up. Wondering why I am doing her job for her tbh. Not even paid enough for level of tasks I get sucked into!