Huge pivot in new job role and I’m struggling

[SomeKindOfMeh]

Last year I landed my dream job in my dream company. I’m 49. Lovely team, amazing boss, all good. It used all my skills and I took on extra training in my own time to improve other things.

it turned out there was a gap in our output and my lovely boss suggested I could be the one to do that. I launched myself into it with all my enthusiasm, training myself up on the side. But now the role has changed so much that it no longer uses any of my skills. Instead, it requires totally different skills that I don’t have.

i can’t be too specific but it’s like I was hired to be a plumber, then asked to do a spot of minor plastering, and now my job is suddenly all plastering.

I don’t mind learning new skills but there’s been no mention of training. I’m not churlish enough to use my hours (I’m part time) for all that training, so I’m doing stuff in my own time.

I think what I’m most struggling with is that I no longer feel I’m doing a good job, and no longer think I’m the best person for this role. I look at established plasterers and think it would make more sense for this company just to hire one of them.

What do I do? I’m stressed and upset. My boss is great and doesn’t expect me to be a great plasterer, but how long before he realises he needs a plasterer, and gently gets rid of me? 😢

Any advice, anyone? Would love your thoughts!

Love,
The Worried Plasterer.

It’s pretty difficult to comment with the limited information! But would you be able to do the alternative job WITH training? Would you want to? If so and your boss is lovely, surely you just say along the lines of what you have here and ask for training to be better at the role.

Are you doing your original role in addition to this new work?

You say your boss is lovely, so this is best addressed by talking to him. I would suggest framing it as a general conversation about your development; you need to consider here what you want too - do you want to become a fantastic plasterer, return to plumbing or work towards promotion to a master builder?

Thank you -- sorry for the lack of info. Not to give myself away completely, I've been asked to do social media - specifically videos. I have no video experience. My boss's boss wants us to create and post 2-3 videos a day, every day. (I work part time.)

Longterm, video skills and social skills will probably be really useful, it's just shorter, I'm horrified and terrified in equal measure.

Who is doing the plumbing you were hired for?

It doesn't sound like your dream job at all if it's changed. I'd be looking elsewhere.

what was the role that you thought you’d be doing?

No.

Not videos!

It isn't churlish to complete the training that you need in your contracted hours.

What happened to the work you were originally doing? Is there still work of that type to do?

Definitely do some training in your work hours, it can be one of your development goals this year.

If you do any kind of content or strategy then video content is a good tool to have for future roles. Start using Canva or Capcut (or whatever the kids use) - there will be loads of training on Youtube for a start.

It is hard to recruit people you trust, who also get your tone of voice etc, so I suspect your work is delighted you are doing this and would really rather not hire someone who may not be suited (regardless of experience). If you are happy to learn it, throw off that imposter syndrome and just keep going.

Who is? Can you ask to go back to your original job role?

Thanks for all your comments. I’ve been in tears tonight and only just checked back here.

My original work isn’t seen as a priority anymore.

The team is a very busy one and the social media had been left to fester. I am good at lots of it, but videos are 100% outside my realm of experience. I don’t know if you’ve ever made videos but they take AGES. And no stock footage - it all has to be filmed, edited, sound added, music, captions, scheduling, graphics…

I think it’s unrealistic to expect me to create the number of these they’re saying I should make. I’ve worked out I’d need to be producing one video every hour..

How do you say “I don’t think I can do that” wiithout sounding like you’re hopeless?

BUT I also think I need to keep relevant and learning new things… But if I was going to upskill in social media it would be in strategy or UX or SEO, not video.

I think I’m a bit old to pivot so sharply, if I’m honest. It’s just not a field I’ve ever wanted to go into.

I've cried myself into a banging headache. I’m going to bed!

That level of output is ridiculous and unsustainable for one person. You need to be creating solid briefs for the videos and commissioning them to other people - either content producers within your company or freelancers.

You need to schedule a chat with your manager and make it clear the current expectations are not reasonable.

If they want you to create regular video content you either:

• need to do external training to be able to film and edit content and the company needs to purchase the equipment and software required
• you need to outsource them to creative agencies. That can be expensive so they need to provide a budget for this.

I would assume they don't have a clue about video and social media, so I would also take a step back and start by putting together a social media strategy for the year so you can plan what you can realistically deliver.

That’s madness. You need to make a solid business case for a social media officer. Get out your job description and remind your boss of the work you’re no longer able to do because you’re spending hours making videos. Demonstrate what your team could achieve with a new recruit and a strategy that you’d manage and implement. And you should find research online to show business sm accounts don’t need three videos a day. Their expectations are out of whack. No wonder you’re feeling stretched and stressed.

Boss. I came here to make cakes, not videos.

I cannot produce videos let alone one a day. I have no idea why I have been landed this task. What are my options to get back into the role I came here to do?

I would assume they don't have a clue about video and social media, so I would also take a step back and start by putting together a social media strategy for the year so you can plan what you can realistically deliver.

This is very good advice but I also don't know how to create a social media strategy. Social media was never a part of this job as originally advertised.

It’s absolutely unrealistic for one person to create three pieces of video content a day, regardless of training! You can build up content over time but as you say, creating and editing video takes time. Depending on what you’re making them about you’ll also rapidly run out of ideas! Is it actually that they want more social content and to increase engagement? Video is one part of this and definitely boosts engagement at the moment but only if it’s decent and interesting! Could you have another conversation to try and unpick why this is being asked for - if you’re open to the role being more socials focused then there is lots of info and training out there to help you learn how to build it up and yes, create video content but also other ways to build audiences and engagement.

I'd love to say this. But what happens if they've decided that actually, they mostly just need someone to take care of social media? If I say I don't want to, or can't, do that, can they sack me? Can they sack me even if I was never hired to do SM?

I've been so stressed about this as it's mounted up that sometimes - in my most stressed, paranoid moments - I've wondered if they secretly hate me and have given me this role to encourage me to quit.

What platform of social media are the videos for? If it’s instagram, take a look at the accounts rebuildagram and reels.rockstars. They are related accounts and run courses on quick effective ways of creating content & reels to increase engagement. May not be relevant for your sector but worth a look.

Then you will need to find another job. You need to work out your options. We can't make that old job reappear.

This would be my worst nightmare. It reminds me of a job I used to do. I’m not into social media and it became part of my role and like you it kept me awake at night. You weren’t hired for this so you need to be brave and speak up.