Learning a job online is impossible

[Greedybilly]

I started at new job 3 months ago ( have had Long Covid so only 3 days as knackered) was told it was part wfh and part office. The thing is people rarely go into the office so I rarely see anyone- they're all hard working/nice people but i just HATE wfh every day and really struggle to learn complicated things via teams/messenger. Am also hard of hearing which doesn't help.
Should I just quit snd say the job was miss sold.
I know I'd learn stuff 10x faster face to face but it's not an option. Is it an age thing,?
Any (kind) thoughts helpful. Thanks

@AgnesXwhat's a sop?

@crowsfeet57I think age is a factor for me personally along with various ailments and disabilities. Wouldn't have applied for the job if I'd known I'd be wfh each day - like you i miss the comeraderie.

@Foughties- sounds grim. To be fair my colleagues seem nice I just don't see them.

Apologies. Sorry for the jargon. Standard Operating Procedures ie the approved instructions on how to do things. Everyone follows that instruction to ensure standardisation.

I guess they're more common in big organisations rather than smaller ones.

Ah ok. Work for a large council but never heard that term.

I agree. I like hybrid working and thought I would love remote but it was so hard to build relationships and learn. I left after 6 months. Much happier now.

Thanks for all comments. Taking tomorrow off snd speaking to boss next week. Glad it's not just me - hate feeling so isolated

Sucks that manager is hands off. But I would take her words at face value and ask her a load of questions. It’s very possible she absolute meant please ask questions and is assuming because you aren’t that you are fine. It’s her job to get you up to speed.

I started a new job in November, and I was in the office every day and ended up in tears in February as I kept asking how to do things and everyone just said “oh Person before you did all that”. And then not tell me. It was so frustrating! I felt like I was failing because I didn’t know how to do anything.

I did speak to my manager about it and she was understanding. Essentially Person before me hadn’t documented much and nobody including manager knew how to do the role. I just had to muddle through and create own processes.

I didn’t feel really comfortable in role till about May so 7 months in. Like I said that was 5 days a week in the office. It takes time to learn all the nuances and weirdnesses of a business.

So give it time. And it’s ok to lean in your newness and expect help.

@Shortpoet- thank you.x

What kind of work is it within the council? There may be other sources of training out there besides your colleagues to help make things feel more achievable, while you look for something else.

I think maybe also down to the company and training provided. I have just started a new job and it’s WFH with 2 office days a month. I’m finding too but there are lots of guides and support and lots of l clear induction.

re teams can you turn the transcribe on and record so you can watch it back to help?

Sorry but some of this is on you. Your manager has invited you to ask questions and you haven’t. Yes ideally they’d check in more, but you’re complaining while not using the support available to you.

My role has a lot of regular tasks - these are well documented and we start people off on these, as it helps them get to know the systems. You go through it once with someone showing you, then by yourself with someone alongside,and then with just the documentation. We get docs updated if people find them unclear. Once they've gone through all this, then we can let them go on other things, because they should be feeling a bit more confident on how things are set up, but we still have people available for questions.

This might not work for your role, but it would work for a lot.

You probably need to be clearer in asking for help - if someone says, "oh, your predecessor used to do that," you need to point out, "but I don't know how to." You will need to be clear thst if there's no documentation, you need to work with someone else to learn, even if it means you're having to work it out together- and then you document it, to avoid having any one person as a single point of failure because they are the only one who knows. (And also because writing it down means i don't have to remember it all, just where to look it up.) Obviously not all roles are the same, but this sort of approach does work for a lot of office jobs.