Has anybody got experience of starting a new job with non-existent onboarding or support?
i started a new gig in November last year. Onboarding was a slide deck and prerecorded generic presentations, and all in one week. I was hired to be quite senior so I’ve tried to ask the right questions, but the description of what my roles and responsibilities are have changed at least twice so it’s hard to keep up. At first I was told I was going to be strategic, but two weeks ago I was told I need to be involved in the day to day. Then two days ago that changed again to me being half and half. Five months in I’m expected to run massive projects alone with no support, and I have nobody on the team I can talk to about it - they’re helpful when I ask questions but I don’t feel I can talk to them as a friendly ear.
My manager is nice but always unavailable (always in meetings), and regularly cancels 1:1s to free up their calendar. I had to book them for lunch last week to go through a problem I was having.
I also feel super unstructured and all over the place. Usually my structure and organisation is something I pride myself on but this doesn’t seem to be coming through here as I’m trying to catch all the balls in the air at the same time.
This is such a career low for me and I’m super demotivated, not to mention utterly miserable. I know I can be good at what I do but I’m failing here, and I’m not just being self deprecating - its
not the right environment for me and if I’m not thriving then that impacts the rest of the team too. I know there are other jobs out there, but how to cope with this feeling in the meantime? I’ve lost so much confidence, and I was in the process of trying to build that up again. I dread Mondays like crazy ?
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Anonymous
Sometimes you have to be the beacon of change for others to follow. You are definitely on the right track when you said you started asking questions. Continue to ask questions and document them. You may be the person to create that onboarding process for others to follow. The company may have classified you to be a "fixer" and the expectations may have been set for you to fill in those gaps as a leader. So take it with pride and use those high organizational skills to improve your environment. So in other words, don't see it as a negative. Rather acknowledge that you have the bonafide skills and experience to imrpove your work environment. And once you do, you leave them no choice but to move you higher up the hierarchy. Embrace the challenge, go forth and be great!
Focused898785
It sounds like you are in a big job without a lot of support. I have been in the same situation. Sounds like it’s time to either make a plan to leave, or stay. If you stay, what would need to change?
If you decide to leave, leave. This will be a painful but educational learning experience. It won’t break your career but will be something you never forget.
good luck!