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How do you guys deal with being in a new job with much more responsibility (and workload) than you've ever had in your life?

 

I've started in a new position in a Fortune 500 company 2 months ago and still feel I have a long way to go until I feel somewhat comfortable with what I'm doing... Although I'm a fast learner and a doer, I'm feeling quite overwhelmed for the first time in my professional life. I hate not being in control and not knowing the things I need to know... and the problem is there are hundreds of new things I need to learn, in the process / strategy side, as well as in the technical side that relates to my own profession. Any good ideas on how to cope and not feel so overwhelmed?

Edited by edgygirl
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Give yourself a break. Your job sounds complicated and I'd imagine that your superiors understand that it will take some time to learn everything you need to know. You're still new there. They hired you because they knew you could do the job. If you try your hardest and do the best job you can, that's all they can ask of you. Things will get easier.

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I also work in a fortune global 500 company. I was somewhat in similar situation as you. I was moved from research profile to operations management without any background in production management. I was shocked because I was doing exceptionally well in research profile.

My initial days were nightmare and I had to spend some 16 – 18 hours per day as I was totally clueless. I once met our VP HR informally and reflected my issues. He said, I quote “A strong person knows he is strong enough to take the journey but a person with strength knows during the journey s/he would become strong. Be the later. ”

 

This thing resonated within me pretty good and here I am. After just 1 year I was promoted and made chief of that production unit.

 

The thing I realized in my journey is that first have faith in yourself that you can do it. That’s most important. Next recognize that there is a learning curve associated with each position and each responsibility. Don’t let complacency deter your goals. There will be setbacks and failures. Learn from them. Most importantly don’t shy away to learn from others if they are helping in anyway possible. I am 26 years old and I have subordinates with 26 years of experience on job, you can imagine the difference we have in terms of technical capability and understanding. I spent time with them on site (I work in steel sector) to learn things even though I have a white collar profile. That was the best thing I could do. Be receptive and observing to traverse through the goals.

 

Regarding increased workload, the target given to any person is always above one’s potential. This helps them grow and innovate and move ahead in career. If you are always doing things at same level then you can never grow. Take it as a challenge and just put unconditional effort on it. Not to mention we are gradually moving to an era of knowledge economy. If not immediate benefits, u would definitely reap them in future. Tap on those opportunities. I have managers under me and I approve their KRAs (key result areas). I have been instructed by the senior management and HR to set target always above yesteryear’s target points. So I guess it is pretty normal to have steep workload.

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Having a bit of a laugh at the general sentiment that Fortune 500 jobs are hard (because I'm an entrepreneur who had worked Fortune 500), but the second poster got it right.

 

The group knows there is a learning curve. They don't expect you to know it all immediately, especially if there is a lot of technical to learn.

 

They expect you to pick it up over months, while focusing on the core work you were hired to do to the best of your ability.

 

Working at various companies (all tech and NASA throughout my old life of working for others), if would often take me 2 months to really get comfortable with the specific technology and methodology used within the business.

 

If you are not grasping it after a few months, that's when you need to look at getting help.

 

Don't be afraid to ask. People (especially technical ones) love to show others how things work if they like you and you're nice. Ask a friend in the company for a little help on some of the things you're having trouble with. Suggest a "refresher class" on the difficult topics for all employees in the department.

 

Frankly, any company being run properly will have training sessions/classes covering their products/services. Often clients are in these classes. We used to put new hires right in the same classes with clients.

 

Even organizing a conference room and buying a couple pizzas a couple times a week for a lunch and chat would work.

 

But what do I know? Last Fortune 500 I worked at was the only place I've ever been fired from in my life.

 

Was fired because my boss thought I would take his job. He fired me to protect himself.. :lmao::sick:

 

Finally, it's always a little uncomfortable getting ahead. It's always a little hard work, a little winging it and little luck.

 

It will all line up...

Edited by loveweary11
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This is my second Fortune 500, the first one was not as hard to be at.

 

They have a weird method on this one, where they don't give you any work on the first month and let you just "immerse" and learn... which deep down sucked as it's impossible to learn without doing. So in theory I just started to learn the real process in my second month. Now that I am going to the third, I am starting to grasp what I have to do... but there's still a lot to learn and as my peer sucks at mentoring and teaching, I have to learn by committing mistakes, which really is driving me crazy, I don't think it's fair to my team or to me.

 

My new boss who was at the same position as I am up to a month ago offered to get together and clear questions for me so I learn... still, she's also busy in her new role and it's not like she's really teaching me... Ahhh.

 

What I think is really bothering me is I have to work a lot on what I studied originally, whereas in my last jobs I was more doing big picture strategy instead. I really didn't think I'd have to do that as my title does not relate to it, and it feels like... work. When it's more about big picture strategy I don't even feel I'm working cause I enjoy it so much.

 

Yesterday I was in bed the whole day just to recover from the fatigue this job is giving me during the week...

 

I do hope things will line up... thanks :) Otherwise I will have to look for another job

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Eternal Sunshine

I had a pretty nightmarish experience when I started my current job. I was just thrown into the deep end without any training. First 6 months, I spent all my evenings and weekends reading up, stressed and thinking people will catch on how much I don't know. I kept it together on the surface but internally was another story. I felt completely overwhelmed 24/7. In fact, I stopped dating or doing much at all apart from work.

 

For me what changed is 2 things: first, I obviously improved in time.

 

Second, and this is the big one: I was moved to share an office with few people of nearly identical technical background as me, just much more experienced (I actually initiated asking to be moved). Even though we were working on completely different projects, I thought I would be able to ask for help. By observation I saw that these people don't really know that much more than me. They got stuck, they had to read up, they couldn't solve the problems I couldn't solve either. They ended up asking me for help just as much as I did them. I realized that my expectations of myself were completely unrealistic.

 

Now I am 2 years in, got promoted and spend more than half of the time on auto-pilot :cool:

 

I bet you are doing much better than you think too.

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I agree as well that you probably know much more than you think. Thank your stars you aren't just doing big picture stuff. It's all about basics and building blocks. I spent a lot of time initially reading up on technical stuff like ES said.

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How the hell you got hired?

 

here...they expected me to know everything expertly and still not hiring me...

 

be grateful they allow you to learn...

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I was NEVER overwhelmed in my previous jobs. Guess I just learnt very quickly and underemployed and underutilized.

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devilish innocent

I was in a situation like this years ago. I ended up getting let go after ten months.

 

There are a couple of things I would do differently now that I have more experience. First of, I would have spoken up more for myself. A lot of the problem was due to the fact that I was placed in a pretty dysfunctional team. For instance, the person who was supposed to be answering my questions would yell at everyone around her. She told me that I should spend an hour trying to figure things out on my own rather than taking up five minutes of her time to have her answer my questions. Then I would get blamed for not getting the work done quickly enough. Another time I was on the phone when somebody didn't realize I was there, and I heard her mention how they could use me as the scapegoat for something that really wasn't my fault. It was just a number of things like that, where I really should have spoken up. At the time, I was timid. I thought playing nice was the responsible, adult option. Looking back, I realize it just made me the easy target of blame for all the problems our team was having. If I were to do it over, I would go the people above me who I felt would be most supportive and let them know about the problem employees.

 

The second thing I'd do differently is just to stress out less. I used to let myself panic about every problem, and that only made it harder to get the job done efficiently. Nowadays, if my job gets hectic, I'll take a few deep breaths when things get hectic, or I'll go for a short walk around the building to calm myself back down. Just remember, the worst they can possibly do to you is fire you. If they're that bad, then you're probably better off without them anyway.

Edited by devilish innocent
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Yes I know how you feel. I almost got stuck in this same situation - read my latest topic -. Luckly I told them 'no' once I figured out what I'd be getting into. I hope it works out for you, however.

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Wow you are so right. Today for the first time, although I still had tons to do and it seemed like it would never end, I realized that I actually know what I have to do and the process for the dozens of projects I'm running. Phew. And yes, my peers with lots of experience there are not "that" perfect either. I've seen mistakes here and there.

 

I don't think I'm there yet, but somehow having an unhelpful peer kind of made me have to start having the guts to expose my clueless-ness and start asking questions to other people I work with and my teams and start to understand the process and what I have to do.

 

I hope it won't look like I'm stupid much longer, I hate hate hate the feeling of having no absolute control of what I have to do.

 

Congrats on the promotion! And the auto pilot, I'm dreaming of it right now! :bunny:

 

I had a pretty nightmarish experience when I started my current job. I was just thrown into the deep end without any training. First 6 months, I spent all my evenings and weekends reading up, stressed and thinking people will catch on how much I don't know. I kept it together on the surface but internally was another story. I felt completely overwhelmed 24/7. In fact, I stopped dating or doing much at all apart from work.

 

For me what changed is 2 things: first, I obviously improved in time.

 

Second, and this is the big one: I was moved to share an office with few people of nearly identical technical background as me, just much more experienced (I actually initiated asking to be moved). Even though we were working on completely different projects, I thought I would be able to ask for help. By observation I saw that these people don't really know that much more than me. They got stuck, they had to read up, they couldn't solve the problems I couldn't solve either. They ended up asking me for help just as much as I did them. I realized that my expectations of myself were completely unrealistic.

 

Now I am 2 years in, got promoted and spend more than half of the time on auto-pilot :cool:

 

I bet you are doing much better than you think too.

 

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My resume looks quite good, full of high profile companies and projects I worked on... I can fool most people, I have good convincing and charming skills haha. People tell me I'm a natural born PR / diplomat. Although to be honest it was hard to find a position this last time for some reason.

 

How the hell you got hired?

 

here...they expected me to know everything expertly and still not hiring me...

 

be grateful they allow you to learn...

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Oh my - are you describing my peer in the bold below? Gawd, he does exactly that!!! Something that would take him 1/2 minute to explain, he tells me to read a contract that we have with our consultants that's like 50 pages long to find one info... so I can "pay attention" and "learn". F learning. Just give me the stupid answer that you know by heart. I am not a kid who needs to be taught to find info and waste 2 hours reading something I could have learned in 1 minute. People... sometimes I hate people.

 

He's so ambitious and knowledgeable, but he doesn't see that if he can't be a good peer / leader, he won't get where he wants.

 

I also like your advice about calming down... I am deep down on the anxious side and that happens to me sometimes too. Today I didn't even get lunch as I had a huge to do list and wanted to try to get out of there before 7pm. Ugh.

 

I was in a situation like this years ago. I ended up getting let go after ten months.

 

There are a couple of things I would do differently now that I have more experience. First of, I would have spoken up more for myself. A lot of the problem was due to the fact that I was placed in a pretty dysfunctional team. For instance, the person who was supposed to be answering my questions would yell at everyone around her. She told me that I should spend an hour trying to figure things out on my own rather than taking up five minutes of her time to have her answer my questions. Then I would get blamed for not getting the work done quickly enough. Another time I was on the phone when somebody didn't realize I was there, and I heard her mention how they could use me as the scapegoat for something that really wasn't my fault. It was just a number of things like that, where I really should have spoken up. At the time, I was timid. I thought playing nice was the responsible, adult option. Looking back, I realize it just made me the easy target of blame for all the problems our team was having. If I were to do it over, I would go the people above me who I felt would be most supportive and let them know about the problem employees.

 

The second thing I'd do differently is just to stress out less. I used to let myself panic about every problem, and that only made it harder to get the job done efficiently. Nowadays, if my job gets hectic, I'll take a few deep breaths when things get hectic, or I'll go for a short walk around the building to calm myself back down. Just remember, the worst they can possibly do to you is fire you. If they're that bad, then you're probably better off without them anyway.

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Maybe you should switch industries? How about coffee places as Starbucks?

 

i just applied to mcdonalds but got rejected because i got a bad refrence from burger king
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Well, guess we're all different... I don't enjoy basics and building blocks. I get extremely bored.

 

I like taking care of entire continents ie. not a region and details as in my current job. I like thinking about strategy, not about building blocks. If that makes sense. I think big and let other people usually take care of the boring details. That's where I excel. Big picture stuff. That's what I did in my last job and I was honestly better than the VPs who were the leaders in the company.

 

I agree as well that you probably know much more than you think. Thank your stars you aren't just doing big picture stuff. It's all about basics and building blocks. I spent a lot of time initially reading up on technical stuff like ES said.
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devilish innocent
Oh my - are you describing my peer in the bold below? Gawd, he does exactly that!!! Something that would take him 1/2 minute to explain, he tells me to read a contract that we have with our consultants that's like 50 pages long to find one info... so I can "pay attention" and "learn". F learning. Just give me the stupid answer that you know by heart. I am not a kid who needs to be taught to find info and waste 2 hours reading something I could have learned in 1 minute. People... sometimes I hate people.

 

He's so ambitious and knowledgeable, but he doesn't see that if he can't be a good peer / leader, he won't get where he wants.

 

Yup. I feel for you. The lady who was supposed to be answering my questions took less than five minutes to answer a few questions about a document I had. Then she complains that I asked her about the document saying that she spent a whole hour on figuring it out herself when she first started. Um... if it takes five minutes of my time plus five minutes of your time for you to answer the question, isn't that more efficient than having me waste sixty minutes of my time?

 

Sadly, where I worked the people who were poor leaders did get promoted for it. The company had a new system to measure efficiency by recording how much time people worked on each project. Our team leader discovered that by asking subordinates to under report their time he could manipulate the numbers and make our efficiency seem higher. Then he was rewarded for it by being given a promotion and having even more people placed under him.

 

There was a culture of silence where I was which is what allowed these things to go on. That's why I'd recommend speaking up if you don't think you're getting the support you need. Don't be that jerk who always dumps the blame on somebody else. But if you're really being impeded in your own work because others are just doing what's best for them and not best for the company, then let someone know. It sounds like you have a supportive supervisor so that is a good person to talk to. Mine was supportive too, and she tried to fight for them to keep me, but because I never told her all of my side of the story, she didn't have the ammunition she needed.

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