New Job

I didn't change levels, but I did recently change roles at work. For all of a week and a half I've been the new manager for a group at work that lost its manager 3-4 months ago. I kept 1/3 of my previous group as well, so I went from 15 reports to 21 reports, 15 of them new. That means I'm doing what the previous manager was doing, plus 25% of my previous role. That would be a stretch all by itself, but the fact that it's the first few weeks and I'm learning the org structure and politics, have scheduled 21 one on ones as well as numerous face-to-face recurring meetings with the PMO, both product managers, and operations, HR tried to mandate I take two and a half days of management training (I'm the only manager in my group without it - not for lack of trying - they just turned me down the three or four times prior to being a manager when I applied), there's a project that's in bad shape (had my most uncomfortable meeting since I first became a manager 2 years ago), another project that was in bad shape and is under VP scrutiny, the job is the same one Apong applied for and didn't get, and now he's gone, the resourcing doesn't seem to have been updated since the last manager left, there are no midyear reviews and year-end reviews are sneaking up on me, it's not a low-pressure no-real-income position like migration was, but a semi-customer-facing, at the beck and call of many firms, sort of role, and it has an overseas aspect that moves up my mornings, means that it's a bit of work. I like work - my manager in my last role was the one who really clued me into that and more than doubled my load one day by adding our Japan project when she noticed I did better with a bit of pressure to keep me busy, even if it meant an extra hour or two a day - so this has actually perked me up a bit by giving me an overload of things to do, rather than allowing me to fiddle around looking for my own busywork. But I do worry that the initial breaking in period is a bit rough with all the late evening email, prior to 7 a.m. email, 7:30 a.m. meetings, and trying to shed anything from my old role that isn't a good fit (I had quite a few department initiatives to fill the hours).

It did help that I told the MDP (management training) trainer I wouldn't be showing up for the rest of class. I missed 2.5 of the first 4 hours (I had 16.5 hours of meetings scheduled yesterday in an 8 hour period), and today was shaping up to be in and out all day (ditto for Thursday). I assume that means HR will tell me I have to attend it again, but they can't fault me for needing to do my job when I was signed up for training prior to the transition (well...they can...but I suspect they won't), and hopefully that will push it out six to twelve months.

Exciting. But a something of a nailbiter at the moment until I find my stride and can worry about where the gaps are and how to get ahead of the curve.