Hate my new job and want to leave

LegacyUser

4 months ago, I started a new job which was a big career jump for me. I was pretty excited after a decade in another position which was going nowhere.

I'm having trouble with my manager. It's got to the point where I'm wondering why he hired me. I was honest and up front about everything in the interview so he's getting what he expected, but he seems to just totally be not interested in discussing anything with me regarding work. He just wants to look at what's done and nitpick.

Also, the work itself isn't what I expected. It's much more menial and the manager isn't interested in new ideas and ways of moving things forward unless they're his ideas. There's lots of talk about improving this and that, but not much action.

I'm just totally second guessing myself right now. The idea of going in to work is making me anxious.

It doesn't help either that the work environment is noisy and open plan and the work culture is cliquey. It feels like school at times.

I just think I'm a terrible fit and want to leave...

Mr. Loverman

First of all, make sure you're doing everything you can to like your job:

<mod snip - stop shilling this site>

Why do you think your manager has a problem with you? Try to be honest. Do you do a lot of web surfing? What about coming in late? I'm a manager type, and employees always seem to think they are getting away with their bad time keeping and web surfing, but actually, us managers know exactly what's going on (because that's our job).

LegacyUser

I'm always on time. There's no problem with a bit of net surfing. Mostly I use it to for researching new tech, learning more about the business and the like.

We disagreed on an utterly subjective topic but it was quite jovial and I did it the way I was told. He also seems to keep making comments about improvements that to me don't win an awful lot and gets defensive when I ask questions about certain things.

I don't think he's a bad manager, but I do think it's a potentially exhausting personality clash and I don't appreciate being interrogated and made feel like an idiot.

crosswords

This is not an unusual situation.

Start looking for a new job immediately.

Take control of the situation. Don't expect anything to improve. First impressions are usually spot on.

Don't let it erode your confidence.

Move on and don't look back. Its not the right place for you.

Mr. Loverman

crosswords wrote: »

This is not an unusual situation.

Start looking for a new job immediately.

Take control of the situation. Don't expect anything to improve. First impressions are usually spot on.

Don't let it erode your confidence.

Move on and don't look back. Its not the right place for you.

As clinical as this is, I think it's probably decent advice.

You only get one life. We don't know its meaning, but I'm pretty sure being happy is right up there with procreation and not dying.

LegacyUser

Yeah, I think it's time to start looking. I just feel like a failure now. It was really hard to stick my neck out and apply for the job in the first place.

Thanks for that link btw, Mr Loverman. I've tried a lot of that, although making friends there has been tough.

Mr. Loverman

You're not a failure.

I remember reading Donald Trump saying 99 out of 100 ideas he has don't succeed or totally fail. Would you consider him to be a failure?

Just keep moving forward and striving for what you want and you won't be a failure.

InReality

Im having similar issues with my new boss. I was also in my previous role for years. I think i'd give it a bit longer if I was you. , I think in my case my expectations were sky-high , and my first few weeks were great , so I have get a bit of balance in my expectations of the job. Maybe list the bits you like and try focus on these - maybe try and work "around" your boss ?

Deenie123

Don't waste time waiting on it to get better. If you feel like there's a personality clash - there probably is. Life's too short. Move on and find another job. I've been there and the best decision I ever made was to leave. I'm financially worse off, but I feel like I'm going in a better direction and more importantly, I don't wake up feeling dread and despair every morning. That kind of thing is awful and feeling like you never do anything well enough will just wear you down to nothing, but it'll happen slowly and insidiously and you won't actually notice how far your self esteem will fall.