Is your work taking the piss?

4 questions to ask yourself

Photo by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash

My Substack from Sunday prompted this question which I can’t stop thinking about.

Emily asked:

‘I’d really appreciate some advice from you both [Donna Ida and me] on work. I’ve recently got a promotion which involves a lot of representation. I feel pulled in a million directions and feel like I’m getting nothing done. People tell me to “ruthlessly prioritise” but what the hell does that MEAN and how do I do it?! I get emails about a million different things all day long and get dragged into so much… super grateful for any advice, please! I also have no idea what I’m doing with a lot of it! If you need more context - let me know and I can drop you a message. Thank you xxx’

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I was going to answer in the thread, but I realised I have a lot to say about this. I’ve had this feeling many, many times. And while I don’t know a lot (anything) about exactly what Emily’s job is, I know that it’s a really common problem when you start a new position - even if it’s somewhere you’ve been working for a long time. Even moreso, I think, when that new position is a managerial one.

Like Emily says, you get pulled in so many different directions, because so many people want to see a new person in charge as the Big Golden Moment to get in there and influence your agenda. In one new job I had, not so long ago, I remember at least four people saying to me a version of, ‘Stick with me, I’m the only one around here who’ll tell you the truth about what’s going on and how this place works.’  At least two of them got fired within my first six months (not by me, but they did). 

So you’re trying to learn a new role, understand new people and new routines and responsibilities, while you’re being bombarded with people who want to influence how you run things. It doesn’t take long to feel like you’re being held hostage in a spin dryer. Your life gets itinerised to the back teeth with meetings that others insist are a matter of life and death. You’re met with expressions of shock and mild disgust when you have completed a task or voiced an opinion that is  - gasp! - different from your predecessor’s. You want to scream at everyone to please just leave you the fuck alone but unfortunately that is generally frowned upon in a professional setting.

At You magazine, my predecessor had been in the chair for about 20 years. So as the new editor stepping in and indicating that many changes would be made under me, it meant a lot of people in the company wanted to know what I was up to. There was curiosity, mild excitement about what change might mean. In particular, the advertising team were very keen to be all over me. Like white on rice.

I couldn’t seem to get any time to actually read features, look at page layouts etc because I was forever in long meetings. A lot of it was that the advertising department wanted to wheel me out as the shiny new toy, to do my song and dance act with cash-rich brands about all the changes I was making to the magazine, and why they should spend with us. Having just lost one magazine job because the ad money basically dried up, I was only too willing to support them. But it very quickly came to a point where I felt I was spending more time with that side of things than actually editing the magazine. Coupled with that, because I’d said I’d happily help the ad team come up with creative ideas to sell as what they call ‘advertorials’ to brands, this started to get out of hand too. It went from, ‘Sure I can contribute to that side’ to getting emails saying, ‘Jo, I need all your ideas for this brand within the next 30 minutes for my meeting.’

I was opening my calendar to find people had rammed it with commitments without consulting me about any of them. One of the easiest ways to infuriate me is to fill my working day with so many meetings that I don’t get to eat or pee until well after clocking off time. I had to tell many PAs - ‘Sometimes that break between meetings is there because I need a gap to think or read, it’s not a gap that must be filled.’

Three months of this rolled by in a blur and I started to worry that I was simply not cut out for the weekly magazine pace, after so many years doing a monthly mag.  

But when I looked at the actual magazine editing work, I realised that was nonsense. This was not a bigger job than Glamour in that sense. In fact, when you consider the daily deadlines we also had for Glamour’s website, and the schedule of big events like The Glamour Awards and The Beauty Festival, in many ways the You job was a lighter load. I wasn’t afraid of a lot of work, but I realised I was not getting time in this job to do what I was paid for. 

I was being overwhelmed with other people’s priorities and now it was pissing me off. 

So I called a meeting and politely but firmly explained that I needed some boundaries. Instead of throwing my toys out of the pram and stropping that ‘This is not my job!’ (which I could have, justifiably), I just requested that we lay down rules. They needed to give me a shortlist of our most important advertisers and I would work more closely with the ad team for those clients only. I insisted we review the amount of regular weekly meetings we were all having and figure out how to cut those down to fewer, more efficient ones. And I stopped people just putting things in my diary without checking with me first. 

Sanity was slowly restored.

It took me a while because I was the new girl and I had to take time to figure out what was the right and wrong thing to say no to. But in all my years of working and managing offices, I think I’ve learned a few ways to clear the bullshit from a diary.

So, if you’re feeling like you have too much on your plate and the demands on you are becoming ridiculous, here are some questions to ask yourself and answer as honestly as you can. 

1. Are you still sort of doing your old job as well as your new job? Do you need to look at letting go of that?

This is a particularly easy trap to fall into if you’ve been promoted internally. Not only do your colleagues struggle to see you differently, but it’s all too easy for you to keep plugging away at the comfortable parts of what you know. If this feels a confusing thing to ask yourself, ask someone you trust to help you look at it objectively. I’ve had many people who work for me be granted the promotion they wanted, and then I’ve had to beg them to let the person now doing their old job to please get on with it, even if they think that person is doing it all wrong. 

2. What did you observe as the work pattern of the person who previously had your new role? 

I’m not saying you should operate in exactly the same way, but are you being demanded in ways that were just not an issue for that person? If the previous person was leaving on time, if they were not attending meetings that you are now expected to attend, there’s possibly an issue with you being asked to do too much that needs addressing. If the previous person was - as you are now - harried, overwhelmed and forever chasing their own tail, this is another internal issue. The job is too bloody big for one person. Can you discuss that with your superiors? Can you go to them with some efficiency ideas that help you all out? 

3. What are the things that qualified you for this role? What are you good at? What strengths do you want to play to? 

This is the most important conversation to have with yourself first, and then your boss. When I was at my charity job, and feeling overwhelmed by everyone else’s priorities and to-do lists, I took it back to the basics of why I was hired: a) to oversee a rebrand, b) generate new fundraising ideas, c) get the charity more publicity and d) recruit influential supporters. I sent a company-wide email saying ‘These are the things I am focusing on. If you need me for anything else, please speak to xxxx in the first instance, who will decide what urgently needs my attention.’ It wasn’t as dry as that, but you see the point. 

4. Are you crap at delegating?

Seriously, think hard on this because so many people are. I think it’s because people tend to view getting someone else to do something as weak, or rude, or lazy. It depends what it is. But once you’ve answered question 3, you will understand what makes you value for your boss’s money. And delegating, when used for good, is such an empowering thing for those who work for you. It shows you trust that person, which makes them feel good. It helps them to grow their skill set and their areas of responsibility. It helps them to achieve things that garner your praise (make sure you praise!!). It makes you look fantastic if the people who work under you can be trusted to do great things. And if you don’t want other people you work with to be praised and noticed and promoted for doing great things, well, I can’t help you. 

Is this in any way helpful? Does it beg further questions? If it does, I’m so happy to keep this conversation going. Ultimately, my advice in this situation is something of a common theme from me: You need to tell someone that you need help. Who is the person on your team you can speak to and just say, I’m feeling completely swamped and unproductive, I need help clearing away some of the shit so that I can actually be of use. Most of the time, that person will be delighted to help you in any way they can. Try it.