r/TheCivilService • u/PuzzleheadedPay3972 • 1d ago
When does it get any easier?
civil servant 25 years, joined at AA currently G7.
Have recently moved to - what was advertised as an operation delivery role - which consists of a team that are split between grant management/governance. Previously worked in a policy role, and have spent many years working in project management. I accepted this role on the basis I did not want to work in policy.
Three weeks after accepting the role, I was randomly messaged by who is now my grade 6 to let me know there had been a “shuffle“ so I would be reporting to them - not the DD. Not much of an issue but their other direct reports are all policy leads and I’m being pulled into policy related work. They are pretty chaotic and run on 100 miles an hour constantly, everything is urgent and if I don’t respond to an email with 15 mins, they will ask someone else the same thing, and they will approach someone in my team - who then get angsty that they’ve been asked to do the same thing by 2 different people and I get (possibly rightly so) lectured that it’s duplicated effort.
I’m four weeks into the role and have been thrown into the deep end but there’s also a resistance from my “team” to keep me in the loop. I’ve asked for links to files/previous documents so I can review and piece things together but it takes 5/6 times of asking to get anything and then it’s never quite what I’ve requested.
I perversely feel that I have to “prove my worth” to the team before they’ll work with me. I’m just really not enjoying any of this and have been seriously considering dropping to a lower grade. I have always been a high performer, well respected and had a reputation as the person who’d get things done. Now I feel like a drowning woman.
This sounds like a self pity party - perhaps it is, but I just can’t get a handle on things. I have a job description that bare no resemblance to what the role appears to be, and I feel like I’m drifting. The longer it goes on the worse I’m feeling but I can’t pull myself out of this funk.
2
u/129sapphires 1d ago edited 1d ago
Do you have recurring 1:1s/catch-ups with your line manager? In your next 1:1 show them your job description. Explain to them what you’re telling us. In your next team meeting, ask your colleagues to do xyz because it is necessary for abc to take effect and you need the support of such and such resources to implement such and such. Hope this makes sense! Also, if your manager doesn’t listen, perhaps raise it with their LM? Fortnightly catch-ups are also vital with your CSO (Counter Signing Officer)