WFH - anyone else struggling?

LegacyUser

Calendars full, busier than ever depts, long hours but just chasing tail not making in-roads on anything developmental. Any plan for the day is constantly disrupted by ‘urgent’ requests.
Senior mgmt have set targets for the year to be the most ambitious year ever.

I’m a first time manager - took over manager’s role (left company) during covid. Ordinarily, would have looked forward to a step-up in responsibility but now I think it couldn’t have come at a worse time.

The team are good, but all quite junior and inexperienced. It’s a technical role that requires lots of judgement, knowledge of the business, collaboration with other departments etc.

I just don’t think it’s working well at all during WFH, and I’m not sure it will be hugely better in a future hybrid model either.
Through no fault of their own, the team & team members are becoming more silo’d and less collaborative which means everything is being siphoned through me and ultimately drip fed from above. I learned so much from those around me when I was a junior in the office and I’d worry in the next few years that ‘learning by osmosis’ will be gone.

Delegating tasks to junior staff is so much more time consuming. Between explaining requirements, screen sharing, squeezing in IMs between back-to-back meetings to address queries, and getting around to reviewing everything there’s so little time for upskilling the team. I don’t want them working long hours either, even if I am...

I do try and hold ‘knowledge building’ sessions but I don’t get much back in terms of engagement and it usually means me working an hour later because of everything else going on.

Anyone else in a similar boat? A lot of people never want to go back to office again so it’s certainly not universal

LegacyUser

I could have written this word for word myself tbh!

I definitely find the extra communications, explaining things a lot more due to the lack of informal learning that people pick up from being around others, following-up, chasing missed deadlines, being extra-super-sensitive because of the stress everyone is under, just adds so much time to things. A 2 minute explanation face to face is now either emails back and forth, or turns into an extended call, and multiplied out by 6,7,8,9... reports or whatever, the extra 20 mins here and there really adds up over the week. And still deadlines from the staff are not being met, or problems communicated.

Chasing my tail is exactly how I feel myself tbh - i do think hybrid will help a lot though. Even 1-2 days in the office will help people pick up new skills more easily, learn from others, and with engagement too as well as topping up the culture fit that has dropped out completely in some cases.

OMM 0000

WFHStruggle wrote: »

all quite junior and inexperienced

This is the problem.

Why is your team entirely junior and inexperienced?

In technical teams you need a mix of skills, experience and personality types to have a good chance of making things work. You can then use slack where the team can help each other.

You should talk to your manager about this issue. That you need one or two senior people to help balance out the team as you're spending too much time hand holding.

jimmycrackcorm

WFHStruggle wrote: »

l during WFH, and I’m not sure it will be hugely better in a future hybrid model either.
Through no fault of their own, the team & team members are becoming more silo’d and less collaborative which means everything is being siphoned through me and ultimately drip fed from above. I learned so much from those around me when I was a junior in the office and I’d worry in the next few years that ‘learning by osmosis’ will be gone.

I have a feeling that you would probably experience the same in the office.
I once had a team mostly co-located in the same office space but with a couple of members fully remote. Because of that, we used a chat app to collaborate even between people sitting next to each other. The key was the team got into the habit of chatting about the tasks and asking/answering questions. It can be very effective if you have some experienced members who are taking the lead on sharing information and a policy of "There are no stupid questions".

caviardreams

OMM 0000 wrote: »

This is the problem.

Why is your team entirely junior and inexperienced?

In technical teams you need a mix of skills, experience and personality types to have a good chance of making things work. You can then use slack where the team can help each other.

You should talk to your manager about this issue. That you need one or two senior people to help balance out the team as you're spending too much time hand holding.

What do you do where the team all have different roles and can't help each other e.g. marketing, finance, technical, sales - there can be a real lack of decision making and ownership with constant handholding and reassurance needed, and you can't buddy people up or partner people (this was an idea I tried) as the roles are very different.

hmmm

The comment about not getting much engagement concerns me - it sounds like they're not working at addressing their weaknesses (or you haven't told them what they need to work on), and you're tolerating this. Even if you're the manager, you can't do everything. Delegate and give people responsibility, and don't accept them simply offloading everything onto you which they find difficult. I've seen a lot of managers be too approachable, or too willing to pick up the slack, and they get overloaded very quickly.

Have your company got a performance review process which would allow you to have these conversations?

Esse85

Do they need more training or more coaching?

dennyk

caviardreams wrote: »

What do you do where the team all have different roles and can't help each other e.g. marketing, finance, technical, sales - there can be a real lack of decision making and ownership with constant handholding and reassurance needed, and you can't buddy people up or partner people (this was an idea I tried) as the roles are very different.

That doesn't sound like a team, that sounds like an entire company. A small business like that is going to require management to be a lot more flexible and hands-on, and likely require the employees to wear more than one hat and learn from each other so they can cover for each other when needed. As such, you'll need to shell out the necessary salaries to get a few true multi-talented rockstars and/or some folks with good leadership skills on that team who can help handle the load.

As for the OP's issue, that definitely sounds like a problem of having nothing but junior staff on their team, rather than working from home specifically. A collaborative office environment can certainly help some folks learn, but it won't really help much when the entire team is inexperienced and no one has anyone to learn from except their already overwhelmed manager.

Collaboration is certainly possible between team members online, and they should be encouraged to reach out to each other on whatever messaging system your company uses when they need help. Again, though, if they're all inexperienced and new, that's going to be a problem there as well; without some experienced team members to share their knowledge with the rest, it's a tricky situation, regardless of the WFH aspect.

OMM 0000

caviardreams wrote: »

What do you do where the team all have different roles and can't help each other e.g. marketing, finance, technical, sales - there can be a real lack of decision making and ownership with constant handholding and reassurance needed, and you can't buddy people up or partner people (this was an idea I tried) as the roles are very different.

There shouldn't be a team where all the roles are completely different.

For example, the head of development should not be supervising sales.

Those teams need to be split into sub teams with one member acting as supervisor or senior member or team leader.

If it's a startup environment where everyone is reporting to the founder, that's different, but as the company grows the teams need to be split up so the founder can focus on what he needs to do - sales, marketing, product, fundraising.

Andrea B.

WFHStruggle wrote: »

Calendars full, busier than ever depts, long hours but just chasing tail not making in-roads on anything developmental. Any plan for the day is constantly disrupted by ‘urgent’ requests.
Senior mgmt have set targets for the year to be the most ambitious year ever.

I’m a first time manager - took over manager’s role (left company) during covid. Ordinarily, would have looked forward to a step-up in responsibility but now I think it couldn’t have come at a worse time.

The team are good, but all quite junior and inexperienced. It’s a technical role that requires lots of judgement, knowledge of the business, collaboration with other departments etc.

I just don’t think it’s working well at all during WFH, and I’m not sure it will be hugely better in a future hybrid model either.
Through no fault of their own, the team & team members are becoming more silo’d and less collaborative which means everything is being siphoned through me and ultimately drip fed from above. I learned so much from those around me when I was a junior in the office and I’d worry in the next few years that ‘learning by osmosis’ will be gone.

Delegating tasks to junior staff is so much more time consuming. Between explaining requirements, screen sharing, squeezing in IMs between back-to-back meetings to address queries, and getting around to reviewing everything there’s so little time for upskilling the team. I don’t want them working long hours either, even if I am...

I do try and hold ‘knowledge building’ sessions but I don’t get much back in terms of engagement and it usually means me working an hour later because of everything else going on.

Anyone else in a similar boat? A lot of people never want to go back to office again so it’s certainly not universal

Same as, but i have started pulling back.
I have found that some have taken the p**s on the WFH opportunities, at the cost of colleagues.

Flinty997

Sounds like a legacy of where someone probably a previous a manager, or senior team members, worked in silo doing everything, micro managing and drip feeding tasks to those around them.

Then when that person leaves or is promoted those that are left not only are unable to fill in and do these tasks. But also have not developed the processes or habits of working and communicating on tasks.

Flinty997

We had this with one manager and it left a legacy of those that worked with and under him also working in similar habits. Silo building.

JimmyVik

I cant wait to get back to the office.
Much more work and better communication and sharing of ideas.
Not to mention the social aspect of it.

eusap

Sounds like the biggest problem is the company have not invested in you becoming a manager! When i started in management a wise experienced manager told me that if you have time to read the paper at morning coffee break you are doing great!

1. Take a step back from the work and team and look objectively at what needs to be done. Don't be afraid to move people or work between team members

2. Look at what's draining your time, is it the mentoring or the following up

3. have a daily standup meeting to check on progress <15mins, allow time during the day for mentoring and stop the constant interruptions.

4. Don't be afraid to lean on the team to mentor each other, have a chat group where team members can post problems etc... and other team members can help

KaneToad

JimmyVik wrote: »

I cant wait to get back to the office.
Much more work and better communication and sharing of ideas.
Not to mention the social aspect of it.

Horses for courses.
I don't miss the office at all. No distractions, no chit chatting, get more done in less time.

Not interested in social aspect. It's work. Outside the office is where I socialise.

gauchesnell

KaneToad wrote: »

Horses for courses.
I don't miss the office at all. No distractions, no chit chatting, get more done in less time.

Not interested in social aspect. It's work. Outside the office is where I socialise.

Yeah agree there. Get a lot more done at home. Social aspect isnt a thing for most people - its work not friends. Been back twice and the about of time taken up with random chat is bizarre.