I'm 4 days into my new job and thinking of quitting since day 2. I'm in my mid 30s and this job is paying 120k and at the top of my career path, however they are tacking on lots of XYZ responsibilities that was never mentioned in the interview or job posting. Nor am I actually qualified to do these XYZ responsibilities so there's a tonne of pressure already.
My role is ABC manager but they announced I was taking over XYZ manager role as well because he was retiring. I thought they would replace XYZ with a new one but nope, I'm the guy. Therefore my actual role is ABC + XYZ and the XYZ part is killing me inside.
I can't sleep well. I talked to my boss, the owner, on my second day and we all realized there was a huge miscommunication. He says he always thought ABC manager included XYZ , while to me it's very different . The contract also does not include XYZ. In the end he thinks I'm still qualified and thinks it's just nerves.
I want to just quit , as embarassing as it is, even though he may be right. The one who interviewed me and vouched for me was because we worked together briefly before about 10 years ago and I have a good rep. Leaving just 1 week in will make him look really bad as well. The owner is also really nice and hyped me up to the whole company before our misunderstanding.
If I just focus on ABC I would love the job, but I can't even do it because XYZ stuff has been piling up already. And even if I pick up XYZ skillset, it's not what I want to do in the long run. I want to strictly focus on ABC.
My thoughts are to quit outright but the optics of quitting few days in is a bad look for everyone. I look like I give up easily. My boss looks bad because I was supposed to be a great hire and fit for the company (and presented to everyone as such) and the manager who vouched for me looks bad because he pulled hard for me.
Second thought is renegotiating my contract to exclude XYZ…but I'm not sure how much I'm willing to compromise on salary (previous job 93k + WFH + free benefits for my family vs current job 20min driver to office + need to pay for benefits) but ultimately id be happier. Again just the optics of shifting my role in the company 1 week in is not a good look for everyone.
Third thought is…just keep plugging away, deal with the anxiety and stress, hope they hire a XYZ manager(there was some conversation about this but no promises, just 'we'll see') and ride out the wave?