So… a little bit of context. I used to work for a wonderful company as a manager… and I don’t want to give away too much information about the company, so I’ll be kind of vague. For the sake of simplicity, I’ll simply call the company “company A”. Company A provided services to homes by sending technicians out in company vehicles. I was provided with everything I needed to succeed: new equipment, up-to-date phone apps, and an amazing routing website that we used to send our technicians to people’s homes. The owners really listened to what we needed, and responded with compassion. About a week ago, prices in my area climbed to a point where I could no longer support myself or my family at company A. Regrettably, I decided to quit and take another job in the same line of work, but with a different company.
I was interviewed for this new company… we’ll call this “company b”. The interview went great, and it seemed as though it was the same work I had been doing at company a, so I accepted the position for a $25,000 increase in salary. Fast forward to my first day….
I am immediately placed at a computer that looks like it was made in 2002 and given 15 various websites to log into. I am told by my direct supervisor to “play around” with the computer. The software is atrocious and takes 7 minutes to load, simply to look up client information. I log into a website that forwards calls from my desk phone to my cell phone, so I can answer calls anywhere. One by one, e-mails start to flood my notification screen, all telling me to contact customers due to various issues. Since this is my first day, I glance through them, not expecting that I would need to respond to them. After all, I’ve been in my chair for a mere 10 minutes and haven’t been given any instruction or guidance. I accidentally stumble on an application that company b used to communicate with technicians, and all of the supervisors are tagged in the posts.
Naturally, I get to work. I start answering phone calls and emails, notifications from the app, not knowing anything about company pricing, policies, or how the company deals with billing issues. My boss is nowhere to be seen. I begin to call the technicians, making them aware of issues or customer notes that need to be taken care of. I start to think that it isn’t that difficult. 10 seconds after I had that thought, I am bombarded with phone calls from the office, asking what I want to do about the pricing of certain services, what services I want to add or take away, and how we handle certain problems. In the middle of these calls, my boss pops in the room and tells me that I’m interviewing a potential technician in 2 minutes. I haven’t even been here for an hour at this point. Nevertheless, I interview the candidate, still having no idea what I can offer – knowing nothing about company benefits, pay, or schedules that we can offer the technicians. Needless to say, the candidate didn’t accept the job, since I didn’t know what I could or could not offer in the way of pay.
I go back to my desk and begin answering calls again. Emails by the hundreds start piling up… sheets and budgets that I know nothing about begin to flood my computer. I ask the other supervisors next door if they could give me any information so I can fill out the sheets… and they don’t know how to fill out the budgets and sheets that I was given because theirs are different! I look around for my boss, but he is nowhere to be found. I struggle through filling them out, budgeting and planning on 15 different sheets – barely figuring out what I was doing and not knowing what the heck I was planning. A technician enters the door and tells me to order products that we’re almost out of. I ask around again, nobody seems to know how I go about that process. I begin digging through the files, trying desperately to find an order sheet or some type of document indicating where I can order products. I finally find one and fax it to HR. Just as I’m done with that, my boss pops in to tell me I need to train two new hires. Sure. I’ll train them based off of no knowledge and no training myself.
In conclusion, I have been at company b for roughly a week and a half. Every single day is as chaotic and mismanaged as the first. I don’t know how to use the apps my techs use on their routes. I barely know how to budget the figures they’re giving me, because the figures are based on last year’s earned income for the company. I barely know what company vehicles belong to which technicians. Maybe I’ve been pampered for too long at company A. Is it normal for a company to do this?