I’ve posted on here before about the (unasked for) promotion I received last year. The promotion involved becoming a line manager to 3 individuals and being responsible for the success of 2 products. I was offered a 4% raise (now received a further 5%).
I’ve been in my new role for 3 months and weirdly enough I really enjoy being a people manager. I always thought I’d hate it but I really like helping others and it helps that all 3 of my reports are friendly and easy to get along with. It’s great to see them grow in confidence and to support them with their goals.
What I’m struggling with is that I HATE how ‘senior’ I am now. I’m expected to schmooze to senior execs, be in strategy calls all day and I have to make really serious decisions on my own. I really don’t feel qualified for this part of the role and I’m falling behind on work, because I still need to do my day to day tasks on my products as well as manage 3 people AND develop strategy. I’m a hard worker but unless I work late evenings I can’t get through my to do list. And this is me doing the bare minimum!
Also I’m starting to despise everything my company stands for (making insane amounts of money in healthcare) and I feel uncomfortable that I’m now responsible for this.
I feel awful for complaining because I’m making a lot of money and I get to mostly wfh. But I’m just very unhappy with this role and I’m jealous of my direct reports who have more junior roles and don’t make that much less than me (one is earning 15K less). I would love to switch places with them. I had an awful nervous breakdown/burnout this time last year and I don’t want to go through that again.
Is it stupid of me to ask for a demotion?