Bit of a weird scenario at work just curious if others have had similar in the past (TL;DR day-to-day job itself is OK but bit some concerns about the medium term big picture)?
So I have a job where I feel I'm adequately compensated for my role, am not overworked (currently), get on pretty well with people. So I'm content with my position, even if it is (remuneration aside) less senior than a role I've held in the past at a similar organisation. All OK on that front.
However, we're engaged in some long term programmes of activity that I think are somewhat offtrack, big investment but not much tangible benefits realisation yet relative to that spend. I have this nagging impending sense of doom in the back of my mind, that we are sort of sleepwalking into a potential car crash sometime in the next year where the Exec will probably lose patience at not seeing a return on their investment. Perhaps more worryingly, I've seen quite a few people in our area leave this year due in part to frustrations at the slow pace of change and being frequently constrained from doing things the right/best way. There's a risk of this snowballing where the people left have to pick up more and more things and then that compounds into them getting frustrated or overworked I guess - maybe that will be me soon. Strategically, we seem to change direction frequently and often have multiple silos looking at similar things, meanwhile key problems we need to tackle get kicked down the road. We seem to get frequently torn between wanting to deliver long term strategic solutions and 'quick wins' (that sometimes aren't as quick or impactful as expected). We build out roadmaps that are pie in the sky aspirations without any real achievability lens on it because the senior leadership wants to present a positive outlook, which I think will catch up with us eventually. It's a bit Emperor's New Clothes territory at times, running through our successes at a town hall event or whatever with half the team cringing in the background.
My dilemma is that actually the spinning tyres we've experienced are kind of OK in the short term, I mean I get paid regardless and I'm one step removed from the decision makers that have accountability (conversely this means my ability to influence is a bit less than I'm used to). But I think there is a storm brewing in the background, budget constraints are coming in, I can forsee a situation where the Exec puts their foot down and we're under the cosh to deliver 'something' in a rushed fashion (e.g. spend 2yrs doing 50% of the work, then say 40 of the remaining 50% has to be attempted in a quarter). And for the first time in my career if push came to shove I don't feel like I could just walk straight out of the door into another perm role paying the same or better money, there aren't a huge number of those around in the current market.
So I have a job where I feel I'm adequately compensated for my role, am not overworked (currently), get on pretty well with people. So I'm content with my position, even if it is (remuneration aside) less senior than a role I've held in the past at a similar organisation. All OK on that front.
However, we're engaged in some long term programmes of activity that I think are somewhat offtrack, big investment but not much tangible benefits realisation yet relative to that spend. I have this nagging impending sense of doom in the back of my mind, that we are sort of sleepwalking into a potential car crash sometime in the next year where the Exec will probably lose patience at not seeing a return on their investment. Perhaps more worryingly, I've seen quite a few people in our area leave this year due in part to frustrations at the slow pace of change and being frequently constrained from doing things the right/best way. There's a risk of this snowballing where the people left have to pick up more and more things and then that compounds into them getting frustrated or overworked I guess - maybe that will be me soon. Strategically, we seem to change direction frequently and often have multiple silos looking at similar things, meanwhile key problems we need to tackle get kicked down the road. We seem to get frequently torn between wanting to deliver long term strategic solutions and 'quick wins' (that sometimes aren't as quick or impactful as expected). We build out roadmaps that are pie in the sky aspirations without any real achievability lens on it because the senior leadership wants to present a positive outlook, which I think will catch up with us eventually. It's a bit Emperor's New Clothes territory at times, running through our successes at a town hall event or whatever with half the team cringing in the background.
My dilemma is that actually the spinning tyres we've experienced are kind of OK in the short term, I mean I get paid regardless and I'm one step removed from the decision makers that have accountability (conversely this means my ability to influence is a bit less than I'm used to). But I think there is a storm brewing in the background, budget constraints are coming in, I can forsee a situation where the Exec puts their foot down and we're under the cosh to deliver 'something' in a rushed fashion (e.g. spend 2yrs doing 50% of the work, then say 40 of the remaining 50% has to be attempted in a quarter). And for the first time in my career if push came to shove I don't feel like I could just walk straight out of the door into another perm role paying the same or better money, there aren't a huge number of those around in the current market.
