No Guidance from New Manager

ableandy

Go and speak to HR - don't email them. Words on paper can either come across in the wrong manner or be held for future use!

Pop along to them, i take it they were involved in hiring you so they know you a re new. Be open with them and then see what they advise.

Tenyearstogo

Have you asked your team what you should be doing as their manager?

FBaby

Dedfinitely don't go to HR, you will give yourself a very bad name that after 1 week, you were already going to cry to them having not given realistic time to resolve the issue.

So you did have a meeting with him and he cancelled. That happens but it shows that he did intend to meet up, so going to HR on this basis will make you look totally incompetent.

You've only been there 1 week, how much can any blame be put on you at this stage?

My view is that starting a new job always feel confusing and worrying. You are under pressure to prove yourself and it can feel that you lacking complete control. From an employer's perspective, it is a time to assess how you settle, how proactive you are, how much you put this time to good use to learn and adapt to the environment. Anyone that comes in and after 1 week already wants to cause trouble and destabilised the team is certainly not going to look good and could potentially set things badly from the start.

Go with the flow, do your best, be proactive and note anything where you feel they have failed you so you can use if things were to go bad. Ask your line manager when the meeting will be reschedule and you can best prepare for that first meeting. If you are really anxious, maybe you can tell him that you are a bit worried that you are not set up to do what is expected of you at the moment, but nothing more than that.

When I started my latest job, I didn't meet my new boss for weeks but for 5 seconds when he told me to approach my colleague if I had any questions. I spend quite some time on the computer looking at their policies (if not available on line, I would have gone to HR and asked for hard copy of them), observed my colleagues, tok a lot of notes and questions to ask my boss when we finally met.

Making a good impression from the start is the most valuable tool to start with.

bernina1

Your manager sounds pretty poor to me. At the very least they should've arranged to have half an hour with you to make you feel welcome and set out some basics about the role.

If I was you I would speak to each member of the team individually to learn from them about what they do, how they see things in the future, etc. Maybe you could 'shadow' some people in their roles so you can learn how things work.

I certainly wouldn't be getting there unnecessarily early, not taking lunch and leaving late. It won't win you any brownie points (nobody will notice) and it is soul destroying just sitting there doing nothing. Much better to try and meet people, get out and about (if relevant to the role).

poorlittlefish

I had exactly the same thing at my last job. In fact, not only was I not told anything about what was expected of me or given any training whatsoever, I wasn't even provided with the basic tools. I too cried every day once I left the office. I sat down with my team, got them to show me how to use the various bespoke systems, asked them who the "key players" were in other teams/departments and introduced myself to those people so that I could get assistance from them on everything else. Eventually things settled down, but it was the most awful experience I've had on starting a new job.