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Fri, 20 Jan, 2023 - 15:08

Caroline Martin

I was thrown in at the deep end when I joined a small marketing company as a graduate a year ago. Though I don’t have as much experience as the others, I’m expected to keep up. I asked for a mentor but was told there was no need as everyone in the team was there to help me. Yet when I ask more than one question, I get the impression that I’m annoying my co-workers, who have been working together for years. I’m fed up and want to leave, but my parents say I should stick it out for at least another year.

There is quite a chasm between jumping in and being thrown in at the deep end. In the excellent TV series Bad Sisters, we watched as the sisters jumped nonchalantly into the cold water at The Forty Foot. However, many of us might relate more easily to the two women in the Lyons Tea advert sipping their tea on the shoreline, talking about getting in— one day.

While some companies pride themselves on their internal support, such as mentoring and in-depth onboarding programmes, others practically beat their chest with pride in their sink-or-swim philosophy. The intersection of company culture and your relationship with risk may be a factor in your experience.

When we graduate from college, we are usually keen to put our skills to use and seek jobs that will compensate us well. Later on, we recognise the importance of the workplace’s culture. Indeed, we may learn that different cultures suit our circumstances at different times. Take some time to observe practices that deliberately reveal the company’s culture.

I wonder if your parents would like you to stay in this job out of a desire for you to have financial stability. Perhaps they grew up during a time of mass unemployment when jobs were scarce, so their reasoning is understandable. Ironically, because the value of security was instilled in you, risk is now something to be avoided. Yet, taking risks seems to be part of your job. Our relationship with risk can be an interesting aspect of ourselves to explore and reflect on.

I would be interested to know how you took on new challenges in other parts of your life. Consider what steps you intuitively take to learn new skills successfully. Perhaps in school you preferred to read and reread the steps required to perform a particular task, such as an experiment or maths equation before starting. Or maybe, as you read each step, you completed it until the task was accomplished. Others in the class may have been happy to try and recall a previous similar task and improvise. What did it mean for you if you found yourself in a situation where you needed to improvise?

I note that you requested a mentor, an excellent idea if having a guiding hand gives you the extra security needed to step into unfamiliar territory. Of course, this mentor does not have to come from within the company. I encourage you to consult widely. Your college peers can be a great resource. The more diverse the group, the bigger the toolkit and the greater the expertise you can draw on. Some college programmes also offer informal support for graduates. They are, after all, eager for their graduates to succeed.

When a group has been together in the workplace for a period of time, their knowledge can become tacit, making it hard for them to explain. This is akin to asking someone how they ride a bicycle. If they haven’t had any new employees in a while, they may have to remember how to transfer information to others. You may be inadvertently shining a light on their area of weakness.

I am curious about your assertion that you are expected to keep up at work. Is it possible that they expect you to try to keep up but mistakes are anticipated? Or do they expect you to keep up without making mistakes? The answer will tell you something about the culture of the company. If they value mistakes as opportunities to learn, their frustration may pertain to your perceived reluctance to give it a go and risk making a mistake. A conversation with your colleagues about past mistakes they’ve made in the company will likely shine a light on some key information. Perhaps you will discover that they ascribe to Beckett’s thinking: ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’

If this is the case, reflect on all you have achieved to date will be helpful. They believe you can do the job. If you need to, take out your CV and review it, noting all the transferable skills. Which ones will increase your chances of success?

If, however, they expect you to jump in and master the task without guidance, it is wise to be cautious. You may decide to move on to another company, but in the meantime, look for opportunities to benefit from your remaining time in this job. Take advantage of informal interactions with colleagues, asking them how they thrive in the job, where they see themselves in five years, what skills they hope to acquire and how they plan to learn those skills.

Pour yourself a cuppa, have the chats and be ready to take the plunge when the vista looks promising.

Take care.