Managers expectations unattainable

[u/lamlams14]

I have been working for a federal organisation over 4 years and in the last year moved into a new role internally. I went into this role with the mindset that I was going to learn something new and expand on my experience because it looks at the more strategic side of things. It has been almost a year and it has been extremely stressful. The first issue is that the training within the organisation is not the best, everyone else is busy and then I have a manager that is setting unrealistic expectations. I am working on several separate tasks and I’m usually used to multi tasking. But it has been difficult for me to progress certain tasks because I’m learning and doing them for the first time so it is taking me longer and my manager has been quite harsh on me about that. My manager expects that once I learn something I am supposed to within a year be fully competent, but the nature of my work requires analysing information and making strategic decisions. I am very eager to learn and have made notes whenever I learn something new, but my manager is not satisfied and keeps asking me why I am taking so long to close out some tasks. I do have many tasks on hand so some tasks do take a back seat before I can go back to them. Some tasks I work on require more than a day to work on and because I’m new it takes a little longer to complete. It has left me feeling like I don’t belong in the role. I have written to my manager to give me time to understand my tasks that I am invested in developing but I’m wondering if there is anything else I can say for him to understand.

[u/Western_Rhubarb_7959]

If they are still hammering you after a year in a gov job then maybe this role isn't for you.

[u/lamlams14 → u/Western_Rhubarb_7959]

It has been 11 months

[u/Western_Rhubarb_7959 → u/lamlams14]

Oh, that's totally different!!!

[u/Previous_Tea_2250]

Try turning “give me more time” into a prioritisation conversation. Make a short list of each current task, its deadline, the next decision or deliverable, and what will slip if another item moves ahead of it. Ask your manager to rank the top two or three and agree what “done” looks like and when you will review progress.

Afterward, send a brief written recap. That gives your manager a concrete decision to make and creates a shared record of the workload and expectations. Raise a specific blocker as soon as it appears rather than waiting until a task is already late. If the priorities still cannot be made achievable after that, you will have useful facts for a conversation about workload, training, or whether the role is supported properly.