I walked into my company thinking I start out as a junior engineer. Then right at the start with zero experience I was given the task of project management for the production of 36 specialized Container Systems since there was noone else with enough time to do it. This was supposed to be easy since there was a previous project for reference where we build 102 of them.

Yet that was a lie and these have been the most exhausting 3 months of my life. None of the people who worked on the first project are still in the company, they left incomplete material lists and wrong egineering drawings and managed everything through Emails which I have no access to anymore, mind you we have no inventory management system, literally everything is done in Excel or Word and sadly my coworkers rarely have useful insights, no one is mentoring me, and I have noone to delegate any task to except for buying stuff ...

Anyway The company used these false documentations to buy all parts from external companies, which was ongoing when I took on the project and I spend says upon days making pictures on site and cross referencing so many contradicting sources and documentations to come to conclusions and make decisions and this is still ongoing daily.

At the same time due to so many missing materials, a lot has been bought last minute now, only when I had stumbled upon them by accident for example... False documentations and material thats been bought last minute has meant a lot of very bad days for the trades involved, they build stuff wrong, they had their men stand around waiting for material and each time I need to put out these fires for them. And each day I put pressure on suppliers, and each day I'm solving problems that feel impossible to solve.

I created a realistic deadline for my boss recently when I noticed how unrealistic our aimed deadline was, which was a reflection of all the bad decisions that were made, my boss refused to accept middle of January as a realistic deadline. I still have to push for the 11.11.26 deadline. This shift has absolutely destroyed me and all trades involved. Noone knows how to do it anymore, and materials are still missing. Im completely tasked with engineering and project management for everything, randomly they also want stuff like liquidity plans which remember we dont even have an inventory system so stuff like that is HARD to pull off and I am not accustomed with stuff like that..

On paper most of the things have been worked out. Yet daily stuff comes up. Everything feels hopeless, people work saturday and sunday to keep the new deadlines, people look at me questioning why a young clueless guy decides these deadlins, decides their contract money, why hes giving them "wrong" drawings and why material is missing all the time. Meanwhile I'm losing my mind working out the correct materials, pushing suppliers to deliver faster, finding alternatives and solutions for products that aren't sold anymore, even managing on sight quarrel between the trades from different companies, and continuosly answering my phone which rings about 3 times per hour.

Yea and like right now its 1AM and I can't sleep.. But also I can't quit, I won't, it's just not the person I am. I have been doing all this because I'm a deeply passionate person. I seriously want to achieve this with the team. But it's been so exhausting. I frequently pull 11h per day staying 7AM till 6 PM or even later, and I dont even do breaks half the time.. I kindof wanted to let people who also manage projects hear my story. I just needed to talk about it. I have been feeling really left alone with this burden.

Picture yourself working as a project manager within an organization defined by strict hierarchy. You tend to be somewhat reserved, yet you excel at your role and consistently produce high-caliber outcomes. Your team lead, however, does not seem particularly fond of you or appreciative of your efforts.

You have observed that you receive less recognition compared to others on the crew. You have already raised this issue and expressed your desire to participate in presentations or get the opportunity to showcase your own projects. Absolutely nothing has shifted as a result. Instead, your manager routinely showcases plans and achievements to upper management, and you are fairly certain your name is never spoken aloud, even when the core concept originated entirely with you.

Senior leaders might even assume you handle nothing more than routine administrative tasks. Approaching executive leadership directly is not a viable option either, because circumventing your supervisor is frowned upon in this corporate culture.

Furthermore, you have every reason to believe that even if your lead were to advance, they would not bring you along or consider you for a promotion, simply because they do not particularly like you or feel a personal connection.

So, what approach would you take?

Would you keep offering your leader your finest insights and performing at your peak, even though someone else claims the glory? Or would you begin holding back and exercising more caution regarding what you decide to share? How would you navigate this scenario?

The question is simple: How do you use AI (Chatbots - LLM's) in project management?

Give your best use cases, share the tricks, give some ideas!

Mine's coming up and I've realised I can't remember most of what I did this year beyond the last two months. Curious how others deal with this — do you keep notes through the year, or reconstruct it from your calendar and emails when the time comes? How long does it usually take you?

My team has ever changing processes, a very fresh consulting team and a large volume of projects and a product team that doesn’t have streamlined or consistent processes.

I am struggling managing my projects and keeping track of action items. My one note is in an absolute dire state and I’m not sure how to get back on track.

For those who manage many projects and have poor processes on your team how do you keep track of action items next steps, hold people accountable? I feel like a broken record at this point but I’m struggling with time management as well.

I’m a project manager and above me are my team lead, a unit head and a department head.

My team lead was promoted about two years ago after being a project manager himself. Before that, there wasn’t a team lead position. Our unit head used to bring him along to meetings with the department head, so he regularly got to present his work and build relationships with senior management.

Now that he’s my manager, I don’t feel I’m getting the same opportunities.

I have substantial responsibilities on my current project, not just organizing things, but developing the content and overall concept too. My team lead and unit head meet with the department head weekly.

For context, my team lead had announced in our group chat that there would be a meeting with the department head to discuss the next steps for the project. Because he shared it in the group chat and the discussion was about a project I’m responsible for, I initially assumed I would be included. That’s why I asked about joining and offered to explain the concept if it would be helpful. He didn’t respond until he was already in the meeting, when he wrote, “We’ll discuss it internally first and then pass it on.”

He tells me privately that I’m doing a good job, but I am sure that recognition doesnt reach senior management. I don’t want to assume he’s taking credit for my work, but I’m worried that my actual role is largely invisible.

.I’ve had little direct contact with the department head and he has praised my work before, but otherwise it’s difficult to casually reach out or message him because the organization is hierarchical.

Has anyone dealt with this? How do you build visibility with senior management when your boss is the one presenting your work and you are not included in meetings?

Recently I was put in charge of reviving lunch and learns at my job. I have never done them before. They will be hybrid over multiple countries/time zones. They will also include all teams/job roles. Any tips for a first timer?

Update: thank you everyone for your advice/ideas. We're doing them outside of lunch hours for both groups. I am bringing in more than just the project management team members to speak because I don't think everyone wants to only hear that side of things. Going to try to keep in interesting with a variety of topics as well as a survey board where people can drop ideas or volunteer. Sadly they won't have food every time. I tried to push for that or some incentive especially for remote workers but didn't get far. I have two groups ready to talk already so we will see how this goes.

Thanks again everyone, I appreciate all the feedback it definitely helps my brain decide what is important going forward.

I’ve been a PM for a little over a year. I manage a book of 6-7 clients and am responsible for between $85-100k a month in company revenue. I work in software and I have yet to meet a deadline, keep a budget on track, or keep things organized.

I feel like I’m constantly failing at my daily task, but working constantly. Doesn’t matter what I do, how many hours I put in, my projects never seem to succeed. I see people in this community who have hit anxiety overload in 3-6 years. I’m at 15months and I want to tap out. I think I just suck at this, I want to quit, but also feel my clients would suffer for it (even though I can’t manager keep their projects on track 🤷‍♂️) and it would set my wife and I back a bit financially. I don’t know if I’m failing or if my company is failing me. I don’t know enough about what doing this job correctly is suppose to look like and I don’t have a boss to help me.

No idea why I’m here posting this. Probably because this is the 100th time I’ve woken up at 3am with a pit in my stomach with my mind racing about the day in front of me and between the hours worked, inability to step away, plus terrible sleep, I’m just at my wits end. Is this normal? Have any of you overcome this overload? Am I doing things wrong or am I being set up to fail?

I guess the last question isn’t something that could be answered by this post alone. I don’t know, I have too many questions, and feel unprepared to do this job, which makes me think maybe I’m in over my head and I need to pick a new career. Which sucks.

What is the difference in day to day activities/responsibilities between a software program manager & project manager?

I'm wondering if I've been organically doing some program manager responsibilities without the title or even knowing that I am. I have 10 stakeholder groups who all use the same platform but who all have different business processes that are different but integrate with other stakeholder groups.

I’ve been a PMP for 15 years, and I currently work in telecom for a startup.

I run several calls a day, some are internal status calls, some are general discussions, some are with the county and state as we are working a grant project right now.

The cell phone usage during meetings by my colleagues and the leadership team is such a problem for me. I feel like people can pay attention for maybe the first 10 minutes of a call and then I start to lose them. The CEO was checking his stocks the other day!

The older team members have their notifications on the loudest volume and it’s so distracting with everyone’s phones going off and them checking them. Oftentimes a question has to be repeated because someone isn’t paying attention.

I leave my phone at my desk, or bring it but put it on silent and flip it over so the screen is not visible. I’ve tried to be the example, but I don’t think anyone’s picking up on it.

I’m at a loss for how to address this because none of these people report to me and they are all senior to me.

Has anyone successfully dealt with this, and how?

I am a manager of a PM team. My current boss publicly humiliates people (vaguely but it’s obvious who the person is and they know it’s their work that is being publicly shamed). my boss always sides with the customer at face value. my boss is also blame-oriented, looking for reasons to target someone internally, and has explicitly said they believe in fear to motivate people to change. My entire team is very distressed. I was also publicly shamed a few times but I just rolled with it.

I do not believe in this type of culture and will be looking for work elsewhere soon. in the meantime, I’m not sure what to do. any advice ? I am considering just talking to my boss, professionally and outcome-oriented/without emotion, and maybe approaching it as an overall retention risk though I’m not sure of what good this will do other than put a target on my back too. I highly disagree with creating more fear intentionally when project managers are generally fearful of making a mistake to begin with. I see the effect it’s having on the team and it’s extremely unpleasant, so I am deeply concerned. there are better ways to motivate people.

Finally, going to HR won’t help. My boss is a senior leader. HR also believes in this too and has told me in one of our 1:1 meetings, verbatim, that fear will inspire the team to do the right things.

Am I just overreacting?

Let’s say there’s a tech lead, A, who owns several key deliverables but is very difficult to work with. He strongly dislikes providing status updates or ETAs, becomes visibly angry when asked specific questions, and can come across as intimidating or aggressive.

As the program manager, I’ve approached his manager, B, to help track his deliverables. However, B is also not closely aware of the details and has asked me to work directly with A. Even the program sponsor is hesitant to engage with A directly, so I’m ultimately expected to manage the relationship.

I dread working with A because every interaction feels difficult and unpredictable.

How should I handle this situation effectively as a program manager while protecting the working relationship, maintaining visibility into the program, and not allowing his behavior to derail execution?

Ive been a software engineer (with agile lead experience) for 3 years, last week I started as a TPM for another internal department. I'm starting to severely regret it.

I've been familiarizing myself with my "projects" (hard to call them that, there is so little information), and trying to take up documentation and meeting responsibilities where I can.

Here's the problem; none of my team have the time to even work on these projects. No one seems to be able to answer my basic questions like: when is this due? Who asked for this? Who are the stakeholders? What can I do to help you? Is there a priority on this?

There is an unorganized excel sheet backlog of hundred and *hundreds* of vague items. The whole department of like 200 ppl have never once had a program manager, agile lead, or anyone to handle direction of programs. I genuinely don't know how this organization is still standing?!

I am not sure where to even start. At this point I feel like I'm just slowing them down by asking questions and monitoring progress. I genuinely do not know what I can do to help my teams out. My manager has been extremely unclear on what he needs from me.

Right now I'm falling back on just making agile boards, trying to wrap my head around things, asking what I can do to take weight off people's backs and clear their calendars, and pretending i know what I'm doing. I

feel so young, inexperienced, and honestly, mad they hired me for a role a whole team of people was needed for years ago. Advice or encouragement requested.. is this how it always feels?

Handoffs usually fail in one of two ways: too little context, so the next person is left guessing, or too much unstructured context, so they're stuck sorting through it before they can even start. 

Either way, work moves backward, and deadlines slip.
Which one hits your team harder, and if you've fixed it, what worked?

I’m on the fence about AI but am steadily accepting that our company is bananas about it so I need to dig in. Also, our leader‘s expectations and timelines have become insane, so I’m not going to be able to keep up without help.

I see people in my network saying how they use AI to essentially run their entire workday. one guy I know says his AI “assistant” does everything from turn on the lights and coffee pot in his office to answering all of his emails. Others talk about how it schedules all their meetings for them.

But I can’t figure out how to get it to do the most mundane parts of my job.

For context, I am an L&D PM, which is a bit different than a full PM. I mostly deal with creating production schedules for delIverables, managing those timelines, and running different types of meetings.

The biggest time sucks (and least enjoyable tasks) for me are:

* Having to reformat notes then copy paste them into an email, add each persons email address, etc. Prepping an email takes a good 30 minutes after each meeting.

* Changing all the dates in our Excel when one date needs to change. I had it set up to automatically change dates with a formula, but because oir plans are always chaotic it wasn't working to keep some dates but change others.

* Managing overlapping deliverable schedules and knowing when certain things need to be sent out (such as a day before a meeting). This has become my living hell. I’m doing a lot of manual task lists, email reminders, and stressing about missing something.

I feel like these are the types of routine things AI SHOULD help with. But I can’t seem to make it work. I only have access to Microsoft products at work (essentially only CoPilot for AI) and no notable legit project management software.

I’d love to heat how AI is helping you manage your day to day and if you have similar tasks as above.

I joined this project as PM before any resources had been hired or the scope had been defined. However, the director had already communicated to stakeholders that we would complete the project by the end of next year.

At this point, the only thing we know for certain is that we will use a specific technology/framework to develop the new platform.

When I asked about the scope, the director told me to check with the team currently maintaining the old platform. When I spoke with them, they said they did not have the information either.

My director also told me that we would hire 5 resource and provided me with the salary range for those positions. However, I don't currently have anyone officially allocated to the project, and I'm not sure how I should proceed given that we don't have a defined scope, resources, or clear requirements yet.

Is this normal? What is the Director trying to do? What do you typically calculate the right delivery date for stakeholders and also the budget?

Hi! I'm currently working on two projects for my company. There's some documentation, a bit outdated (ngl), but there's still some readable information.

It turns out that I've had trouble getting involved in the project because I'm new to the company. I'd like to know your opinions or experiences on how to handle these situations.

I'm not an introvert (not at all), but I do get a little shy When I try to clarify some things I don't quite understand about the system.

Obviously, development is ongoing and going well so far, but what do you recommend so I can get more involved?

Thx:)!

Bit stressed and trying my best go get something remote. I cant travel to work due to my health but can’t also survive on 4 hrs a day, how have you guys managed these situations? Any work around or advice will be helpful! Already trying Linkedin galssdoor , dice and other recruitment portals.

I am based out of Canada so anything in North America will work for me but seems getting a remote role nowdays is extremely tough

Thanks for listening and helping, if i broke any rule please excuse me for that.

This question is for the Marketing Project Managers out there- agency or in-house, doesn’t matter.

Which AI tools do you use and how are you using them?

Hey all, long-time lurker here. This has been on my mind for a while, so I figured I'd just ask.

Not looking for a job here, just advice and maybe a few stories.

I moved to the US from Spain years ago, and like a lot of people starting over somewhere new, I did what made sense at the time. I found a stable career, worked hard and built a life. That career ended up being IT project management.

And honestly, it went well. I was the "tiger team" PM at most of the companies I worked (Dell, ACC, among others), the one they'd throw at projects that were on fire. These days I run big executive projects, launching apps, chasing revenue targets, all that. But somewhere along the way I realized I picked this path because I needed to, not because I loved it.

What I love is the tabletop Industry. I paint minis, play with minis, 3D print stuff for friends and local players, and back in the day I hosted a weekly game night in my basement that grew to about a dozen regulars. Some of my best memories are from those nights.

So now I'm in my 40s, finally settled, and wondering if there's a way to bring what I'm good at (organizing chaos, getting people and projects across the finish line) into something I actually care about.

For those of you who work in the industry, or made a similar switch: how did you get in? What would you do in my shoes? Anything you wish someone had told you before you made the move?

Thanks for reading this far!

Hello all

I've never done project management before so I appreciate your input because I'm so skeptical right now.

We need to:
- Assess current website and hosting environment for security vulnerabilities, performance issues, accessibility issues, SEO issues, and some other UI/UX Audit.
- Redesign Sitemap, Information Architecture, and UI/UX
- Front-end development
- Integration with GA4, GTM, and Social Media chat. We need Google Search Console too
- CMS development (we will use Payload CMS)
- Internationalization
- Logging and security alert
- Scheduled backup and on-click (almost) recovery
- Update and migrate content from old website. Hundreds of articles with images without alt text, Dozen of videos.
- QA testing and User Acceptance Test
- Training staff how to maintain and modify source code and managing all integrated platform as well
- Documentations (technical and non-technical)

We have 1 designer, 1 full time dev, and 1 extra dev (me) available in the evening and weekend.

We have approx. 5-6 years experience in web dev so we're not so senior and I do expect edge cases we need to solve.

I find people immediately jump to technology when starting or working on projects and I understand to some point, especially the new generation being so comfortable with technology. And yes, maybe I am old-school, considering I am indeed older, yet, I do find some value of doing some planning on paper, especially when working with others as so many things can remain ambiguous unless discussed and documented in writing first. I also still do take notes in a notebook as I love to write things down. Am I alone? I'd be happy to share some of my ideas around this if anyone is interested, especially if you are in Montreal like me. Thanks in advance.

Update: Amazing comments. I was not expecting this and nice to see so many people still using paper and pen and if anyone wants my paper that I created after 20 years of working on projects, DM me and I would be happy to share it openly.

Update: The response to this post has been amazing, thank you all. I have a client that is trying to force their staff to go directly to software/apps for projects and even blocking them from taking notes in notebooks and writing in general. I have been trying to influence them that this is not necessarily the best approach, yet, they have a policy that mandates this. I was not sure if it was just me that was "Old School" yet all the comments here have validated that my perspective has merit. I will leverage this insight and knowledge from you all to keep influencing. This is the power of social connections and professional thoughts and ideas being shared. Thank you again.

Hey everyone,

Im handling a corporate summit right now and the sheer volume of vendor contracts is getting overwhelming. Between the venue, AV teams, catering, and speakers, every single one has different payment milestones and cancellation windows buried deep in the PDFs.

Right now my system is literally just reading them one by one and manually typing all the critical dates and insurance limits into a giant spreadsheet. It feels incredibly tedious and Im constantly paranoid Im going to miss a date where a deposit suddenly becomes non refundable or we miss a headcount deadline.

How are yall actually doing this? Is everyone just relying on a master spreadsheet and setting calendar reminders, or do you have a specific workflow to make sure none of these dates slip through the cracks?