Is this normal onboarding or just poor management?
I recently(4 May) joined an admin/operations role at an educational institution and it has not even been a month yet, but I already feel mentally exhausted every single day.
The work itself is not the issue. I understand every new job comes with pressure and learning curves. My problem is the onboarding and environment.
I still don’t even have access to one of the main systems needed for the workflow, there are no proper SOPs/checklists/guides, and almost everything is taught verbally while multitasking. My buddy is going on a leave soon, and suddenly I’m being expected to handle many workflows independently.
Whenever mistakes happen, the reactions feel very pressure-heavy. Things like:
- “I already taught you this”
- “People will question you”
- getting questioned for missing steps that were never clearly documented
- being given multiple tasks back-to-back while still learning another task
Today was especially bad because work just kept piling up one after another:
- eforms
- T&Cs
- Replying to emails that is not even related to my work
- registrations
- checking 30+ student records
all while still learning the workflow itself.
I’ve been coming home with headaches almost every day since week 2 and I genuinely don’t feel psychologically safe to learn there anymore. I’m starting to dread going to work.
At the same time, I also don’t want to overreact because this is my first proper full-time operational role and I know adjustment periods can be hard.
So I genuinely want honest advice:
- Is this kind of onboarding/work culture normal in operations/admin environments?
- Am I overreacting due to stress?
- Or does this sound like genuinely poor management/onboarding?
Would appreciate advice from people who have worked in similar operational/admin roles before.