u/Last_Resort_Help92

I work for a really demanding company in the human services/ direct care industry.

I’m a supervisor and it’s an extremely high feedback job with a lot of visibility from our director/ management team. My position is mainly a dual role that handles service program facilitation for disabled adults, and as the supervisor for our direct care employees. Along with the training, schedules, and hiring for each residential setting.

Recently, we’ve been plagued with staffing issues which have doubled the hours and workload for the supervisors.. We are working up to 80 hours per week, and because of the short staffing, some things get missed or just not done.

Because my specific position has sooo many different responsibilities, role clarity has been an issue, and I’ve seen 8 peers start AND quit after only a few months.

Our management team recently decided to put the entire supervisory team on a performance improvement plan. They added a ton of incremental steps and objectives for wanting us to do better, but with no actual training plan.

I was asked by my supervisor to set a list of personal goals that I want to achieve that align with this plan, and action steps that I’ll take to get there. I sent this out and received a response from one of our managers that we shouldn’t be setting personal goals for ourselves until after this performance plan has concluded in 90 days.

This seems very confusing and counterproductive and backwards… I’ve been in management for several years and have a lot of experience designing and setting performance action plans for employees. Framing a plan and having employees set goals is a pretty standard way to help an employee participate in their performance and ultimately be successful.

However, when I ask these questions and push back for clarity and understanding, I’m almost met with defensiveness, as if I’m challenging what our managers are saying. When really, I’m just trying to make sure I’m successful with what they’re expecting from me.

I told my supervisor and his boss that if we aren’t collaborative and if I’m not a part of my own improvement plan, then what’s the point of actually having one in place. I was told that I over complicate things and create difficulty where it isn’t necessary. They’ve also told me that our directors struggle to see everything goes on at our level - I asked why our directors wouldn’t work to gain clarity or a whole picture of what goes on at our level. And I’m usually met with shoulder shrugs.

They’ve also failed to provide competency training guides when I first started, follow through on regularly scheduled check-ins, or even give a clear job description. I’m also told that I do many things well - I’ve been told that my documentation is great, I follow-up, and complete my daily tasks. HOWEVER, there’s just “things we all need to work on because things are falling apart.”

Truth be told, I don’t even think our management team knows what the problem is, or how to fix it. I’ve told them many times that I feel like the supervisors at my level are just the fall guys to place blame somewhere when things go wrong as a company — I’m usually argued down when I say this.

I feel really frustrated. Am I the problem, or am I working for a broken company that can’t see its own problems?

I live in the U.S. Midwest and it’s where I’m from… I lived in Wisconsin for six years until last year, before moving to another Midwest state.
If you’re familiar with Wisconsin, you know they have a very distinct northern accent, which commonly gets made fun of.

I moved there as an adult in my twenties until my early thirties, and I never thought I picked up on the accent, because I’ve always understood that it’s usually children that pick up on and adopt regional accents.

However, I was making a phone call the other day where the person was asking for mailing information. When they asked for a previous address, I gave them my Wisconsin address. The lady chuckled and said, “I thought I heard that accent.”

I was stunned and said “really? I’m not even from there.”

She said “oh, well you could’ve fooled me.”

It kind of weirded me out- it doesn’t bother me but it had me wondering, can adults pick up on other accents?

I’ve been in retail management for several years - I worked across both small and big box retail and I’ve held several roles with proven success.

Last year, I made a jump to human services/ residential care. While I’ve enjoyed learning something new, I’ve found that I miss the fast paced and challenging environment that retail provides.

I decided that I wanted to reenter retail, but not in a store management capacity. So I applied for an entry level loss prevention position with a nationwide retailer - I had an initial phone interview. It was a great conversation and the interviewer was impressed. I was moved onto a second phone interview… After this step, I was invited for a panel style in-person interview which was rescheduled twice on the interviewer’s part. I was patient and understanding, and waited three weeks for this interview.

The in-person interview went very well. It was a very laid back conversational style interview and it lasted more than an hour. I was told how I have extensive experience and that I’d seem to be a great fit for the team. The interviewer talked me up to the other manager about my experience and knowledge. I was told they’d follow up in a couple days and they can’t wait to touch base.

I received an email on Friday from the interviewer stating they decided to go with another candidate. I professionally thanked them for their time and consideration.
I’ll be honest in saying that the rejection felt like it came out of left field.

I’m pretty choosy about where I apply when looking/ exploring other job opportunities. I don’t try to gunshot my resume out to whoever will pick it up, so I’ve usually been successful in landing interviews. Lately, over the past year or so, it seems like positions have become way more competitive… Interviews are becoming more extensive and jobs are harder to land.

Is anyone else struggling with the job market? Any feedback on how you might’ve kept yourself competitive that had successful outcomes? Thanks.