Brand new to remote work. Is this normal?
I started a remote senior proposal specialist role at a large civil engineering firm 8 weeks ago after years in industrial construction where I had complete autonomy. I managed my own deadlines, deliverables, and sanity. I intentionally took a pay cut because remote work was sold as flexibility.
My manager was on medical leave when I started, so I trained with a colleague in another region. It was great. Short purposeful calls, clear direction, actual time to work. I genuinely thought I hit the jackpot.
Then my manager returned.
Since then I’ve averaged 3 to 5 hours of calls with her daily between Teams and phone calls. Some days have pushed nearly 7 hours. I started tracking it because I honestly thought I might be exaggerating. Over the last two weeks alone I’ve spent about 27 hours on calls with her. Not meetings. Not proposal reviews. Just calls.
Most of these involve me sharing my screen while she watches me work and provides a running commentary on her life. A lot of it revolves around her carpal tunnel release surgery from 2.5 months ago, which she maintains has left her completely unable to use her hand. She talks constantly about how badly she wants to work while simultaneously refusing to actually do work because of her hand. At this point coworkers have started gently suggesting pain management options, which feels less like concern and more like collective exhaustion with the conversation.
Ironically, she also complains nonstop that she “can’t get anything done because of all the calls,” apparently unaware she initiates every single one while actively destroying my productivity and will to live.
The truly surreal part is that I spend half these calls teaching my own manager basic technical skills. This week alone I walked her through the snipping tool, keyboard shortcuts, embedding hyperlinks in emails, searching in our project management software, and the general concept of OneDrive. She also struggles with our primary design software. And before anyone assumes she’s 78 years old fighting for her life against modern technology, she’s in her early 40s.
At this point I genuinely do not know if I’m experiencing spectacularly poor management or if remote work is just secretly an elaborate psychological experiment conducted through Teams. Or maybe it’s all normal and I’m the problem. Maybe I’m not cut out for remote work. Idk anymore.
Remote workers: is this normal? Did your onboarding involve this level of constant access and supervision? Did it taper off? Someone me some hope because I am hanging on by a thread trying not to buy out the rest of my contract and/or walk into traffic.
TLDR: I took a pay cut for the “flexibility” of remote work and accidentally enrolled in a full time surveillance internship.