Episode 306
Managing Stress and Expectations in a New Job as an Introvert
Topics covered in the podcast episode:
1. Limitations of Traditional Onboarding Processes
- Reliance on static resources
- Lack of consideration for individual learning styles
- Accessibility issues
- Lack of efficient search options
2. Challenges Faced by Introverts in New Jobs
- Dealing with new people, systems, equipment, and ways of working
- One-size-fits-all approach to onboarding processes
- Importance of setting clear expectations and boundaries
3. Strategies for Success in New Jobs
- Saying no to prevent overloading
- Setting boundaries and expectations
- Making an impression in a new organization
- Importance of work methods and software used
4. Challenges in Managing Change When New Employees Join
- Expectation to absorb a large amount of information in a short period of time
- Pressure to pack in many tasks during the first 100 days
"New Jobs and Introverts: Starting a new job can be extra stressful. But it can be especially hard on introverts, especially in organizations that are more extrovert leaning."
— Janice Chaka [00:00:00 → 00:00:51]
The Importance of Accessible Learning: "Very rarely do they take into account the person's way of learning, and very rarely do they make the content accessible in multiple different ways... It makes it hard to go back and digest or reaffirm something or look something up."
— Janice Chaka [00:00:51 → 00:01:41]
Onboarding: "A lot of organizations don't take into account the massive change they do really bad change management when it comes to new humans joining the organization."
— Janice Chaka [00:01:41 → 00:02:37]
"The Danger of Overcommitting in a New Job: You take on too much work. You set unrealistic expectations. You feel like you are not doing as much as you could or you should because of whatever expectations you or the organization might have upon you."
— Janice Chaka [00:02:37 → 00:03:12]
Setting Boundaries in the Workplace: "You probably don't have any deep time work, deep work time. And that can be to work or to just take in all the information that is being thrown at you. And so many times people say, oh, it's okay. We're not expecting you to know all of this, but really they kind of are."
— Janice Chaka [00:03:12 → 00:04:06]
Setting Boundaries: "Letting people very clearly know your preferred learning styles, your preferred communication styles, what that looks like, your times of working and not working, or, you know, what happens if there's an emergency or an extra project comes up, setting boundaries of not overloading yourself because you want to learn and you want to do things right."
— Janice Chaka [00:04:06 → 00:04:57]
And welcome to the traveling introvert. Today, I want to talk about new jobs. Who this? So one thing I've noticed with people in general and especially introverts is starting a new job can be extra stressful. Now, we know it's stressful for everyone. You're starting a new job, new people, new systems, new equipment, new way of working, new, new, new, new, new, new. But it can be especially hard on introverts, especially in organisations that are more extrovert leaning. And this comes across in a couple of ways and for a multitude of reasons. A lot of organisations, when they're thinking about onboarding people, they have one way of doing it, and mostly it's death by PowerPoint, or here, watch a bunch of videos, or here's a bunch of PDFs. Very rarely do they take into account the person's way of learning, and very rarely do they make the content accessible in multiple different ways. They won't have the video with closed caption and a transcriptand an audio only version that you can listen to. A lot of the time it's this way and this way only. And not everyone takes it information that way. It makes it hard to go back and digest or reaffirm something or look something up.
In fact, a lot of the times when organisations do create onboarding processes, it's very hard to just search for the specific thing that you might be needing or the question that you might have. You have to try and think the way you think the person who wrote the software or the program or the way that you're putting it together works. Not only that, a lot of the time you'll be like, Here's all your computer, here's all your staff, here's all these people you have to meet, here's a buddy, so you have a buddy system, and here's some projects for you to start working on. And a lot of organisations don't take into account the massive change. They do really bad change management when it comes to new humans joining the organisation. Yes, you want the human to be up to speed as quickly as possible. But let's be honest, we all know there's only a certain amount of information humans can really understandably take in in any period of time. And yes, they might say, Well, here's your 90 day plan or your 100 day plan. And a lot of organisations ask in your interview, like, What would your first 100 days look like?
And they're expecting you to shove 18,000 different things in there. And a lot of the time, especially if you also have imposter syndrome, you're going in, it's a new job, you want to make the best impression possible. So you'll say yes to everything. You'll attend all the meetings because the more meetings you attend, the more information you get, the more likely you're going to be able to understand everything that's going on and not be out of the loop. However, what really ends up happening is you take on too much work, you set unrealistic expectations, you feel like you are not doing as much as you could or you should because of whatever expectations you or the organization might have upon you. You have not been able to set clear boundaries of what works for you and your method of working. You probably have back to back and last minute meetings, and you probably don't have any deep work time. And that can be to work or to just take in all the information that is being thrown at you. And so many times people say, Oh, it's okay, we're not expecting you to know all of this.
But really, they are. So when you are joining an organization for the first time as an introvert, because we are just grateful for a job. This isn't an introvert thing, this isn't any one thing. A lot of the time, we end up being timid about setting expectations and setting boundaries and letting people know how we like to work and what works best for us and seeing how that works in the culture of the organisation that you're in. Letting people very clearly know your preferred learning styles, your preferred communication styles, what that looks like, your times of working and not working, or you know what happens if there's an emergency or an extra project comes up. Setting boundaries of not overloading yourself because you want to learn and you want to do things right. This is the time for you to set expectations. Stop setting yourself up to fail by taking on everything and anything and saying yes to all the meetings. You're doing yourself a disservice, and by extension, you're doing the organization a disservice. When you first start a job, it's the start of a new relationship, and so you get to set the standard of how you want to be treated.
So act accordingly, set boundaries accordingly, and communicate accordingly. Thanks for listening. This is Janice at the career introvert. Com, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.
Transcript
And welcome to the traveling introvert. Today, I want to talk about new jobs. Who this? So one thing I've noticed with people in general and especially introverts is starting a new job can be extra stressful. Now, we know it's stressful for everyone. You're starting a new job, new people, new systems, new equipment, new way of working, new, new, new, new, new, new. But it can be especially hard on introverts, especially in organisations that are more extrovert leaning. And this comes across in a couple of ways and for a multitude of reasons. A lot of organisations, when they're thinking about onboarding people, they have one way of doing it, and mostly it's death by PowerPoint, or here, watch a bunch of videos, or here's a bunch of PDFs. Very rarely do they take into account the person's way of learning, and very rarely do they make the content accessible in multiple different ways. They won't have the video with closed caption and a transcriptand an audio only version that you can listen to. A lot of the time it's this way and this way only. And not everyone takes it information that way. It makes it hard to go back and digest or reaffirm something or look something up.
In fact, a lot of the times when organisations do create onboarding processes, it's very hard to just search for the specific thing that you might be needing or the question that you might have. You have to try and think the way you think the person who wrote the software or the program or the way that you're putting it together works. Not only that, a lot of the time you'll be like, Here's all your computer, here's all your staff, here's all these people you have to meet, here's a buddy, so you have a buddy system, and here's some projects for you to start working on. And a lot of organisations don't take into account the massive change. They do really bad change management when it comes to new humans joining the organisation. Yes, you want the human to be up to speed as quickly as possible. But let's be honest, we all know there's only a certain amount of information humans can really understandably take in in any period of time. And yes, they might say, Well, here's your 90 day plan or your 100 day plan. And a lot of organisations ask in your interview, like, What would your first 100 days look like?
And they're expecting you to shove 18,000 different things in there. And a lot of the time, especially if you also have imposter syndrome, you're going in, it's a new job, you want to make the best impression possible. So you'll say yes to everything. You'll attend all the meetings because the more meetings you attend, the more information you get, the more likely you're going to be able to understand everything that's going on and not be out of the loop. However, what really ends up happening is you take on too much work, you set unrealistic expectations, you feel like you are not doing as much as you could or you should because of whatever expectations you or the organization might have upon you. You have not been able to set clear boundaries of what works for you and your method of working. You probably have back to back and last minute meetings, and you probably don't have any deep work time. And that can be to work or to just take in all the information that is being thrown at you. And so many times people say, Oh, it's okay, we're not expecting you to know all of this.
But really, they are. So when you are joining an organization for the first time as an introvert, because we are just grateful for a job. This isn't an introvert thing, this isn't any one thing. A lot of the time, we end up being timid about setting expectations and setting boundaries and letting people know how we like to work and what works best for us and seeing how that works in the culture of the organisation that you're in. Letting people very clearly know your preferred learning styles, your preferred communication styles, what that looks like, your times of working and not working, or you know what happens if there's an emergency or an extra project comes up. Setting boundaries of not overloading yourself because you want to learn and you want to do things right. This is the time for you to set expectations. Stop setting yourself up to fail by taking on everything and anything and saying yes to all the meetings. You're doing yourself a disservice, and by extension, you're doing the organization a disservice. When you first start a job, it's the start of a new relationship, and so you get to set the standard of how you want to be treated.
So act accordingly, set boundaries accordingly, and communicate accordingly. Thanks for listening. This is Janice at the career introvert. Com, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.
