Hi Everyone, full disclosure I’m about to ramble because I have no one else to discuss this particular topic with. This is a NON problem (in comparison to what so many people have going on) and is entirely something that I will need to navigate, but I just wanted to get some things off my chest.

I think you need to give this more time.

1) calendaring ahead of the beginning of the week and blocking off when you’re truly not available.
2) if you have a later day (that’s pre-planned) then your start is later
3) really weigh the pros vs the cons. I’m not familiar with MSFT but it seems like it *may* cause a lot of abrasion for you to leave this new role 30-45 days in
4) grass is never greener unless the pasture is lottery winnings and no work 😬

A few clarifying questions:
1. How long have you been in the new role?
2. Were the terms of the role including scheduling outlined in writing?
3. Is the compensation change worth the impact to your work-life balance?

Omg, my sincere apologies that I never got back you.

Thank you so much for providing the clarification. It def helps with providing more applicable support.

So a few things:

A stable base salary is def needed in this current economy so I completely understand and support that key point being part of your decision to change roles & depts💜. Protecting your peace is definitely not up for negotiation so I definitely understand your concerns.

Unfortunately, scope and time creep are bound to happen as you integrate into a new team at first. As companies try to get less employees to take on more work in this current economy, teams are struggling not to burn out, and anytime a new person joins the team, they are excited to be able to reduce their workload by engaging the newbie😖.



With regards to the scope creep, I would recommend scheduling a 1-on-1 with your people leader to cement role expectations. You want to set the agenda and positioning of the entire meeting as a newbie on the team who wants clarity & guidance on how to successfully and impactfully contribute to the team (think Bambi eyes "help"):

1. Request for feedback on your onboarding, performance thus far, opportunities for growth.
2. Clarification on the work cycle and how conflicting time zones have been managed in the past:
- Does the team have busier/peak work volume periods during the year?
- When are those periods? How long do they last? How is work managed efficiently without impacting employees life outside of contracted business hours?
3. With regards to differences in location/time zone what is the framework to ensure seamless collaboration without creating impact to employee schedules outside of work?
- Once a week "over lap" meetings with balance of updates manged via shared docs/folders/bulletin boards?
- Is end of day calendar blocking frowned upon for employees who want to leverage the last 2hrs of their day to complete documentation and research for hand-off?
4. If overlap of time zones is a permanent requirement going forward, what options are there for a permanent schedule change from 9-5 to 10-6 or 12-8 2 days out of the week?


Ask the questions first, and then based on her response, reference her verbal commitments during recruitment; for example:

"Thank you so much for clearing that up for me. I wanted to make sure that I was in alignment to the work schedule and hand off processes we discussed when you first offered me the role.

I completely respect the challenges you have to deal with managing a team across multiple time zones, whilst also ensuring that their roles don't end up upending their personal commitments outside of shift.

I just want to ensure that I am not asking my team mates to log in before sunrise to connect with me about hand offs I may need at 8am on the east coast, and that they don't catch me with a mouthful of garlic bread when they are logging off at 5pm their time😊."


How do you deal with providing such great support without feeling like you are married to Slack📝👀?

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This way of positioning your concerns allow you to be seen as:
- seen as a committed and invested new team member
- proactive and solution based with regards to maintaining high team performance & collaboration
- flexible, and open to adjusting in order to meet the team at a mutally beneficial happy medium
- non confrontational

However it also puts your people leader who recruited you in the hot seat to honor the verbal promises she made, without you coming across as accusatory.

She recruited you based on specific role requirements, therefor she needs to deliver. She won't be able to say that
- you were difficult to work with,
- inflexible with adjusting to business needs,
- combative when you didn't get what you wanted
- attempted to undermine her leadership by implementing internal SOPs that made collaboration difficult for her or the rest of the team😏

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Once the 1-on-1, is over; send her an email thanking her for making time to support you integrating into the team. Ask her for any documentation, shared folders, hand off channels, Trello boards you need to make sure that you are as productive as possible in your role. Reference key points discussed in the meeting when you request this:

"When you have the availability, please share the team's Trello hand off board that you educated me about in our meeting. I will also connect with XXXXX about being added to the Slack Collaboration channel and project folders be EOD, as well as send out an emaik to the team with a link to my calendar so that they are aware of my availability based on time zone differences.

I will ensure that I update you with my flex-shift days, as soon as I can confirm my schedule for my MBA classes.

Please let me know if there is anything else that I can contribute to ensure that I am providing the highest value to the team and organization with regards to my role and performance expectations.

Thank you again for your support.


XXXXXXXX"

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Now your boundaries have been clearly asserted, she gets to feel like a super boss, and the scheduling + scope creep protections are in writing😉


Good luck rockstar💜

I recently made an internal job switch due to a number of factors. For some context, I have worked in consulting and transitioned to Microsoft for improved worklife balance (which I have definitely found). After the initial move I worked in sales, which was intense, but I had a lot of autonomy over my schedule. This was great because I was able to do things after work and on the weekends, which wasn’t the case when I worked in consulting and had very demanding projects.

I recently got an offer to move internally. I at first did not consider it given the fact that although sales was demanding, stressful, a lot of customers to deal with, I was very well respected and got a long great with my
Manager. I ultimately decided to take the new role given the fact that comp in bonus performance wasn’t where it was supposed to be when I was working in sales, but also there is stress associated with being customer facing and this new job is more of an internal role. my biggest concern is that I have created a life for myself outside of work now and the new team is primarily West Coast based and I am on the East Coast. I log off at five every day (sometimes of course I might work late, but that is of my own volition not because I need to be in a meeting).

My new manager essentially assured me that it shouldn’t be an issue and that I will just need to put up boundaries around when I am available which I’m totally comfortable doing, but I am already seeing some issues with scheduling (and my availability). I was asked if I’d be OK working a little later. In the grand scheme of things it’s not a big deal, I’ve worked later. However, there were other promises made like flexible Fridays etc. that made this move enticing BUT it doesn’t seem to be the case. I’m just concerned that as per usual grass isn’t greener on the other side.