Predecessor Died Right Before Starting New Job
Hi everyone,
I’m in a bit of a pickle. I recently started an EA role where the former EA not only was at this company ~30 years, but sadly passed away about a month before I started.
As far as I understand she was perfect for the executive. I am struggling with basically everything and am seeking advice on what I should do.
I have access to systems, but nothing to do. Everyone is too busy to talk with me or help me hit the ground running. I feel awkward asking about the relationship with the old EA, as she has passed and I feel inadequate compared to her.
There are multiple executives I eventually will support. But so far the instruction has been to understand my primary bosses needs first, and he was the one closest to this former EA. He sits on the other side of the building and we meet for 5-10 minutes per day.
Another executive has been great about giving me some insight into the company, meeting with me and providing me with a mini project to complete. But now that I’ve started to work on this project I feel that I am annoying everyone with lack of understanding, and I feel I need more context in order to deliver what they would like.
I really enjoy the people and the company, but I can already tell I need more context, more immersion, more interaction in order to feel confident in navigating this role. The majority of the days I take initiative and work on learning systems, outlining my workflows etc (boring). I don’t like feeling like I am in am ambiguous, isolated echo chamber.
Any suggestions would be helpful. By the way, my former role was “executive assistant”. It was kind of the same vibe but the people weren’t as nice. I had zero training or feedback on output and ultimately was cast out to the front desk alone where I spent most of my days doing nothing. I asked for feedback often and never received anything, good or bad. I don’t want this new role to be a non starter like the old one.