Appraisal season is over, and you’ve just been promoted to manager level. Welcome to the land of back-to-back meetings, budget spreadsheets, and being the first to say “Great point!” during awkward silences.
1
You are now the bridge between people who do the work and people who approve the work.
2
You also now speak fluent jargon.
3
You thought you’d be fixing the world but you’re mostly fixing powerpoint presentations.
4
You know that every pause after “Who can take this up?” is just the universe slowly pointing at you.
5
When you’re suddenly the person in charge of an external partnership, and you realise your role just went from ‘support’ to ‘this is now all on you, good luck.’
6
When the external partner asks for an update, and you’re like, “We’ll look into it,” knowing full well it’s just you and your trusty Google Doc.
7
When a funder says, “We love how detailed your report is,” and you don’t mention the 47 back-and-forth emails it took to finalise the outcomes section.
8
You find yourself in a strategy call saying things like “Let’s circle back once we’ve aligned on deliverables.”
9
When you’re neck-deep in reporting and discover a whole world of compliances, formats, and funder-specific logics, and finally understand why your manager always looked mildly haunted in March.
