is management right for me?

[celle507]

i am fairly young (26) and received my MS in community health nursing in May. After graduation, I accepted a job as a program director in an adult day health center and have been working there since August- I have two years of nursing experience in a community health setting.

BUt, I don't like being a manager. I dislike having to write policies, procedures, and dealing with paper all day. I can't get anyone to follow me. I dislike being the manager of people and being the regulator - making sure people are not coming in late, taking long lunches, taking advantage of me, etc. What made this job harder is that nobody trained me to do it. Previous management had quit so I sort of had to train myself on what my daily duties are and what the rules and regulations of adult day healh centers are so I still feel like I'm floundering a little. The only other manager in this center is someone who is also new (hired a month before me), and has no adult day health or management experience.

I guess my question is ... are there some people who just weren't meant to be managers/leaders? Would it look bad for me to quit this job after 4 months and apply to just be a staff nurse somewhere else?? Would that make me look like a job hopper?

Any advice/comments/suggestions would be much appreciated!!

[RN1989]

Not everyone is meant to be a manager. It takes a very strong person to be the "bad guy". It takes even more strength to be the boss and still uphold your morals and ethics in the face of extreme opposition from both employees and employers.

Quit now and get a staff job before you get too much more time into the management position. After you have been a manager for some time, it is difficult to convince a prospective employer that you don't want the responsibility anymore and just want to be a staff nurse.

When they ask why you quit the management job and want to be a staff nurse, simply say that you realized that you were not yet ready to take on a management position and desire to get more experience before making the transition to management. This type of move is generally not considered job hopping. If you have to, explain that the previous job did not give enough support to a new manager and that you feel you need more experience in order to be able to step into a position that does not have more education and support for new managers.

Good luck! Glad you recognized this so soon. Too many managers never recognize this issue and continue to be managers while being miserable in their position. This negativity always impacts the staff.