So I’m getting a promotion soon (yay!), moving up from just a line cook to sous-chef and I’ve only been with this company for a few months. Thing is that I’m still quite young (mid twenties) and will be the direct supervisor of some people a fair bit older than I am. Think 10-20 years older. It might just still be a bit of imposter syndrome, but the idea of having to tell people who have been in the business for far longer than I what to do and such really weirds me out.
I feel I wouldn’t like it if “some young brat” that just got hired almost immediately gets a promotion and becomes my supervisor eventhough I worked at the company for far longer. Though maybe not everyone feels like this.
Do other people who have experience with a situation like this have any advice on how to deal with this? It’s kinda been keeping me up at night…
Once I figured out that the reason why I was their manager and it wasn’t the other way around was because of luck it got easier. I treat them the way I would like to be treated. And I don’t have to have an ego because it was chance that got me to where I am. I am allowed to be wrong, they are allowed to be wrong, I am allowed to be right, and they are allowed to be right. We just need to get thru the day with little drama so we can go home after doing work we are proud of.
Oh and from one manager of skilled people to another. Your biggest fear in a few months is not that they won’t respect you it is that they will quit. That keeps me up at night, the idea of one of them telling me that this is their two week notice.