Not clicking with the new company - Due to WFH or real disconnect?

[ShiningMoon]

Hi all, 

I need some guidance. I started a new job about 2 months ago in an industry I had already worked in before and was dying to get back into. However, now that I managed back in, I'm not feeling as enthusiastic as I thought I would.

1. Personal background:  6 years experience in Big4 (not client facing, accounting) and corporate banking (top tier bank - client facing).
2. Recently left the Big4 to move back into banking (different role, non client-facing this time). I thought I would enjoy it as I did pre-Big4, but I'm not. I accepted a role with a lower grade than I could have gone for in order to move back to the banking industry.
3. A few things I'm not liking already:
a) During my first week, my manager told me to write a brief paragraph that they would send out to internal stakeholders to introduce me. It was never done, when I know for a fact it was sent out for all those who started before/after me. She either "forgot" or "omitted" to send it - not a great start. 
b) When I discussed my learning progression within the role as I just started, I mentioned I wanted to get involved in a specific project I was interested in. They said, sure I'll keep that in mind as they were happy with my performance. Two weeks later, the manager said: "Oh, so and so is going to work on that project" - thus completely disregarding my request. Instead, they asked me to support on some technical project that has nothing to do with my role (finance vs IT).
c) This "so and so" is someone with half my experience, who used to work in a support center and who is quite inexperienced when it comes to stakeholder management or even processes. This person seeks support from my manager for every single one of their tasks. They're not helpful either due to their lack of experience, but we all have different learning curves. They were hired at my level.
4. I went from two highly dynamic environments to one where you're pretty much isolated all day working on spreadsheets with barely any interaction with anyone. If you try and ask a question, it's as though you're bothering them. The classic response is: "it's in the policy".

We're in the midst of a pandemic so very few roles at the moment.

Confused - what should I do?

Thank you.

[Mystyry]

Sounds like indeed you are not clicking and maybe it’a exacerbated by wfh environment. Some of these things may have been smoothed over with in-person interaction, and without it, very easy to misread things both ways.

To start with, can you do something like ask the boss in a matter-of-fact way about the announcement, like “Hey, I was just wondering if that ever got sent out, as I haven’t heard.” Maybe they forgot, and maybe indeed are just careless - but hopefully that will give them the push and make you feel like you spoke up. I’d also ask about the project and say that you understand there must’ve been business reasons for the assignment, but you just wanted to close the loop for personal improvement reasons and see if maybe the other person also had some specific experience.

Sometimes when you are new it takes a while to establish your footing. Chances are things might be better in a few months when you finish a couple projects. If not, let’s hope corona hiring freeze will not last forever!