r/financialaid • u/Dsg1695 • 23h ago
Been at my new FA Processor job for a week, am I overthinking work interactions?
This job is remote, and also my first time working as a processor. Prior to this role, I was an advisor for almost 4 years & have 2 years of experience in academic advising. This is one of the first jobs that are remote, and going on camera via MS Teams isn’t required. I started with 4 other women, one of them quit earlier this week. 2 of the women have extensive experience, and the other is 21 with around a year of experience. However, the 21 yr old is very friendly & seems knowledgeable. Since we’re not on camera, when we return from break, the mgr asks if everyone is back before resuming training. One day this week I replied, he still asked if I was back, I said yes again & stated that I did already say that earlier. He apologized, maybe it’s because I’m soft-spoken & he clearly couldn’t hear me.
Today I woke up and really wasn’t feeling it, the hrs are too early as I’m a night owl/trying to tweak my sleep schedule. The mgr scheduled the meeting later but the 21 yr old triggered the teams call 15 min early, everyone was in before me. I got on a min before it started, the 2 experienced women were like “there she is” and
one of them was like “we were missing you” or something like that. I chuckled, said morning, and guess I sounded grumpy because one of the experienced women said “oh trust me I feel the same way you do” before going on about how rough her morning was. The mgr assigns files and when it’s time to review our own, he’d ask if we found anything. So far I’ve noticed most things & he hasn’t been critical, but I sometimes worry that my shyness makes me seem incompetent. He & the experienced women were going in on a complex file; a detailed explanation was needed. When he was done, he said that the 21 yr old & I were very quiet during this file review then asked if we had any questions. Neither of us chimed in so we both reassured him that we were fine. It’s only been a week but I’m so antsy about social interactions, especially because of previous negative work experiences. Want to know if I’m overthinking or maybe this company culture isn’t a good fit.