My name’s Kellie, and I’m a recovering people pleaser

Let me take you back to June when I was working on an School IT Manager role.

The HR Manager I was working with was sound, the school was just up the road, and I’d worked with the Headteacher before.

I was keen to impress and basically wanted them to like me (the MO of every people pleaser when you scratch the surface).

So, when the HRM asked me to help them with two roles that weren’t in my zone of genius, I said YES like the good girl I’ve been brought up to be.

It was the closest I’ve come to an out-of-body experience.

I could see myself on the phone agreeing to do work I positively dislike. But somehow couldn’t say no. My fear of being disliked was greater than my aversion to trying to find two Cover Supervisors in less than two weeks at the tail end of term.

My inside voice was saying, “Nah, that’s not for me,” but I could hear myself say, “Yeah, I can help you with that.”

Have you ever done that? Abandoned your own judgement because you didn’t want to say no?

You can probably guess what happened next.

Were you going to say, “an absolute omnishambles of epic proportions”?

Full marks, my friend.

I spent most of my time wrestling with the two Cover Supervisor jobs—roles I had no enthusiasm for—which left little time to focus on the IT Manager role, which is 100% MY BAG.

I didn’t have the energy to keep the school accountable and their recruitment on track.

I filled exactly none of the roles.

Hero to zero in a fortnight.

I barely got out of there with my reputation intact.

The bit that really made me cringe? I’d done the same thing with a Liverpool school earlier in the year.

But this time, I learned my lesson.

What I learned.

We tend to think that by our age we should know what we’re doing and stop making mistakes.

Here are the three lessons I’m taking away:

1. Mistakes are part of growth, and they don’t have an upper age limit.

2. Focus on where you can make the biggest impact.

3. It’s okay to say No.

Over to you.

If you’ve ever found yourself saying “yes” when every fibre of your being is screaming “absolutely not”—you’re not alone.

And if recruitment is the thing that makes your inside voice say a firm “nope!”, I can help.

I’ll take the stress out of recruitment, cut through the noise, and get the job done.

Email me on kellie@appoint-ed.co.uk and let’s have a proper chat.