Steven

Okay this might sound weird but I need to vent somewhere… I’m actually pretty good at my job when it comes to the real stuff, shipping features fast, figuring out what’s broken and fixing it, cutting scope when things get messy. But GOD the stakeholder management part makes me want to crawl into a hole. Like I spend SO much time just… managing people’s feelings? Making sure everyone feels heard, remembering who needs to be CC’d on what, having pre-meetings before the actual meetings to make sure nobody gets surprised. It’s like this endless dance of keeping everyone happy and aligned. Don’t get me wrong … I CAN do it. I’ve gotten decent at reading the room and knowing when to push back vs when to just nod along. But man, some days I look at my calendar and it’s just back-to-back alignment sessions and stakeholder check-ins and I’m like… when do I actually get to solve problems?? The worst part is I feel like such a fraud complaining about this because everyone always talks about how senior PMs need to be great at stakeholder management and it’s all about influence without authority blah blah. But honestly? I’d rather spend my day in Figma or digging through user feedback than sitting in another meeting. Is this just me being immature about the role? Like am I supposed to eventually LOVE this stuff? Or is it possible I’m just different and would be happier in a role with less politics and more building?