#AskAdaMarie: Is it Normal or a Red Flag for My Role to Keep Changing?
Hi AdaMarie, My role keeps changing and I never feel like I fully know what I am doing. Is that normal or a red flag?
Dear Never Quite Settled,
This is such a good question, and I want to answer it honestly, because the truth is: it could be either. The feeling you are describing, a role that keeps shifting, and a nagging sense that you never fully have your footing is genuinely common. But it can come from two very different places.
So let us walk through it together.
First: some of this is completely normal
Here is something nobody tells you enough early on. In a healthy, growing career, you will spend a lot of time not fully knowing what you are doing. And that is often a sign that something is right.
Roles change because organizations change, teams grow, priorities shift, and your own capabilities expand. If you were doing the exact same thing you did on day one, with total mastery and zero uncertainty, that would arguably be the bigger concern; it would mean you had stopped growing. A role that stretches and evolves is a role that is developing you.
And that feeling of never fully knowing what you are doing? For many capable people, that never entirely goes away. It just changes shape. You get comfortable with one level of complexity and then you get handed the next one. The discomfort is not evidence of inadequacy. It is frequently just the feeling of operating at the edge of your growth, which is exactly where growth happens.
So if the shifting and the uncertainty are happening alongside a general sense that you are learning, being supported, and moving forward, even messily, that is very likely normal. Uncomfortable, but normal.
When it might be something more
That said, your instinct to check is a good one, because the same set of feelings can also signal a genuine problem. Here is how to tell the difference:
Ask whether the change comes with support or just expectation. Healthy role evolution comes with some scaffolding. Someone helps you understand the new expectations, you have access to the resources and people you need, and there is at least a rough sense of what success looks like. If your role keeps changing but nobody is defining the new expectations, offering support, or acknowledging that you are being asked to do something new, that is worth paying attention to. Constant change without support is not growth. It is drift, and it can quietly burn you out.
Ask whether there is a direction underneath the changes. Even a role that shifts a lot should have some underlying through-line: a general trajectory, a sense that the changes are adding up to something. If you step back and the changes feel random, contradictory, or like you are simply absorbing whatever falls through the cracks with no coherent shape, that is a different situation than a role that is evolving toward something.
Ask whether the uncertainty is shrinking or just relocating. In a healthy role, even as things change, you should feel your overall competence growing over time. The specific things you are uncertain about should keep changing, but your baseline confidence should slowly rise. If instead you feel like you are perpetually back at zero, never accumulating any sense of mastery no matter how long you are there, that can be a sign the role is not set up to let you actually succeed.
Ask how it feels in your body over time. Growth-related uncertainty tends to feel like stretching… hard, but energizing in at least some moments, with a sense of forward motion. Problematic uncertainty tends to feel like a slow depletion. It’s anxious, foggy, and draining, with a sense that you are treading water. Your nervous system often knows the difference before your mind can articulate it.
What to do either way
Whichever it turns out to be, there is a productive next step.
If it seems mostly normal, the move is to make peace with the discomfort while finding small ways to create your own footing. You can seek out clarity even when it is not offered, asking your manager what success looks like this quarter, naming what you are working on, and defining a few things you can point to as wins. You do not have to feel total mastery to build small islands of solid ground within the change.
If it seems like something more, the move is to name it to yourself first, and then, when you are ready, to the people who can do something about it. A simple, non-accusatory conversation can work wonders: "My role has shifted a lot recently, and I want to make sure I understand what is expected and where I should be focused. Can we talk through it?"
That conversation does two things. It gets you the clarity you need, and it tells you a great deal about the organization based on how they respond. A healthy environment will welcome the question. A less healthy one will deflect it and that response is its own useful piece of information.
The fact that you are asking this question tells me you are paying attention to your own experience, which is exactly the right instinct.
Do not rush to label yourself as failing, and do not ignore a signal that something might be off. Sit with the questions above, notice which way the evidence points, and respond accordingly.
Not knowing what you are doing is often just what growth feels like. But you also deserve a role where the ground under you, however much it shifts, is ground you are actually allowed to stand on. Both of those things are true. Trust yourself to tell which one you are living in.
With care,
AdaMarie
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