RANT: Anxious at my new job

I’m 3 years post-grad. I’ve been in the functional foods industry.

Company 1 I was at for 2 years and hired on as a lab technician. It was a terrible company. They were dealing with financial problems and were always late on our paycheck. Bunch of layoffs too. I had a toxic micromanager. My co-workers and job itself were pretty great though. I loved what I did for work, although pay was low. I ended up becoming really great friends with a few co-workers. We’d go out and eat and hang out outside of work. I missed that.

Company 2 I recently joined June 2025 and hired as a R&D Scientist/Specialist. The person I was taking over for had been with the company for 5 years recently left. She was the only person managing her job responsibilities. There was no backup. She was responsible for our 3rd party certifications and we have many we work with. I had to come in and self-teach myself. Looking through all the outdated SOPs and documents she’d left. There were a few projects she was working on before she left and that I had taken over. The CSO today sent up a meeting with my team to talk over the certifications and were pushing to get it done. I have been working on them, but the certifying bodies come back with extensive questions and supporting documents, which makes the process long. We work with co-manufacturers to help get these from the suppliers as well. I’m sending reminders over and over. I’m getting performance anxiety because I feel like I’m not accomplishing the tasks as it falls on me to do them. I also don’t understand why I’m having to meet with the CSO as we have organizational chart. Shouldn’t my manager be having the meeting with me instead?

Socially, it is lonely at work, but I’m completely fine with that because work is work. I’m also an introvert. Although, it makes me anxious because people form groups and feels very clicky. It feels odd being the 1 person left out. Besides that, everyone is 30+ years old and I’m a 20 year old something.