New HR Generalist struggling with feedback and boss dynamics – am I being too sensitive? [N/A]

I was hired as an HR Generalist about a month and a half ago. I work alongside another HR Generalist who’s been there for 5 months, and we both report to an HR Director (who I’m still figuring out). During the interview, I was told that 60% of the job would be recruiting.

Lately, things have been very chaotic—tons of requests, lots of onboarding/offboarding, and a high demand for recruiting. Today, the HR Director told us she feels we’re spending too much time on recruiting and that we need to manage our time better so we can focus more on compliance tasks like ADA/FMLA and investigations. This is the first time she’s communicated this; I didn’t realize she wanted us to take over more of these responsibilities. We’re both new generalists, so we’ve been trying to learn and master all the job responsibilities.

I actually prefer the compliance side of HR, but recruiting is a demanding and urgent part of my job. On top of that, she has repeatedly stressed how important it is to maintain strong relationships with hiring managers, respond promptly to their needs, and stay on top of recruiting tasks. On my first day, she told me she wanted us to cut the recruiting timeline from 30 days to 15.

All in all, my boss is very focused on work—she brags about never leaving at 5 pm and taking work home on days off. What’s hard for me is that she doesn’t try to build a relationship at all and seems distant whenever I try to connect. In a fully onsite role, this is tough because I really like connecting with people, especially when I spend 40+ hours a week with them.

I feel underappreciated and frustrated that after working hard to learn this new job, the feedback I get feels discouraging. Am I being too sensitive? I have another job offer, and while this role is great benefits-wise and with time off, I’m not sure the relationship with my boss will improve. Side note, I love working with the other hr generalist.