Is this outrageous behaviour or a massive over reaction on my part?

[ElderAve]

I have a fairly senior position in the public sector.

There are some performance management issues with one of the staff members who isn't my line report but I was asked to pick it up because the big boss wanted to be able to distance himself, for perfectly legitimate reasons relating to something else going on in the organisation. We discussed what needed doing, in line with the policy and he asked me if I'd mind being the bad guy on this occasion.

I was happy to step up and take that responsibility.

I had the meeting and did it exactly as we discussed. Staff member has sent big boss a long email of complaint, with some quite personal criticisms of me, which were actually me doing what the boss asked me to do and also in line with policy.

I'm not upset that he's complained, that goes with the territory, but I am outraged that boss has decided that in hindsight it could have been handled differently and he isn't going to back me. IMO, this leaves me with no credibility to deal with other staff who are my line reports.

I don't expect never to be criticised and consider that I'm actually pretty good at taking constructive criticism but in this case, I did exactly as I was asked/instructed and the plan of action was agreed in advance.

Now boss is going to tell difficult and gossipy staff member that I got it all wrong and he would have handled it differently. I also happen to believe that the original action was correct and would be happy to justify my actions even if I had acted without consulting boss and I'd still expect to be backed. Boss is now going for a much softer line which bears no resemblance to the policy.

I'm not often upset by things at work, have a fairly thick skin and am able to let things go but this has really got under my skin.

OP, I'm in a similar situation to you, was directed to do XYZ performance management, took advice at every stage, now I'm the subject of a complaint and negative reporting. Just waiting for the complaint to play out before I decide what to do.

Is your HR department any good? Sounds like they might need to be involved. Are there any emails about the jointly agreed approach?

Do you have his instructions in writing anywhere ?

I don't have any instructions in writing, but he's not disputing that he gave them. He just thinks I should accept it as "one of those things" that he's changed his mind on how the situation should be dealt with. Only he's not going to tell the staff member that that's why the approach has changed.

HR give good advice (and did here) but it's only advice, they have no jurisdiction to insist it's followed. i.e. they are our HR advisors, not an HR department.

Well, he's stitched you up good and proper, hasn't he?!
What a slime.

I would let it be known that you were following his instructions. Then do breezy smile and go ‘and now it seems he’s changed his mind, haha’.
Probably very unprofessional but I’m afraid that’s what I would do.

I would be absolutely furious. I had something similar happen to me many years ago in a previous job and actually I never recovered from it (in work terms) whilst I worked there because it was always thrown back at me as an example of something I had got wrong, even though I hadn't got it wrong at all, I had followed orders.

I'd be making a complaint to HR.

What a shitty boss. I’d take ElloBrian’s approach. He’s thrown you under the bus, you throw him right back.

But letting it be know that he'd done this to me wouldn't help me with my credibility. It would still be know that there's no point taking any notice of ElderAve because boss will overrule her when you complain. Boss is the boss, i.e boss of HR too.

Outrageous. Can you talk to his boss about it, because it sounds like it's going to set a shitty precedent for the next performance management issue, and the can of worms could get very big indeed.

My god - that is outrageous! Can't he see how difficult he has now made life for you?

That's exactly my point DameFanny. I can never lead on anything staff related with any confidence or credibility again.

Yes, I've talked to him about it, he understands my concern and he's sorry but he still thinks it's better to deal with it his way than to support the originally agreed approach.

His boss would be somewhere like government minister level. No I don't really think I can talk to them.

Put it in an email.

Say you asked me to do x y and z.
I did y and z.
I understand from our conversation you now believe this to have been wrong/too harsh and blah person has put a complaint in.
In future how would you like me to handle this?

Then he will reply. And if he doesnt dispute in the email that he said x y and z then you have it in writing?

I could have all that NotYourTypicalNerd. He'd probably do it if I asked but it's not going to change that fact that this staff member "won" when he complained about me and that every other staff member will know that.

He totally set you up to take the fall for any flack, so he could be the nice guy.... And he did it intentionally. Fucker.

I'd be looking for a new job tbh. And I would be putting it in writing that your actions were exactly what you were asked to do.

We discussed what needed doing, in line with the policy and he asked me if I'd mind being the bad guy on this occasion.

I think what he did was cowardly and shitty but reading this I wonder if he thought you'd agreed to it? It seems like you both thought it would look like it came from you not him, the point of disagreement is what he should have done when directly asked if he agreed?

From his point of view, if he was going to back you 100% in the face of a complaint (which you make sound quite inevitable) then he wasn't distancing himself for the reasons that you describe as legitimate.

Maybe with hind site Lisa, but what expected to happen was a kind of wishy washy it wasn't my decision but I support ElderAve. A "what can I do now that it's done?". TBF he does usually support me, I couldn't have predicted that he would let me down on this one and the "legitimate reasons" are a very difficult situation.

^ I agree with this. And I think it was obvious from the start that he wasn't going to back you. If he'd been prepared to stand shoulder to shoulder with you about it, he'd have been doing the dirty work himself from the start.

I've experienced something similar. A small company, the Sales Director's secretary's behaviour was totally inappropriate and he didn't have the guts to give her a verbal warning so I was asked to do it as I handled HR. She had hysterics and he supported her. He was a gutless slime ball and it made my remaining there untenable.

Start jobhunting.
Never works the way you would hope when complaining about someone higher up.
Unless you are the shitty employee, apparently.

I would do what not has said plus copy in the person in question.

I can see where you're coming from op, you feel like your position of authority in the organisation will be questioned, then has the job become untenable. How do you feel about looking at the job market?

Is the big boss someone like Director General or permanent secretary in the Civil Service? If so I agree I don't think there is much you can do about it now. Still an awful thing to have happened. If I was you I would probably try and move Department if that's possible

Make sure that you write this up in your own evaluation. Lay it on how you feel badly let down having agreed an approach to deal with a problem and due to a change of heart by your boss you have been undermined.