To think I'm being replaced and they want me to leave?

[secretteaaddict]

Shamelessly posting in AIBU for traffic...

I have been at my current place of work for 3 years. For the most part I've enjoyed it which has made up for the at times bad management.

I work independently and that works for me. I am not micromanaged and I get the job done.

However, I have been informed that they have hired a man to work alongside me and take over most of my job responsibilities. To put it mildly, I'm freaked out. I never said i am struggling with workload and i don't know what my job will actually be now if this person takes over those roles.

This role was never advertised, so I was never even given the chance to apply for it. I am so stressed I am considering getting signed off, I take things very personally and a knock on my self esteem. I was suffering from anxiety and an eating disorder last year due to feeling a loss of control with lockdowns etc, and with the help of antidepressants and therapy I just started to feel I had more of a grip on things and eating better. But this has brought back feelings of no control again.

I have a paranoid feeling they're trying to manage me out as I don't 'fit' with the team. I am quite a bit younger than the rest of the team, and one of the only females under 45 in the company. I can see them doing 'restructures' to manage me out, as they have form for doing this.

Does anyone have any advice?

You need to arrange a meeting to understand what they want the new role to do vs yours and why they thought they needed it. Is yours an area that could grow for eg.

Ynbu

If it were me I would have spoken to my line manager by now, I would have asked what they had in mind for me with my responsibilities moving. I would certainly not be getting myself signed off at this point in time, unless you genuinely feel you need to, but if it is merely a response to what is going on, then I think it would do more harm than good. Out of sight out of mind and all that.

A similar situation happened to me, the difference was that they did recruit someone else, but with a different job title & spec. Despite the not obvious connection to my position, when he arrived at the beginning of December, it was pretty obvious I was suddenly surplus to requirements and it was clear he’d been told. I’d had no issues with the Board management except that I was the only senior female & I’d asked to start 15 mins earlier so that I could leave 15 mins earlier, which had been refused. Sure enough, first day back in the New Year, they gave me redundancy notice. I had the last laugh though, they tried to stop me working in a radius, so my solicitor doubled my redundancy payment. Then about 18 months later they wanted me to advocate for them in court, I went to court & told the whole truth which meant they lost their case. Karma!

It sounds like that's quite likely.

It happens. It's awful but it happens - and it does not mean you did anything wrong. You'll get another gig so try not to give into panic. Do you belong to a union? If not, join one, and get their advice, you should use this situation to negotiate a good payoff - so I wouldn't arrange meetings with anyone in the company until you have a plan with your union advisor. You want to be a step ahead of them, not behind.

And yes - don't get signed off sick unless you really have to. It will not help your chances of the best payoff, or getting a good job quickly - and most importantly it won't make you feel capable. You can deal with this.

Get ahead of this. Speak to line manager and say you're confused, is the work expanding in your field as you're coping and can't see where another person would fit in. Then let them talk. Take notes too

Speak to your manager and ask for clarification. Whatever they say, it can't be worse than playing scenario analysis in your head and fretting over it.

I don't know your line of work or company culture, but I should also like to point out that, in many jobs, making yourself replaceable is the name of the game and a necessary pre-requisite for moving on to bigger and better challenges. I can't possibly judge the likelihood of anything like it in your position - but when I line someone up to take over someone else's job, it's usually because I need to free the OC employee up for something new.