To be annoyed with manager’s decision?

[Halloweenyesterday]

I work within the civil service and have applied for a new job on promotion with a different department. The new department sent a transfer form to my current manager, which made my manager aware I am leaving.

However, I haven’t been given a start date from the new department yet. It has been months. So I’m still working in a job where my manager has been given the heads up that I applied for another job and has the hump with me.

He has placed me on restricted duties and has essentially asked that I no longer lead the area I manage. He still says I lead it BUT he has taken all my time away from management of this area, and has asked me to conduct basic tasks instead such as making calls and sending emails. He has cut access to some of the systems I use.

In the meantime, this hasn’t been communicated to my office so they still expect me to to help them with the area I lead in and give them training etc. These are all time consuming tasks that I no longer can fit in my “new” schedule.

aibu to be annoyed? My colleagues think I’m being rude and lazy for not helping them, my manager doesn’t care. He doesn’t bother with me at all and doesn’t care about my development. He’d rather I didn’t train anyone and just focus on the basic tasks, but simultaneously said I should still do the time consuming tasks although I have no time allocated.

He sounds immature.

So tell your colleagues yourself and chase your start date?

Ex civil servant for my sins.
You need to go higher up to get this self-entitled piss poor excuse of a manager doing his job properly.
No decent manager would try to block or prevent promotion or any form of self improvement.
You also need to let your colleagues know about your restricted work he has decided to impose on you (did he go through the proper channels/ people performance? If not, you need to raise a grievance against him).
Keep your chin up and get that job! ❤️

Send an email documenting what tasks he would you like to do and keep everything on an email chain for your reference

You need your ‘new’ remit in writing. He sounds like a tosser.

That’s shabby.
I’d email him with a précis of what you’re doing now and why asking him to communicate that to the rest of the team or you will.

Hi Boss, can you send this as there’s some confusion about my role now.
“Dear Traffic cone team, as Halloweenyesterday will soon be joining parks and recreations she is now focusing on Traffic cone auditing and general office support. Please come to me for your training needs and invoicing.”
If he doesnt reply within a couple of days you can email again saying are you happy for me to send this to the team?
Is there a reason you can’t just say Bob’s dealing with training now as I’ll be moving to another team shortly?

aibu to be annoyed?
YABU to have done nothing but feel annoyed & not tackled it head on.

Email your manager outlining his actions. You were able to do that clearly here - so why not communicate with him directly? - because we can't help you!

He sounds like the kind of pass-agg twat who won't respond well, so when he does nothing but give you more pushback, go over his head, directly to his boss.

You can't be left as manager without portfolio like this, & your team cannot be left in limbo because your ridiculous 'boss' is having a tiny tantrum.

I agree that your manager sounds passive aggressive, why didn’t you tell them that you had applied for a promotion?

You need to be proactive with the transfer. Get in touch with the importing Dept....find out what the hold up is (it shouldn't be anything like employment checks as it's an interdepartmental move. When I've transferred Deots it's always been within 4 weeks).

If the hold up is that your current manager won't release you/agree a release date then you're going to have to escalate to your countersigning officer and/or raise a grievance if you still get nowhere.

Other posters have given good advice on handling tensions within the team - again though this requires you to take the lead and be assertive in ensuring everyone (up and down the reporting chain) is aware of your revised remit.

Next time you apply for a job, it is polite to let your line manager know. You should be given time to apply and prepare for an interview/offered a mock interview etc which they can only do if they know. I suspect your manager is peeved you didn't extend them that courtesy ......but they should be grown up enough to raise that with you and be over it by now!

Why aren't you raising a grievance against him?

Ah I see, - did I need to? Have I committed a faux pas? From my perspective, I haven’t been provided a formal contract or a start date yet so I haven’t handed in my notice. I would have told him when I gave notice.

He has been my manager for a couple of months - we don’t really have rapport where he would be supportive of my interviews or development. I did tell my previous manager I had an interview and she was supportive. This job application has honestly been ongoing all year as the recruitment process has been very slow.

It think it would have been polite / manners etc. But also if that is why your manager is acting the way they are, then they should have brought it up with you themselves. Do they have much management experience?

part of me thinks, “F it, I’m leaving at some point” and would rather not leave on a bad note. But then again I’m am starting to feel patronised and may need to raise this formally. Do I have a leg to stand on if I’m leaving the department? That will be his rebuttal, that it is better for others to do my work for the sake of the business.

Thank you. He has been a manager for a couple of months, used to work at my level before that. I don’t know what his full career history is though.

I think he’s a good manager to the rest of my team, he’s always saying hi and bye to them and keeping them updated. Whereas he doesn’t really acknowledge me unless it’s bad news