To raise this at work

[Anonanon18000]

I was promoted 6 months ago to partnership in a small law firm. This was partly because I threatened to leave as I was offered that role elsewhere and they offered it to keep me.

Anyway, I am head of the department but it's a small department (4 of us). I don't really get involved in the running of the firm as a whole and am a salaried partner. Department is doing very well. Best in the firm. I couldn't do any more to make it a success.

One of the team members I manage is a solicitor who is friends with the senior partner. She was going to come in at the same level at me initially which was part of the reason I looked elsewhere.

She is on a similar salary to me despite significantly less experience and no managerial responsibility.

They are bringing in a middle level management policy so basically members of teams are going to have additional roles. Some are basic but one idea is she organises interviews for recruitment and manages the support staff and carries out the appraisals etc. I then just manage her. I asked my boss what I would be doing as all I deal with now is managing the team and recruitment. He said I would oversee it (I wouldn't have any other firm responsibility overall it would still just be the department) but the reality is there are no tasks for me to do if she is doing that.

So she just tells me what is happening with my team which makes so sense. If we had a larger team I would understand it. I was told when more solicitors are hired in the team I then manage all of them but the reality is it takes us years to hire and I will be doing no management effectively in the meantime (apart from her and with the senior members the big things like annual appraisals are done by senior partners).

I have some sensitivity due to the way she was hired as it was kept secret from me initially (before my promotion) and the fact we are paid similar amounts.

I feel like I am being demoted or she is being geared up to share my job.

I plan to raise this tomorrow before these responsibilities are allocated to her (she doesn't know yet so it's easy to not give them to her) but I don't know if my bosses will see me as being selfish or sensitive. I have been quite tearful over it this is weekend.

AIBU to feel this way?

No real helpful advice but bumping for you.

You have a partnership in a legal firm, but you're asking questions of randoms on the web?

@VeniVidiWeeWee yes, it's a question on whether it is appropriate to raise these issues as it's a change in my role or whether I am being overly sensitive

So to appease you both, she got a pay rise and you got a promotion.

You aren't happy because she got money but no responsibilities.

Now they are suggesting she has some responsibilities and you're worrying they are removing yours - why would it matter anyway? Can you not concentrate on other things, grow your role / clients?

Do you think they are trying to get rid of you?

I think you should say to them that prior to the roles being allocated to her, you want to see job descriptions for both you and her so you can understand the allocations of responsibilities more.

with this structure I would expect you to have to deal with any performance issues in your team. So for example she reports to you regarding the performance of the other members of the team but you deal with any serious issues that crop up. I would expect you as HOD to be driving the department forward so, coming up with and implementing a marketing plan, ensuring your team was fully compliant etc. coming up with a growth strategy for the team and agreeing targets that need to be met to enable further recruitment into the team. Don’t be upset by this person, instead try and work with them to grow the team. Take control of the situation by telling the person what you want them to focus on with the team each month and then you produce a report to the equity partners. So essentially you are managing the people through her not that she is managing them. Structured correctly it should free you up to strategically grow the team whilst retaining overall control of your team.

Also you should be present for appraisals and I would suggest that perhaps you could do them with a senior partner this year and if it goes well take over your team’s next year.

Thanks. I think that's the way they are looking at it but the reality is we are the only 2 solicitors, the other 2 that will be her direct reports are paralegals. By default she will therefore be managing and I won't really. We don't have big issues so my involvement will be minimal.

We are at capacity so bringing more work in isn't something we are doing. We are just looking to recruit but again that is being passed to her to administer so what I will be doing is pure fee earning which is a step back. I don't need to free myself up as my non fee earning role isn't that demanding anyway.

It's always appropriate for anyone to raise an issue if they think it's an issue 🤷‍♀️

The answer here is for her to manage paralegals including recruitment of them and you to manage professionals including recruitment of them.

Thanks.

Do you not see that as a reduction of my responsibilities and roles? Is there a reason this needs to be shared?

I would guess they want you to focus on generating more work. When you do that then you'll presumably hire more fee-earners to do it.