To be annoyed that I got an "olive branch"

[feelingstucktoday]

So there's two of us... I've always been very clear that I wanted to become a manager/TL as I've been one in the past and it was my "happy place"

Anywho, my manager did promise me something like than in the past (can't remember the last time she mentioned it but I'm sure it was around 9 months ago).

I had a "blip" of like 6 weeks where I had an "existencial crisis" and it was made clear that maybe this role wasn't necessarily the path to my fulfillment.

There's been a reshuffle, and it turns out that new "leadership" roles have been created, and my colleague (not me) has been given the TL role.

Instead, my manger has given me a "global role" with overarching visibility but nobody reports to me. So yes, I do have more exposure to other departments, yes I'm in charge of the multi-million deals, but it's still unclear to me how much agency I'll have,.or if I'd have to run things with my new TL. She has no experience of that sort of projects (as I've solely managed them from the start) so I'm still lost within the roles and responsibilities.

My manager tried to wrap it as a "good thing" as I was not limiting myself to just one role, and that it would be easier for me to jump to either a more senior overarching role, or directly under a VP.

I'm grateful that I'm employed and that I have a very good salary, etc... but I wish it has been an open conversation or "race".

I think there's definitely wisdom in what my manager is saying, but I just don't feel ill ever get to a managerial role here.

BTW I never called it an "existencial crisis" it was my manager who did.

But...but....but... managing others is the OP's "happy place"

Yet you wonder why you weren't given a role where you have to manage other people.

A little bit of me dies every time anyone refers to human beings as 'resources'.

lol 😂 @ this entire thread

Honestly, I think you need to stop with the analysing of the minutiae of your job (I was going to say navel gazing, but I'll be charitable) and just crack on with doing it to the best of your ability.
I don't know anyone who thinks about the nuts and bolts of their job (and everyone else's job) to this extent. Just get on with it and maybe you won't have any more existential crises.

I thought this post was going to be about getting an olive-coloured bra from your dp for Christmas!

Were you totally gutted when they said that?

I would be. 😬

Ah, OP, this changes everything.

How could you think you’d get the management promotion after this?!

I think they’re managing you out sideways, tbh. We create bespoke roles for people we don’t want in any of the jobs we have, sorry. It’s easier than letting people go, but if they’re not performing in the role, or working well in the team, it doesn’t work to have them overseeing people.

OP I honestly, sincerely, hope that you will soon feel happier. But - forgive me - just what it is that you actually DO? Sell things? Make things? Design things? Shuffle money around? Advise on legalities or business practices? And what is it - precisely - that makes you unhappy? Just please tell us in simple plain English. That might help you clarify your thoughts and feelings. Just try it for yourself, at home - though it's not easy; you actually have to think, not just feel or repeat.

All management-speak does - and I share previous posters' criticisms of it - is obfuscate facts and feelings. Everything becomes tangled in a swirl of verbosity, to say nothing of metaphors and similies and jargon, and becomes ultimately meaningless. And, as others also have said, get rid of the inverted commas.

To take a totally trivial example regarding the power of plain speech, contrast 'the cat sat on the mat' with 'the pretty yet characteristically mysterious little clawed creature, whose sinuous body was enveloped in soft, subtle, stripy and comfortingly-tactile"fourrure", had positioned herself in a semi-recumbent position on the richly-patterned woven woollen covering/wall-hanging/home furnishing -famous, in folktales for flying thought the air - that covered a circumscribed section of the flooorspace. Should I "reach out" she mewsed (see what I did there?) and share my need to get close up and personal by jumping unexpectly on to Blogg's lap and knocking her coffee mug out of her hand ...

initial thought s- your manger has tried to please everyone and has succeed in making things very muddy.

You need clarity.

😬

This for sure. I'd love to get rid of my direct reports and just do my role.

@DPotter Exactly so. That's why I was suggesting some plain language.

OP You seem perhaps to have some skills that the company values and finds useful, otherwise I think they would have found a way to ease you out by now. Is there any way you can simply, practically work on making the best use of those to benefit yourself and the company, and not worrying about what other people are doing/what roles and positions they have?

That's pretty bad.

To be blunt, it seems like your primary issue is that the peer you dislike and feel superior to has been promoted to manage people and (gasp!) may even be above you in the hierarchy. You've admitted that the role they created for you fits your strengths. This all sounds completely ego driven, which makes me think they made a good choice not putting you in a position to manage others.

Do you even like managing people, or do you just like the idea of having people under you?

Hell is (managing) other people.

The existencial crisis came to be because I was wearing a few hats and wondered which hat fit best. That was it.

We've all had one.

I did like managing people. I'm still in touch with all of my reports. At least a couple of them stayed in touch. One even climbed the ladder at Amazon, and has always said she'd never had gotten that far without my mentorship.

I miss that mentoring aspect. I also miss the operational side of it, budgets, headcount, projections, efficiency, productivity, etc...

Now, this TL role AFAIK isn't that sort of managerial role, it's more like a helping hand to our manager who doesn't have enough hours in a day to look at what everybody else is doing.

Yes, I agree with this. You’re being managed out sideways as it’s easier than letting you go (and the expense and HR hassle of that). Which means you either accept what they’re proposing or complain more and the screws will be turned more in your management out procedure.

Personally, long term I’d look for another position, retrain or maybe even consider a settlement agreement.

I do think it’s worth looking at your shortfalls here though as you don’t want to take these into a new job if this is on the cards.

I swear you've posted a thread about this before Christmas and it went on forever and got precisely nowhere. Can see this going the same way.

I'm having an existencial crisis now.

Maybe the “existencial crisis” was a clue to the fact that this is a bot?

Perfect 😂

AI needs spell check?