Colleague arguing?

[Poppu]

There’s just me and.one colleague with our manager. Colleague got a promotion earlier this year and I confirmed with manager that this does not change the leadership hierarchy. Basically that I wouldn’t now be answering to them both and that colleague has a seniority above me and this was confirmed that no she does not and apart from a title change - nothing else has changed.

Colleague now tries to give me work, that I know the manager has told her to do. It’s the crappy small projects that need doing but it’s not going to propel your career. She would never pass over a big glory project. When I question her and say well manager said you’re doing it she won’t just say “ok that’s fine”, she will continue to argue the pint of why I should do did.

Or she’s sneaky and doesn’t speak to me beforehand and just sends an email saying “Hi internal colleague X will now be picking this up”. And her justification is she’s not done any work on it so it’s fine for me to pick it up.

Aibu? I’m finding this back and forth just a bit draining. I’m also not wanting to be a team where I’m the dogsbody and answering to two different people.

Address with your manager directly, explain the problem, they should address with the colleague.

In short ‘X colleague is trying to delegate their low value tasks to me, as though I am a subordinate. My understanding was that this wouldn’t be the case. Can you please support me in resolving this situation as it is impacting my ability to do my job, happiness at work and ability to progress myself’. Share these examples of the emails you mentioned, as ‘evidence’ is useful in providing feedback to them too.

I have worked with several people like this in my time, who you are equal to but spend their time trying to position themselves as your senior.

Your manager has done nobody favors here. If he only has two team members and gave one a promotion but explicitly stated that you would not be working for them both, why does your colleague feel empowered to assign work to you?

If her manager (and yours) were doing his job correctly, she would not have this false sense of entitlement.

You need to stop this behavior of hers immediately. I would schedule a meeting with your manager and come to it with receipts . . . what specific projects she has attempted to assign to you . . . how they compare to those she picks for herself . . . the unproductive conversations you have had with her . . . how her behavior and the dynamic that has been created reinforce a reporting structure that your manager has denied exist, etc.

Then, you tell him that this is not working for you and how can he rectify it . . . put it in his court.

However, before you do all of this, I suggest that you research other open positions within your organization that you would be interested in. Perhaps the solution is a lateral move to a different team with a stronger manager. If this could be an option, this may be the conversation you need to have your manager's help in doing this.

Yes it’s been very awkward to be two in a team and one gets promoted above the other. It’s very much saying this person is better at the job. Which she probably is but this wasn’t even an advertised position she was just put forward for it.

I have addressed with manager before and she says that “whilst yes she can address it she will have to tell colleague what I’ve been saying”. And I’m just concerned it will cause a bad atmosphere in the office as we’re such a small team.

Plus I unfortunately cannot change roles. If I want to stay working in my field it would mean changing companies and whilst I am looking I only want to change if the right one comes up.

I would ask my manager to open this up in discussion in a team meeting or discus with all 3 of you.

In this way, everyone present understands that work is not to be assigned to you by your colleague, and there’s no getting around it. Then in future, if your colleague emails you giving you crappy bits of work, copy your manager in and politely check if this has been assigned to you my manager ?

don’t be shy OP, your colleague is likely counting on you not feeling comfortable bringing this up.

as long as you are professional in how you go about it it, you have every right to raise this as an issue.

This poster is correct. You should definitely ask your manager to schedule a team meeting with your colleague and ask that she explain, in front of you, to your colleague that she is not to make job assignments to you. Given you have tried to rectify this yourself with your colleague to no avail (which, by the way, is the right course of action), your colleague should not be surprised by the messaging in this meeting. And, if she continues to behave this way after your manager has explicitly told her in your presence not to, then really this should reflect poorly on her.

However, all of this still shows that your manager is not good at her job. This situation should have never been allowed to happen, and it feels that without a formal transition to an identified role, your manager is probably playing favorites.

I would make a very strong attempt at moving away from this company. It does not seem to be managed professionally, and if this is the culture and way they operate, bigger problems will ensue.

"whilst yes she can address it she will have to tell colleague what I’ve been saying"

To which your answer should be - great!! I'm so glad we're all on the same page. Even better, how about we all sit down so you can, with all three of us present, clarify to colleague what you've just told me about reporting lines and task assignment.

The people creating a bad atmosphere are colleague, for taking the piss, and manager, for not managing this situation proactively. As long as you are professional and not accusatory and approach it from the need to clarify and communicate clearly, then you're not creating a bad atmosphere.