Context: temporary manager started 3 months ago with plan to be replaced by permanent manager ASAP. Small team of 2 colleagues. We all work remotely. Manager is male, 30s and in his first week addressed us as ‘girls’ multiple times eg, ‘girls, where can I find xyz spreadsheet’.
Manager was given full handover and almost immediately shirked the majority of the work by saying it’s his decision to make - fine. Over the past couple of weeks, ive had increasing concerns over lack of communication - annual leave not being covered, workload stress due to this. He hasn’t been receptive to any feedback about this, seems to take it personally as a dent to his ego and gets v defensive.
Today he emailed me a list of work to be done which is categorically not in my job role and I was already swamped with my own workload. I did it, but questioned in the email if the process had changed as this work was normally done by the manager - this was worded politely and professionally, not accusatory. He replied by copying in HR and saying ‘as manager, I am responsible for deciding who this work is completed by’. Then had a scheduled catch up meeting with him. I raised the email issue, he said he couldn’t do the work because he didn’t have logins and I said it would have been good to know that. He said if he sends an email, he expects it to be actioned. I said with all due respect, I am at capacity and do not have time to be completing his work which is part of his role - at this point I’m told he doesn’t like my tone, and his role isn’t my business.
he then goes straight to HR to discuss my ‘tone’ and how unprofessional I am. I speak to HR who read the email thread, agreed that I was correct and that there needs to be better communication. They have no concerns with me.
I sent an apology message for my tone in the meeting if he felt it was snappy, but I had explained to him how busy I was and there was no appreciation that I had actually completed the work that he’d asked even though it wasn’t my work to do. I’m feeling so deflated tonight. I think he’s annoyed that I’ve questioned his authority but I don’t see why I should be picking up his slack. He’s had 3 months to sort out IT issues with logins and if he’d explained that in the email, I’d have been more receptive to helping him with the work but he seems to be completely on the defense. Instead of listening to my concerns about workload on the call, he instead just kept shutting me down by saying he didn’t like my tone. I just don’t know where to go from here, I did apologise and he hasn’t even acknowledged that. How do you work with this type of manager?!