Our line manager, started his role and took a long time to introduce himself. I then invited him along and he showed no interest in sitting with us to understand what we do and why we do it the way it's done.
He started taking key tasks away from us and said it was to benefit his role, that he was tweeking the templates to improve them and would hand then back. These templates worked for a number of years without issue, but I had no issues with him trying to improve them.
The problem was that when he tried handing a key task back to one of my direct reports he had massively changed it to above her skill level, so he kept hold if it for months (approx 9+ months) and there was no signs of him passing it back although he promised to do so. She missed the buik of her role as our line manager continued doing her work himself. She eventually had a break down and said she had no choice but to leave because he had basically taken her job and changed it to above her skill level, so she knew that she couldn't do it even if he did pass it back to her. She had been in the role for 8 years.
He has also taken key tasks from me including the salary reconciliation. When he returned them, he had complicated things but I still managed to do them. So I thought that was that, until one day he said he wanted to tweak them again as he had more ideas, that was 7+months ago. He has been complaining that he is working nights to get everything done, and I've chased for the return of my tasks saying this will help lighten his load if he hands my tasks back to me. He is saying he can't hand them back to me until they have filled my direct reports role who left.
His line manager knows he has taken these tasks and that I am chasing to get them back, but supports him.
I do not understand why he won't hand my work back.
We are under a restructure, but they are saying nobody is at risk of redundancy. However they have recently announced that they are taking my whole team of me, recruiting a new line manager for them. They haven't given me a new job description yet, but say I'll be partnering between my existing senior management team and the new team.
I don't know what to make of this, I'm starting to wonder if they are planning on making me redundant but not saying it.
Has anyone been through anything similar. Any advice would be much appreciated