Line management - by junior staff

[moaningminniewhingesagain]

Due to some proposed changes at work, I may in the future be 'line managed' by a member of staff who is on a lower grade to myself, and not qualified to do my role. Not just unable to do my role, but does not have the knowledge/skills/qualification to allow them to do my role.

Does this happen anywhere? How could it possibly work?

Due to the way the hierarchy is, I would not be 'over them', so they are not directly junior to me IYKWIM.

Just looking for some opinions I suppose

It happens all over the place - but just becuase they can't do you job doesn't mean that they can't manage you effectively.

I'm not a financial expert. Doesn't mean that I don't manage a finance team along with all the other areas I look after.

That is weird, although it is not unheard of in IT where contractors may well be very highly skilled and well paid.

I suppose you have to think of yourself as a consultant rather than an underling.

What is your job?

I'm a Health care professional. The proposed line manager would not be a qualified health care professional.

How could they assess my practice? I can quite see they can sort out my annual leave etc, book training, blah blah blah.

But clinical stuff? When they are essential admin based?

essentially even.

Well, it depends on what a line manager is going to do in your set up. If the role's an administrative one, then it would make sense for it to be done by an administrator.

Bit of both really. Am going to look further at the roles/responsibilties for the pay band as I suspect the grade does not usually cover managing other staff at all.

I think you need to check what 'line management' means in this context.

I do sympathise as I was in a similar situation in a previous job, also public sector, felt very pissed off ('how are they going to know my training requirements?' etc), discovered that 'line management' meant sorting out the admin except for a one-off yearly review which was actually covered by someone else in my case, and felt pretty stupid. It didn't mean 'management' in the sense that I would normally expect at all, but administration. And actually, the line manager was actually very good for my career, as she happened to know about other opportunities in the organisation that I didn't, and put me forward for one of them.

I'd get a list of what a line manager is going to be responsible for in the new set up, and then talk to an appropriate person to arrange something that seems suitable.