Bullying, micromanagement. or oversensitive?

[cobbledtogether]

I have been moved into a new department following a restructure. I am a senior manager. My previous manager was hands-off. i.e. we had regular 1-2-1 meetings and team meetings, but trusted you to get on and do your job with minimal interferance. In turn, I allowed my middle managers to get on with their jobs. It worked well.

My new manager is very hands on and I am not sure whether this is me finding it hard to get used to a new way of being managed, them being a micromanager, or if this is the begining of bullying. I need an outside perspective. In the past week they have...

1. Questioned my staff about the type of manager I am, how I have been since my return form MatLeave, whether I check on them and whether I am supportive.
2. Run a check on my teams email and internet usage without informing me, bypassed me and went to one of my staff to raise it.
3. Said she assigned me a multimillion pound project, when she didn't, but made out that it was me being incompetent.
4. Assigned tasks to 3 of my team without informing or including me.
5. Does not allow me to manage the AL or Sickness of my team.
6. Constantly criticises my team, makes random statements and then asks me to defend them off the cuff, putting me on the back foot.

Just to be clear, until I was moved into this dept, I was a respected, senior memeber of staff and have not had any questions over my competency in the years I have worked for the company. I am at a loss as to what to do.

Incompetent.

1. Is OK - and sensible assuming done with integrity and ability
2. Very poor - this is clearly an issue you should have led - if she has concerns (presume about volume of work or appropriateness) she should ask you to check - if she has concerns about your performance, and is judging this through team results, it is much more effective to ask you to report a) doesn't undermine you b) allws you to pick up concerns yourself and raise them with her or impartially with yourself/team, strengthening the management bonds and giving you the chance to openly demonstrate integrity (ideally as you are a past member of staff, she should be giving you many opportunities to do this to a) build your confidence up and b) give herself a chance to demonstrate her trust in you downwards. (the old 'its your ship now Mr Sulu' method!).
3. Incompetent. (and perhaps shows inability to delegate at worst, or not-doing-then-blaming at best) - you can solve this by working out minimum communications on project hand-overs (see 'tools for success' or at least ..goals(aims), objectives, timescales, budgets deliverables )- no document, no handover. Make that clear. (I worked with a manager who would talk about 'could you think about' eg 'taking over a department', then come back six months later and be surprised that his juniors had just thought about it.
4. Incompetent. Rude. Unproductive - get your staff on your side here, tell them no jobs except through you, but tell them not to refuse, just get details of what's been asked and tell you - you write to manager with answer and plan.
5. a. Poor - if that means that you don't get information on it at all (how can you manage peaks/troughs, the additional tasks above etc if you are unaware of team plans - not to mention the relationship and professional image you need to have eg being surprised that one of your key people is away when your manager knows makes you look awful) - solution could be pitched in general communication issues perhaps? OR b. could be OK if it just means someone else is recording requests and you have access when needed (ie. its a basic admin saver, but you still have decision).

c. If you are out of the loop completely it is undermining - negotiate decision-making and sight of records immediately or keep requesting plan updates on this from your manager weekly for example.

1. Not necessarily bad - dependent on type and level of criticism - if 'I think your team are working below capacity' rebuff 'certainly not (laugh) what do you want now?' or ' you team needs more training' rebuff 'excellent what's the budget??' If its in public its a great opportunity for you to show you team which side you are on (theirs and 'getting the job done with them' and you should be robust in this - otherwise it will walk smell and feel like undermining you and will work.). Confirm in writing later that 'in case her joke earlier pointed to real concerns, here's the evidence, plan, real picture, thing going on with x (I don't mean 'affair' I mean like 'oh yes he is working on a marketing project which will mean he is browsing the internet a lot') etc.

If however its nasty nebulous or guesswork that is wide of the mark or discriminatory then it is 'screw loose' behaviour and either smacks of deliberate undermining behaviour or a feeling that having authority means giving no praise. This means either a lot of managing upwards re praise, or a frank conversation about motives. If it remains clearly without evidence, and damaging, then it is incompetence and indicates a massive lack of management skills and psychological awareness. Be cautious, and ask for evidence.

(You could try my fave words if its 'he is slow' say 'oh show me what you mean' if its he can't deal with clients ' Oh, show me what you mean' if its guesses, say ' oh look I can show otherwise - can you get some figures from (say dependent department) and I'll have a look.

You should also ask for a complation eg 'its hard getting these random notes here and there could you outline all your concerns and send them in an e-mail so I can report back properly?

The whole issue could just be nervousness about how to manage you as an experienced member of staff and that could explain the need to find out info behind your back, an unwillingness to praise and tendancy to criticise and/or try to determine where your boundaries are, but keep a watch - managers who communicate badly, delegate poorly and blame people for not knowing what they haven't passed on generally get more difficult to work with over time. You need to establish clear rules that you can hammer back with when breached and keep things simple... it may be that she hasn't ever really defined what her rules are .. and isn't sure if you want her to give tasks to her team or not.. so set her straight!

Don't worry about what she thinks too much and whether everyone thinks you might have lost your ability -that is their shit - don't you pick it up!!

Heroine - thank you so much for taking the time to reply and in such detail too.

Some of the things you suggest - e.g. structure for handing over projects is something I can put into place straight away. The whole way the move has been handled has taken me so much by surprise, I've just not been able to look at it objectively.

I think its time to set out some boundaries instead of expecting her to operate in the same boundaries as we did in our old department.

good on you! :) thanks for seeing through my chat to the succinct point! (a development point for me I think! Good luck!
H