Looking for line manager advice

[GnomeDePlume]

A colleague has approached a member of my team suggesting that they might want to take a role in colleague's team. The colleague didnt approach me first and hasnt so far. My team member told me about the approach.

I am less than pleased about this:

• It puts both my team member and me in an awkward position as we both now know about someone leaving my colleague's team when this is not official

• I went to a lot of trouble to recruit my team member, they are very good, however this is their first job so I feel that I have put a lot of effort into my team member (recruitment and training) and my colleague is looking to fill a space in their team by poaching from mine.

• Not talking to me first feels like bad manners

So,

1.am I just being old fashioned about this and this is just the way things are?

or

2.should I speak to my colleague and tell them I am not happy with this?

or

3.should I complain to my line manager (we dont share line managers)

Any advice would be gratefully received!

The member of your team is not your property. You did well in developing them and if they are looking to grow in another role, you should not look to prevent this from happening.

However, your colleague's behaviour is not a good example of collaborative working (and professional respect). I would speak to them if I were you but you should keep it very professional (and focus on what you would have expected in this situation).

You could mention (rather than complain) to your line manager. It might be better if you do this once you have spoken to your colleague (and hopefully resolve the matter). When speaking to your line manager, be careful that it is not a rant and if you want your line manager to take any action, be clear as to what you expect them to do. Perhaps your discussion with your line manager is about seeking advice or just for their information?

Good luck. In the grand scheme of things it does not sound like a major issue but you should seek to establish some ground rules with your colleagues to prevent something similar from happening in the future.

I would take your team member for a coffee, and chat about how much you value them. Show them you recognise how well they have developed from the training so far, and ask them if they have any goals for their career development. Be honest, and don't over-promise, but where possible you could then commit to supporting them in that direction.

It's the team member's choice where they go. They may recognise that joining a new team that appears to be led by someone who is a bit cheeky is a bad idea. Or they may see it as a compliment that someone else has noticed their abilities.

I would only raise the confidentiality breach with your line manager. However, you're clearly good at training and developing people, so if you enjoy it, you could use this opportunity to discuss having a wider training role across both teams?

I do get that my team member is not my property and in fact this was the development step I was expecting them to take. IMO it is a little soon as my team member has only been with me for a few months so hasnt yet seen the whole cycle through. However if they do want to move I will support them in this.

I think you are both right about speaking to my colleague directly. I am loathe to go through my line manager as they are more likely to take offence but not really achieve anything IYSWIM. I will speak to my colleague first then let my line manager know what has happened.

Good point about establishing ground rules. I dont want to end up as the recruiter in the wider team who has all the hard work of recruitment and initial training only to have people snatched off me the second they have proved their worth.

Many thanks for the advice. There was no one I could talk to at work as the place can be a bit of a gossip house and I dont want to damage my colleague's reputation as they are new in their role.

From Reading your op it doesn't sound like your team member was looking for the next step up but that your collegue has noticed their skills and wanted to transfer them onto their team.
I would be put out if someone approached my team member in this way without speaking with me first.

We have 2 procedures for internal transfer. The team member has to be past probation and the line manager needs to be spoken to if a team member would like to apply for transfer.

GetYourFingersOutOfThere I think you are right. I do talk to my team member regularly about their career development. They are only just out of probation and have a long way to go in terms of formal training.

I feel that my colleague was interfering as they took it upon themselves to give my team member a speech about getting lots of experience and then asked if they wanted to change team.

IMO this was wrong and poor etiquette but I wasnt sure if I was just being old fashioned.

My colleague saw how much work it was to recruit and train my team member and I think decided they would bypass all of that and poach my team member.

I would consider it very poor form to approach a member of someone else's team without so much as a by-your-leave. How would the other person feel if you had done the same? I agree, I wouldn't go via your own line manager, as it feels a bit too much like telling teacher - have a firm but polite word with the other manager about the rules of poaching. There's nothing you can do if it's the team member who approaches the other manager but that wasn't the case here.

I would have thought, with it being such a new hire (just out of probation, only been there a few months) you would be justified in blocking the transfer if it came to it, but it doesn't sound like it's certain the team member wants the transfer anyway.

If you think it is part of a campaign to avoid the hassle and cost of recruitment, I think you do tell your boss. Perhaps in terms of 'x seems to be struggling to recruit so is trying to cherry pick from my team, I think it'd be more appropriate if I supported x in the recruitment process, don't you?'

If we go for internal jobs, we have to to tell our current manager - it's in the employee handbook. However, there's nothing to stop you going to talk to other managers about different roles that you might consider in the future, so you can consider developing required skills. There's also nothing to stop other managers coming to you to ask you to consider a role - and if it turned out they weren't interested, then do you need to mention it to the current manager? If you then actually apply, you have to tell your current manager.

Oh this reminds me of similar issue I had about 12 years ago. Our big boss had called us managers in to explain the new staffing structure which would be rolled out to staff in a few weeks - no rededunacies, just reallocating resources due to changing needs in the department. I was losing some team members and gaining some from other teams.

Now I saw it as my responsibilty to tell my existing team members what was happening and called a meeting for later that day. One of the other managers thought it was HIS responsibility to tell his new team members the situation there and then and pretty much shouted the new structure over their desks as he was walking past! Cue mass hysteria from the team members I was losing because I'm a great boss and he was widely acknowledged to not be and me having to then bring the meeting forward without having had a chance to fully prepare. Grrrrrr!

Anyway, I was furious a) because the hysteria was avoidable and b) I saw it as him interfering in the management of what was still my team. I fired off a pretty harsh email to him which left him in no doubt as to what my thoughts were. Apparently, this made him furious and he was all for putting in a grievance.

In hindsight, I still think I was right and he was interfering in the running of my team, but I probably should have spoken to him calmly rather than sending a very abrupt email. Thinking about it, neither of us was "wrong" but our approaches were disconnected and the way of communicating to team members probably should have been ironed out before leaving out big boss's office.

So, if I were you I would try and find out first whether your colleague has breached company protocol. Stay calm. Even if no protocol has been breached, explain that while you're all for the development and progression of staff, they should have paid you the curtesy of mentioning it to you first.

FWIW my colleague and I actually got on very well some time afterwards and had a proper laugh about my email and his reaction but things were very sensitive for a while which isn't good for anyone.

Sorry about this epic post - I could have just said, get your facts straight and stay calm!

Thanks!

I have spoken with my team member, my colleague and my line manager. My team member was not looking to move on and was a bit non-plussed by this approach. My colleague is back tracking a little bit, they werent offering the role just letting my team member know there was a vacancy (or something). My line manager is aware and was happy for me to deal with it.

Any road up, all is sorted. My colleague now knows that my team member is not just a resource to be snatched.

That sounds good, hopefully the colleague has had his/her guns spiked just enough to stay out of trouble in future.