Help please with perspective and advice

[Onthescrapheap]

I’m upset about this, but not sure if I’m being oversensitive and unreasonable. I’m a manager with a small team dealing with a very specific area of responsibility within the organisation, have been in the role for a number of years and have always reported to the director of the department. We have had a re-organisation and a ‘head of *’ has been appointed who is now responsible for my area and some other responsibilities. I will report to her, she will report to the director. I don’t feel great about it, because it does look like a demotion on the organisation chart, however I’m told that it’s a reporting line change and I understand that since my job title and salary are unchanged it’s something I will just have to put up with, even though an announcement has now been made to the effect that this person is now responsible for the specific area for which I have always had ultimate responsibility.

My real concern is that my new boss is definitely rolling up her sleeves and taking over responsibilities which I see as mine, talking about ‘we’, taking the lead on things like organising meetings which I would have dealt with before, very much gearing up to have hands on involvement. We have already had a few awkward moments. It feels like my responsibility is being eroded and undermined. Is this a demotion? It feels awful, I’m very low about it and seriously considering resigning.

Anyone? I would really appreciate other viewpoints.

Presumably this change was a structural one and it seems as if your new manager is not clear about their role if they are taking over your responsibilities - this is not just stepping on your toes it is wasteful as their time is more valuable than yours and you are duplicating effort. They are in a new role and trying to show they know what they are doing; your issues need raising higher without undermining them as this could be dangerous for you.
So seeing as this is work, the hierarchy dictates that you should embrace the change and be wholly supportive of your new boss. You could to meet with them to resolve your respective roles in an objective way - involve others if necessary but from the point of view of doing what is best for the company and your team.
I find MN is not so good for work issues so I use www.askamanager.org - you don't have to register to comment , you can send individual questions, search the site and every Friday there is an open thread where you can post a question.
Good luck, try not to let your personal feelings make this worse for you as sometimes situations resolve themselves over time.

MN is great for work issues.

I disagree that your best option is to raise issues higher. I think you need to raise your concerns with your line manager. She is new, in a new role and finding her way, wanting to make an impact. She probably isn't clear on exactly what your role was previously and how this change has impacted you. Raise your concerns with her and see what she says about how she sees your role and your contribution going forward.

Ultimately you need to work with the woman and if it's awkward at the moment, complaining higher won't help that at all. Clearing the air and making sure she has a clear understanding of how you're feeling is important. Depending on how she handles it and responds, decide whether you want to stay long term. If you don't, look at what you can get out of the role in the short term to help you get where you want to be.

Flowery - I agree with your advice however without your input this part of the site would be dead as a dodo.

@ Ariana1 very true! And thank you for that link, I've book marked it for future use

You obviously don't read it much then. Plenty of others contribute and I certainly don't post on every query.

Very strange that that blog seems to be being linked to on posts on this topic at the moment.

Thank you for replying. She isn't new to the business or dept, it's a new role. Sorry if that's a drip feed, she could well be on here, and it's difficult to gauge what is enough information to give. I've worked with her for almost a decade, she knows exactly what my role is and how much responsibility and supervision I've had up to now. I do think she's just trying to do her new job, she will take that seriously, I'm struggling with the idea that suddenly I'm expected to accept hands on supervision and 'support' and someone more senior involved in my area when this has never been in place before. I've been completely responsible for myself, support has consisted of a bit of a rant over a cup of tea from time to time. No one has suggested there is a problem or that I need more, I haven't asked for it.

If she is new to being a 'head of' she may well be throwing herself in to get a real feel for the role. Hopefully once she feels on top of it all she will relax a bit. It's worth remembering that as a manager, who is accountable for your delivery, she will need to build her confidence that you are as good as you say you are. I don't mean that in a negative way, just that she needs to know you will do the right things and once she is confident in you she is likely to back off.

It's also worth thinking about the width of her role. You say she is also responsible for other areas, she won't be able to stay very hands on with you and the other areas too. I had this a few years ago when I got a new Director. (Who I had also previously worked alongside) Crawled all over my area for a few months till she worked out everything was fine then backed right off and concentrated on the other areas (which were not fine) which then took up all her time.

Just be careful how you set your relationship with her. Don't show her that you are frustrated but do talk to her about what you can do for her and how she can help you. There must be problems she can help sort out or provide you with stretch / development on and this will again take her away from the day to day delivery you have under control?

She isn't new to being a head of and she knows exactly how good I am, this is going to make it a dead giveaway if she reads it, but she was already my boss, she has stepped down from her more senior role and as part of a restructure of the dept a new role has been created for her. I like her very much, however I have never had any hands on support from her, I have felt that I had ultimate responsibility for delivery. The width of her role is a lot narrower than it was, that's why she's now got time to get more hands on and why I don't like it I guess, in my role I've never had a manager with the bandwidth to do anything except be glad I had it covered. Now I'm thinking hang on a minute, someone is stepping on my toes here, and I don't think it's ok with me, if she starts organising meetings I would have done or taking active responsibility which was previously mine then my role is diminished, we don't need two people taking responsibility and I will have to take a step back. It's not just that she's asking questions and putting herself in the picture, she's actually saying I'll do such and such about things which have been part of my job. Somehow I've got to curb my emotional reaction though, so I can find out exactly how she sees it working and decide what to do.

This does sound really difficult for you - she will want to prove that she's doing a worthwhile job in the new role - if anything she's going to want to cherry pick the 'managerial responsibilities'.
Don't rely on her being nice - she will put her own need for employment above yours and you can't afford to antagonise her or let anyone on your team know that you're upset.
Maybe you could request to take on other projects or look for a secondment using this to improve your career prospects?

if anything she's going to want to cherry pick the 'managerial responsibilities that's already happened, we just did a project, I did all the work, she picked it up right at the end and took ownership when it came to it. Same thing happened today, I dropped what I was doing to handle a crisis which was about to become a legal issue, she picked it up at 5 o'clock to follow through dealing with the senior stakeholders, it will be like I had nothing to do with it. From her point of view I suppose she has ultimate responsibility and she has good backup, from mine shes taking over responsibilities I had before.