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unqualified person hired as peer

3 replies

poopsqueak · 16/07/2018 17:35

I work in tech. I am a Project Manager. I work with a team technical staff to deliver projects. These include developers.

Recently a lot of developers have quit. In my opinion it is because they have no route to progress (there are 25 of them and they are managed by one person, who very much doesn't like to manage people as he used to be a dev and wants to retain a hand in tech work - this person has been with the business since the start). I have a problem with this because it makes it hard to deliver projects when staff are quitting and no one will do anything about the reason they are quitting.

One of the top devs in the business handed his notice in last week. Obviously tech manager tried to get him to stay, but didn't offer him a route of promotion in his own dept, for example, senior developer, or head of development. Instead he offered him the same job as me, Project Manager, which takes him out of his management line and under my bosses (project management). It also wasn't his job to offer as there is no vacancy and its not his dept.

I am quite pissed off at this, as I know he has no experience in PM work and the 3 other PM's have years of industry experience. This will mean a deficit of experience across the dev teams, and I will have to hand hold (this has happened before). There are also no team members for him to manage or deliver projects with.....

My problem is not with this developer per se (hes a nice guy), but that the tech manager doesn't want to affect change in his own dept and is shoving this unhappy developer onto us. He carries a lot of weight in the business having been there since the outset and is very dogmatic in his opinions.

My boss (who I will speak to) is brand new in the business and I cant quite believe he has accepted this. He has just sacked a very experienced Senior Project Manager and replaced with someone junior last month.

What shall I do? I cant help but feel annoyed that this person will be earning the same as myself and my team but has literally no experience. Its just so weird. I feel like my boss has been strongarmed into hiring him as part of our team because he threatened to leave and someone promised him something.

OP posts:
Racecardriver · 16/07/2018 17:38

Look for a different job.

kimber83 · 16/07/2018 20:43

your talent management strategy must be non existant

my dh is a dev, and his company (not exactly in a cutting edge or exciting area of IT) has a management track and a technical skills track.

what your company is basically saying is: any good developer has no career here. only the dregs will stay because it's cushy or they'll struggle for employment elsewhere.

what a mess.

your head of HR should be having oversight of this, no?
who does the dev manager report into? (maybe a CTO or a CIO-type person? or a director of IT?).. if they're not on board, you've basically got no chance.

you could spend some time researching what the norm is in industry - my DH has just given me a 10 minute rant about companies like yours when i spoke to him and showed him this on my laptop - said your type of company is stuck in the 1980s and no good dev worth his or her salt would stick around.... but it's prob easier to not fight it.

just look for another job where different skillsets are valued/respected/managed better.

poopsqueak · 19/07/2018 16:13

Head of hr left last year and hasn't been replaced. 3 hr people
At every good at the day to day but not at the bigger problems.

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