Is this promotion a poisoned chalice?

[Notsogoodhousekeeping]

A new department was launched at work a couple of years ago and I was involved from the start. Someone external was brought in to run the department from their base at the other end of the country, but they have proved to be inept (good knowledge, but they do their own thing and are unmanageable) and the dept is floundering. However, HR refuse to get rid of this person for political reasons.

Now it looks like I will be promoted to manager of this department, but with this comes the task of managing this unmanageable person. People at a higher level than me haven't succeeded in trying to get them to toe the line, so I don't know how I will fare any better. I don't want to manage them, but I do want to take charge of the department, because I know it could be brilliant and there is a demand for the work it does.

However, for as long as this person is involved, it will be impossible to move the business forward in any meaningful way. The more I think about it, the more I feel like I should run like the wind. If I say no, my position as it stands will probably be untenable.

I should look for something else, right?

I had a similar situation, got moved to another division of the big multinational I worked for, with the specific (verbal) remit to get shot of a person (A) who had been in situ since the company operating at that location was bought and merged with the division of the multinational I worked for. A had been second in command to the managing director of the company that was bought, and thus knew how the old company had been run and was not prepared to follow the new procedures introduced by the multinational. I was following in the footsteps of about 5 previous departmental managers, all of whom had failed to shed this person, A caused chaos, worked to the detriment of the business, upset other employees etc.
I decided that I had to do this by letting A fail procedurally and hang themselves by their own rope by not following company procedure (which they refused to do as the 'old' way was 'better' even though it wasn't financially or operationally in the interests of the business).
If multinational's rules were do x, y z in that order but A had always done Z first, even though A knew it was correct to do X & Y first, A wouldn't. This often caused problems for the team because X needed to be done for finance (which was no longer done in the location but at head office) and meant the branch administrator couldn't do certain procedures on time as the reports hadn't come back from head office. Etc.
Therefore I had a meeting of the branch key personnel when I started, and we went through all the procedures that had to be followed and why. The minutes dictated the procedure, the fact A had not been following it previously was brought up by the branch secretary who was 'in' on my secret remit (nobody else was though they all hated A), and I got A to agree in the meeting (so in the minutes) that the procedures had to be followed.
Everything was ALWAYS in writing and copied to everyone else.
Every time A did A's own thing, A got in writing that I had noted procedure had not been followed and reiterating the procedure.
At performance review this was brought up. A was not happy and hated me, but I wasn't there to be liked just to do a job = bring the branch to a good profit (and get rid of A).
A also did one major 'do my own thing' which had financial repercussions (along the lines of agreed a big refund to a client without the correct line approval) and got a written warning.
I was always fair - anyone else stepping out of line also got it in writing! The secret was definitely in writing and in the record keeping.
After 4 or 5 months A came into my office and tendered resignation.
I think A was surprised when I accepted, given how many years (20+) they'd worked at the location. Meanwhile the rest of the company breathed a huge sigh of relief.

I think you need to look at why the unmanageable person is failing, whether you can piss off said person by micromanaging and boxing in to follow the rules enough to make them leave or to fail such that you can fairly sack them by following misconduct rules, or pull up their socks follow procedures and be competent.

Check your company rules: what is this person doing wrong and what are the repercussions? How can you manage the person to ensure they follow the rules or get a warning? How can you keep records of both their and your actions and their reactions to show you have followed company procedure and been fair in your dealings with this person. Does your company do performance appraisals? Can you easily bring up shortcomings? Would you be able to piss this person off/put them under enough pressure they go find another job? Or that they provide enough rope you can sack them by legitimate means without repercussions?
All needs weighing up.

For me I hadn't even met any of the team when I had to accept the post so didn't have much of an idea as to what A was doing to upset the previous managers, so I think you have an advantage there.

Can you accept the post provided you don't have to manage the person? I'm guessing they can't easily be sacked as they've now been there too long.

I will ask if I can do it without having to manage them, but I suspect it would fall to me eventually. They are protected in that they were recruited by the company director and she will not hear a bad word said about them, even though lots of us are complaining (with good reason). Similar to your situation, I guess it's a case of letting this person fuck up badly but ensuring they had been told everything they need to be effective so that my arse is covered. That sounds horrible but it's the only way out at the moment.

Your message was really useful, by the way - lots of strategies should I end up managing them.

It was a long time ago, I think HR policies are more set in stone these days, but I had been trained in HR so knew to get everything in writing, so that's what happened whether for A or any other employee, if we agreed something they got an email confirming it (or a memo - it was that long ago. )
Good luck, hope it works out well for you.