WWYD- Small team, too much work, nobend boss

[ladylockdown]

A work one. Long. Sorry.

4 years in same company. Started off great. I was brought in to manage a few small teams in v small business (around 20-25 people total, with me managing just over half of them). Work directly for owner who is a bit of a cunt but we get on well, have worked for cunts before & know how to handle him.

After 6 months cracks begin to show, small business is failing. New MD is recruited. Things seem on the up & he’s exciting to work for, feel like am learning & there is opportunity for progression.

Another year goes by. Emerges new MD is full of hot air & business is failing even more dramatically. Redundancies are made. Then few months later a form of administration (CVA) and more redundancies. Now 7 people left in total. 4 of which I manage. Feel grateful to have a job but looking elsewhere due to unstable nature of company, pretty determined to leave at this point as career has plateaued massively. Some months salary is very late/ touch & go re getting paid.

Throughout all this remain loyal (in eyes of owner at least) & work very hard.
Then Covid hits. No jobs to move to.
Things get worse & business folds completely.
3 of us plus owner are tupe-ed to new co who bought us out of administration.
Feel very lucky & very excited to work for bigger better company.
This brings us up to date.

Now working for new co but the problem is, there are 3 of us doing all of the work 7 of us were doing this time last year PLUS new co’s work. We are at breaking point.
Cunt boss won’t say anything to new co as he is trying to ‘prove’ himself now he is no longer owner but an employee.

New co is huge & has HR & procedures. Do I go over his head & say ‘help we are drowning’? Cunt boss says until we have brought more money in new co won’t allow more resources. But there are 3 of us doing the job of 7 and we are working until 10/11pm and still missing deadlines. I don’t want new co to think we are shit. But they don’t know our business well enough to understand why/how we are so busy.

It’s come to a head today as cunt boss has started putting extra pressure on by criticising things that have been missed due to horrendous workload. Not one bit of thanks from him for staying with him throughout this shitfest.
I want to protect my (tiny) team. Help!

Am I the only one who objects to 'cunt' being used in this sort of situation?

Thank you for the helpful response
It's possible that his behaviour today has affected my language somewhat. Please can you replace it with nobhead in your mind and have a reread and advise if you have any wisdom to share?

If cuntyboss won't engage, I think you have no choice but to go over his head.

Is it likely he'd respond to an approach along the lines of 'shall we consult HR about this situation together' - you could try that and if he won't engage, explain that you feel you have no choice but to speak to them by yourself.

@HollowTalk

Am I the only one who objects to 'cunt' being used in this sort of situation?

Yes. Fuck off

@ladylockdown
I would go to the big Co HR or leapfrog yo bosses LM
BUT

I would go with a solution. Explain the problem - sell it as a strength - you're busy/productive, BUT in order to be sustainable you need more people - is there a plan for recruitment as current workloads are unmanageable.

I would go to HR, ideally with a proposed solution as PP says. But if you don’t raise it now then surely their expectation will be that you can manage X workload with only the 3-4 of you, and it will be more difficult for them to understand why you need more staff in future (‘if you’ve managed before then why not now?’ etc)

Thanks all, @ToManderley that's a really good point, better to shout now! It's just strange for me as I'm used to CuntBoss being the one who pays my wages & it's a strange situation where I have the option to go above him now.
I also like @LApprenti's idea re suggesting we tackle it together (as a subtle ultimatum).
Thank you this has helped

Just mulling this over & I think what I need to get across (which will be to his LM as @Veterniari suggests rather than HR) is that I'm concerned that new co think (because Cunt Boss has sold it that way when arranging the buyout) the 3 of us were managing this level of work even before the takeover, which we weren't. There were more of us & the workload has increased further. Sorry am wanging on it's been a long day, but even just typing this out has helped me clarify what I need to do. 👍🏻

Do you know who advocated for buying you? Someone in the business wanted the company and won't want it to fail.

I would also consider taking the mistakes and errors that Cuntyboss is worried about and including them in your discussion with HR eg this is the consequence of current situation and we expect to see more like this if nothing changes.

@jay55 good point, it was definitely people higher than I would be able to speak to directly, but Cuntyboss's line manager is being put under pressure re our performance (according to Cuntyboss at least) so he is definitely invested. I just need to grow the balls to speak to him directly I think- after giving Cunty the option to do so himself as suggested above. This is really helping. Like many threads on Mumsnet there's been a lot more ins & out (& heartache & stress!) involved than is possible to articulate in a post but this is all fantastic advice and helping me see clearly.

@FusionChefGeoff another good point but the powers above CB have been shielded from the missed deadlines as I have been prioritising new co's work as concerned re giving a good first impression, which is what caused CB to kick off today. I de-prioritised his (shit, pointless) work as it was work to make him look good, rather than to make the wider business money. Hence the conflict.
Regardless, we can't do it all

Could you go to HR and tell them you're worried about mental health and burnout with the current workload? Duty of care and all that?

[quote ladylockdown]@FusionChefGeoff another good point but the powers above CB have been shielded from the missed deadlines as I have been prioritising new co's work as concerned re giving a good first impression, which is what caused CB to kick off today. I de-prioritised his (shit, pointless) work as it was work to make him look good, rather than to make the wider business money. Hence the conflict.
Regardless, we can't do it all[/quote]
I think you need to speak to them

I think if you 'force' CB to there's a risk he'll paint you as a complainer who can't finish the tasks he has set you

You're right @Veterinari I'm going to. I knew when we got taken over I would end up having to 'throw him under the bus' at some point but didn't think it would do so soon as the new bosses don't know me at all. But we can't go on as it is, since starting this thread tonight have already had another massive project emailed to me which is prob a full week's work for one person. It's just not doable and I don't want to start off at the new co with them thinking that it is.