Would you challenge your manager on this

[NotAWorkThing]

For prioritising another department over your own

My line manager manages four departments and was promoted from one.

I’m running into problems of delivery related to her prioritising the needs of her original team over the team I’m in.

We get on pretty well but I’ve never challenged her just done my job and supported her. The thing is in my team I have issues with team mates suffering from stress because of the imbalance and other colleagues not reporting absence or going home sometimes as early as 10:30am, which causes horrendous issues for everyone else, and the manager doesn’t realise as she’s not present or that engaged with this team. My strongest colleague would have been in her role but for a merger of departments, and is now looking to diversify and move into another unrelated team as wants promotion.

would you bring up the issues of absence, stress due to our team being passed over for resources or leave it?

I’m personally ok. I enjoy my job and only have issues except for either frustration or concern about my team.

I would highlight the challenges your team are facing ie unmanageable workload rather than speculating why. It sounds like you are correct as to why, but focusing on your issue is a much better approach.

Yes I think it’s my frustration with the situation that I want to air, but actually that isn’t likely to achieve the outcome I need.

Thank you for the advice

Describe the situation factually eg

We have observed that team Y is operating at reduced capacity due to absences which is causing a backlog for Team Y. The absences are often being unreported or reported at the last minute so team Y unable to plan in advance. The impact we are seeing on Team X in terms of output is <this> and the impact on staff morale is <this> which is in turn impacting productivity.

I've taken <this> approach to addressing with Team Y and the result has been <this>. I'm looking for your advice and support.

Obviously change it so it represents the actual situation.

Of course you should bring up issues that you are facing with your line manager, that is in part what your one to one meetings are for. As mentioned above though, I wouldn’t go into the whole favouring another team because that is where she came from, that is petty confrontational and subjective. I would focus on the issues that you have without the comparisons.