I’m trying to work out how to deal with an issue at work. Essentially, our team leader has made herself a bottleneck in a process and won’t see that it’s causing a problem.
We use a piece of equipment in our jobs on a relatively frequent basis and manager got the idea it was being misused. It wasn’t, there had been a misunderstanding. So instead of allowing us to use the piece of equipment freely, she has introduced a process where she has to give permission for it to be used. Unfortunately, she has a lot on and doesn’t often read or reply to our emails to her so she keeps missing or not seeing our requests. It’s causing a lot of ill feeling and backlog but she won’t contemplate any other option.
For background, she is very new in her role and has never managed people before. I get on quite well with her generally and I strongly suspect she thinks if she changes her process, people will perceive her as weak. Several of us have tried to talk to her and suggest alternatives to avoid her losing face but she either ignores it or deflects. We can’t go above her for a variety of valid reasons.
We’re a bit stuck on how (or if) to proceed trying to resolve the impasse so if anyone has any good ideas it would be appreciated!