Managers - how would you deal with this?

[Sleepychicken]

I’m sorry, this is a long one!

background - Im a senior manager and work in a demanding area juggling lots of different projects. One of the projects is particularly challenging, in order to meet deadlines I had to write to stakeholders and explain some other work would need to be stopped for us to deliver on this project. All stakeholders responded with offers of help, one area loaned us a member of staff and other stakeholders escalated the issue with their senior leaders which meant my business case for extra resource was approved.

the advert for staff went out and the loaned member of staff was successful - it was a promotion for them. I had no say in the member of staff that was loaned to us, I didn’t know the person and they did an amazing job. They ran rings round existing members of the team and deserved the position. The recruitment was done by another team and I had no say or influence in the exercise.

now for the issue! Other members of the team are back biting and calling me which has now got back to me, the person who has told me has asked me not to act but the crux is the other members think I am empire building and manipulated the recruitment so that the loaned person was successful!

because this is blatantly untrue, hurtful to me, the recruitment team and the successful candidate, I want to nip this in the bud and address it!

I learned this yesterday and haven’t slept at all last night because it is bothering me so much!

I’ve thought about sending an email to the whole team setting out the business case for the resource and pretty much saying what I’ve said here. Is that appropriate?

what would you do?

thanks for reading if you got this far!

I don't understand why you care so much? This really isn't worth losing sleep over, it's a bit of gossip. I certainly wouldn't be sending out defensive emails, that's really unprofessional in my view.

It’s all hearsay, you can’t act on hearsay. I would be inclined to do nothing tbh. They've been shown up and are therefore bitching, ignore them.

Thanks for your replies, I don’t know why it’s bothered me so much! It’s helped being told that!

Take advice from your own manager.

Don't do anything until you have.

Newsflash: staff moan about their managers, often unfairly.

It’s bothering you because it’s untrue and bitchy. Totally understandable! But you’ve done nothing wrong so take the moral high ground and move on. Good luck.

Thank you! I think I think I just needed to air that it was bothering me and get it out of my head, it is bitchy and so pointless! I think now it’s out of my head I will pretend I wasn’t told and move on!

If you’re bothered by bitchy gossip and rumours, you’re simply not cut out for further leadership development beyond being the team leader you are.
I’m not belittling you, I’m telling you the job will eat you up and spit you out again.
If you want to progress, grow a thicker skin.

This happens all the time. Ignore it - don’t give it any credibility or oxygen. It never ceases to amaze me how jealous and bitter some people can be.

it bothers me more that people are saying the candidate got the position through my manipulation and not on their own merits - which isn’t true and they don’t deserve that.

Then you just have to ignore it unless it turns into bullying or harrassment

The business knows the merits of the person doesn't it? If so I really wouldn't care. The person making the comments is feeling insecure by this exposure that they really are not good at their job.

Ignore it.

That aspect of management can absolutely suck. I'd try to treat it as new data, now you know more about some of your team members and if it becomes a pattern can bear that in mind for future projects and promotions.

Unless the successful candidate voices their concerns to you and wants you to act you say nothing... it's very annoying but that's part of being a manager.

I wouldn't do anything! You don't need to address gossip, and if other staff
members want to basically have a go and slate you behind your back, just let them.

Be the epitome of professionalism, I think it's something to keep an eye on if it escalates then act.

Staff make comments when you are a manager, it's part of it! They always think they know how to run things better....

They're jealous! Glad you're feeling better about it, sometimes we all just need to have a rant

@Sleepychicken i'm a Manager to and it's not nice to be talked about but fairly or unfairly it goes hand in hand with the post. People will always gossip and spread nonsense, ignore it and if it reaches your ears again just shake your head at them like you would with a naughty toddler

I think this is something where you need to hata rant here and then do nothing. Hold your head up high at work and continue to act with integrity.

Make sure you communicate relevant and appropriate information (about the project, why extra resources were needed), at the appropriate time. Sometimes this kind of gossip fills a vacuum.

I'd probably arrange a team meeting and do a 'situation review' where we went through what happened, how it happened, what we may have done to avoid it and during the session, go through as part of the review, how you informed the other stakeholders, the support that they gave and how the person came to be here and also the impact that they have had.

It would be an informal session just to go through the impacts all this has had on the team and the aim of it would be to try and work out what we would do in future to mitigate the situation, which may include skills sharing, using the 7 habits quadrant method to ditch work that doesn't need to be done, to redefine our goals going into next year and to make sure we are all well equipped to deal with the unexpected in the future.

Ah we get lots of this where I work, unfortunately it's because some other people have in fact manipulated recruitment results so some other people assume that's what's going on with every hire we make (it is not!)

I wouldn't send an email. Presumably you have team meetings with them all, I'd use those as an opportunity to over communicate about the progress of the project to fill the vacuum that's being filled with griping at the moment.

What I also wouldn't do is get distracted by the murmurings of a bad apple within the team and I wouldn't try and placate them. This sort of stuff is par for the course in leadership, you'd do well to thicken your skin a bit (easier said than done I know!)

I'd also check in with the person who told you as it's obviously making them feel uncomfortable.

So it appears someone was unsettled that another person came in to the team and did an amazing job. Their response was to make spurious accusations about the recruitment process rather than acknowledging their experience and skills and to learn from working with this person. It really reflects poorly on them and not you as a manager.

I think, however galling it is, you just have to ignore it. You won't gain anything by calling it out - if anything it will make you look as though you feel insecure in your position.

Another way to look at it is that you clearly have a lot of respect within your organisation that your stakeholders were so ready to offer help or support your business case so readily. Getting extra resource is hard! I'd focus on these positives, as well as the fact you've now got someone extra on the team who is good. As someone up thread has said, that's clearly unsettled the person on your team who has made these comments.

They ran rings round existing members of the team and deserved the position.

I expect there would be less of an issue if they had not outperformed the current team members. I would ignore and move on. People gripe about their managers all the time, especially when they have chosen to feel they have been made to look bad (and not use the experience to improve their skillset).

It sounds like you had a proper recruitment process rather than the 'tap on the shoulder' so if anyone says anything encourage them to apply for roles they would like to be considered for.

Wow thank you for the replies and lots of you have absolutely hit the nail on the head!

I thought I had communicated the situation and why extra resource was needed which is why it stung.

i think this person has showed people up and they are feeling insecure, bitter and jealous - I absolutely can’t underplay the impact this person has had.

i took it as a sign of respect that the stakeholders swooped in and helped me but I don’t think that has been understood or recognised by the team.

we did have a proper recruitment process which doesn’t always happen I'll admit and because it absolutely did happen in this case, the gossip feels like a slap.

the person who reported this does feel uncomfortable and is directly impacted and the impact of this on them worries me.

i think hearing this news on a Friday didn’t help as i knew I couldn’t do anything until Monday which is why I think it caused me a sleepless night!

what I’ve taken from this and what I’m going to do is reiterate to the person who reported is that we haven’t done anything wrong and we can hold our heads high - let’s take the moral high ground and move on!

I love the suggestion of a team meeting and asking what we could have done to prevent this and I am going to do this!

this is mumsnet at its best for me - thank you so much to everyone who responded!