Professional advice?

[goodgirl]

my job... egh. Can you help?

I used to have it so great... my boss was A+++ and we were great friends, he was the best manager I've ever known and I learned so much from him. He was grooming me for big things. Then he got fired (too expensive). I took on some of his duties, not officially but because someone needed to do them. When he left, lots of people said they saw me as the new ethical leader of the place where I work.

The workload got really tough for a while and then the new mgmt stripped many of us of some of our authority and gave it to other people. So for about a year, I was struggling to work out where the boundaries of my job were, who could boss me around and who I was to boss around. Managed to recoup about half of the authority taken away from me.... wheee!

So I was happy and seemingly my coworkers were too, the people who depend on me. My last 2 reviews have been embarassingly flattering I mean just gushy -- these reviews are by my coworkers AND superiors.

A few months ago a friend of mine who is very good at her job got promoted. Many of my duties were given to her -- the same duties I had scrabbled for so long to reclaim, the things I need to have control over in order to do my job and also the things that earn me respect. I wasn't consulted and I was one of the last to find out about it. It was embarassing and made me look very weak... many people have asked if I'm about to be laid off, or if I will be taking on addl duties. :o mean, I'm getting paid the same salary to do half the work, and the work I do now is mostly the grind, not the fun stuff. Also, the only things that made my job marketable outside the company are now this other lady's duties.

I met w/my (new, not-improved) boss today (after he kept me waiting for five weeks). My former wonderful boss is a good friend of his and had talked with him last weekend, promoting the heck out of me. I asked for recruiting duties, to take on training duty, and to be able to take on other work in the company in order to keep my skills marketable. He was like, "yeah, ok, maybe in a few months we can start on that" so I said, "by review time in March will I be able to start implementing these things?" and he said he wasn't making any promises. The whole thing was pretty depressing.

What should I do? I feel I'm being taken advantage of, undermined and "given the hand". My talents and experience, which are considerable, are being wasted and I almost feel I'm stealing my paycheck. Others obviously are aware of this too, if they're asking about my job status. My ability to lead others is compromised because I've been shown to be out of the loop and weakened. OTOH, I know I should "work as unto the Lord" and just make myself as indispensible as possible; heck, I've cleaned stalls for a living, and I did a doggone good job of it. I don't want to be arrogant and I know part of this is just feeling that I'm a megastar in my company and I'm not getting my due. But obviously this other woman kicked up a fuss and got what she wanted, so how far should I take it??

I know this was long, sorry but I wanted to be complete.

 

[Crazy Liz]

Are you looking for another job? Have you talked with your former boss and asked for suggestions?

Those would be my first thoughts.

Keep doing your best on your present job, but it's no sin to look for other options.

 

[goodgirl]

well the industry I work in, I'm pretty much in the top company so if I did work elsewhere a pay cut might be likely and I almost certainly would have to sell my house and move. This would be tough since my mom would either have to move with me or I'd have to pay 2 sets of bills... so anyhow, I don't want to change jobs or careers if I can help it -- it's quite fraught with danger.

Over the wkend I decided I'll talk to my boss's boss... he's a cool guy always looking out for good ideas and bright willing people, so maybe I'll get somewhere with him. I realized that all my life, I've had to sort of make my own way, buck convention, not stay in my place; so here again, I think I'll just make up my own job description and start doing it, and by the time anyone catches on I'll ready be what I want to be, have the marketability I need and be able to ask for a spiffier title.

 

[pmarquette]

read Nehemiah .... favor

ask the Lord for " favor " with those above you ,
peace to know if should stay and pray ,
leave and go elsewhere ....

in the midst of trial look at James 1.1 ; 1 Peter 1.7
opportunities to build faith and laugh at the devil

 

[goodgirl]

ok, I wrote the big honcho boss and asked to meet with him. I explained that a coworker of mine has agreed to take on some of my duties, which leaves me with both time and inclination to pursue other work; also, I said that periodically I ask those I work with what I can do to help them more, as well as what things they dream of doing in their job. That is true... I think it is a good way to get in touch w/people and also often we can help each other reach for excellence. So I told the boss that I'd like to hear his views on that... where he'd love to see the company go, what obstacles he sees etc, ways he things we could improve, etc. He is a big idealist and so I bet he'll have some good ideas.
Anyhow, we're meeting the 2nd week in Dec.... I will be praying and will try to take time to study and prepare well (biblically and professionally). Please pray for me and all the others involved, too!

 

[wvmtnkid]

Sounds like you are on the right track goodgirl! I pray that will see what a good employee they have on their hands and do what they can to keep you!

What prompted them to give the other woman your job duties? Did she ask for them? Was she underemployed? Jealous of your postion? It doesn't seem right for them to take your job duties and give them to someone else just out of the blue for no reason. I think I would want to find out the motivation behind that. Do you have a job description that describes your position and what your duties are? I would be suspicious if you had been given good job evaluations and than all of a sudden your duties disappear and are given to someone else. That doesn't jive. I know I am all over the place here, but thoughts just keep coming to me.

 

[goodgirl]

haha.. yeah I KNOW it doesn't make sense!
Part of it, I think is that this lady is one of the best at her job, and they only gave her a tiny raise this year bc of budget concerns. She rightly raised heck, and also pointed out that her husband is also one of the best workers here. So they want to keep them happy. Sooo, they gave her a promotion, but no raise; in order to give her a new title they had to give her new duties. So they just gave her some of mine.

It was rude, at best, not to at least let me know their plans in advance. Was it personal? Not from her, I know; I don't think anyone meant it as an insult. I think they just acted thoughtlessly. Of course, the paranoid part of me wonders... but I can't think of a reason they'd want to lose me. I don't even make enough money to be a target! LOL

In my prev meeting I asked about it and about what that means for me.. I didn't get a straight answer (my boss is a bureaucrat). He doesn't know I know about the tough bargaining session with this lady.
Oh -- in my review earlier this year, where I got a sweet raise, my 2 bosses said they were so pleased w/me that they wanted me to take on more managerial duties and were looking at ways to accomplish that. So he accidentally mentions that I was considered for this "position" -- she has a couple of more managerial duties now; I guess those were things they had originally intended for me to do. Why not me? My guess is, this lady is known as a sweetie pie mom type, whereas I am a sweetie pie much of the time but also known as not being (much of) a pushover. My coworker has the luxury of being nice; I have 40 different opinions to corral, often in a matter of minutes, so there are times I need to make a decision with a minimum of democratic process. I try to be as supportive as possible, but my job is not to be popular, it's to do good work. So I think they want their go-between to the "little people" to be my much-loved coworker.

Anyway, I registered my irritation with him about several things in several ways, but tried to be polite and professional. And, I told my wonderful formal boss of my deep displeasure and that I was considering my options; so I'm sure that'll get back to my boss, too. That's the last I'll say about it; I'm not getting those duties back ever, so I just need to replace them with something even better.

 

[desi]

Try reading "How to Think like a CEO..." by D. A. Benton.

 

[Mr.Cheese]

What do you do?

 

[goodgirl]

journo

 

[wvmtnkid]

It sounds like talking to the head boss is a step in the right direction. I would be sure and point out to him about your positive evaulations and all of the good things you have done for the company. Be sure and sell yourself, let him know what an asset you are. Doesn't hurt to toot your own horn occasionally. Nobody else is going to toot it for you, that's for sure! Let us know how the meeting goes!

 

[goodgirl]

UGHHHH!!!

my friendly coworker-who-used-to-be-my-subordinate-but-is-now-my-boss-apparently just called me to meet with her. First of all, she's having an "office day", a day set aside not to be bugged by do-it-now stuff so she can concentrate on doing more long-term work. Do you KNOW what I have to go thru to get one of those??

Anyway. Our boss wanted her to talk to me about one of the almost-daily autopsy reports from the newsroom... these reports set out what we did well and what went wrong. So anyhow, 2 of the items were about mistakes other people made but I got blamed for... in one case, someone else did it wrong so I FIXED it and then the team writes me up for "wasting" the guy's work. Um it was wrong? The second thing was that I tried to fix a mistake on the fly but wound up inserting my own mistake. Oops... but still, I get written UP? God, if I wrote up every person who messes up something... I just figure, everyone makes mistakes and a typo's a typo, just fix it w/o rubbing ppl's nose in it.

The 3rd thing was that some ppl have complained that, well, I do my job. You know, fixing mistakes, making editorial decisions. Pretty much my uh, job description. Apparently our boss feels it should be more of a "team effort." It IS a team.. the producer producers, the writers write, the editor edits! I think he means "editing by committee"... always a good idea when there's about 16 seconds to spare.

I empathize a lil w/my coworker... I went from underling to boss in one step too, and I know she's just trying to do the job she's asked to do. Still I'm just ticked off.

Meeting with Boss of Bosses is Tuesday. Please pray for us both!