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If management wants to replace you, it''s already planned. It's useless to try to change their mind. Majority of senior management have no clue what rank and file employees do anyways except the headcount and salaries. This is why most companies have to outsource or hire consultants because it's best practice these days to get rid of salaries that look bad on financial statements. Easier to replace everyone with temps and consultants. Some of the most profitable companies have a 50/50 consultant to employee ratio.
Aye I find this to be true in most cases. If management doesn't like you, you are already gone (barring you working under new management). In my experience it is very hard to near impossible to change the manager's mind if they want you gone. As many have already said, start looking for work elsewhere.
But if I'm put on the defensive, micromanaged, watched closely, coached when the rest of the M-F 9-5 staff is here, that stifles my productivity and morale.
You need to be asking yourself why you feel "on the defensive, micromanaged, watched closely, coached when the rest of the M-F 9-5 staff is here". Or, even better, you need to ask your manager. And you need to do it in a very non-defensive way. "Hey, So-and-so, I feel like I'm not living up to your expectations here. Can you help me to understand where I'm falling short and help me get back up to par?" And you need to be very, very open to the responses.
It is possible that you're just the whipping boy for whatever reason, and if that's the case, you need to leave. But, most of the time, this happens to people who are missing the mark and aren't getting clear communication. There absolutely are supervisors and managers out there who don't know how to manage people, and aren't clearly communicating concerns and expectations. You want to try to find out what the perception is, how they think you're falling short, and what they see as the answer. You probably can salvage the situation here, but that'll require introspection and willingness to accept the possibility of faults within yourself. If you cannot do that and can only see them taking things out on you, you need to quit. And if it keeps happening to you, you need to ask yourself about the common denominator.
It depends in how much you have invested in staying there (salary, benefits, etc.) and whether you have any other options that are better. I was in a similar position in my early 40's as an audit manager. I had that position for 7 years and felt I was doing a good job. When my boss was replaced, the new boss eventually started nitpicking my management style, complaining I was doing too much of the work myself and not relying on and training the staff. I always thought that the job was most important, not trying to train people I inherited who who had been there longer than I had. I figured I used them to the best of their ability and made up the difference myself to produce excellent audit reports. But the nitpicking continued and I was sent to a week long out of town management seminar, in a lakeside setting. Unbeknownst to me this was really just a last stop for managers who weren't considered to be doing a good job. The guy who ran the seminar pulled me aside at the end for a personal evaluation and told me I wasn't suited for my job as a manager, and I should try to find a niche where I could be a technical individual contributor. Shortly after I was demoted at work, and put on the shelf for over a year with menial tasks, like emptying the suggestion boxes which were just filled with used candy wrappers. It was a tough year but I stuck it out as I needed the paycheck with three kids and a stay at home wife. But as luck would have it, a job opened up at that company where I could work on my own in a technical position, and I was asked if I wanted it, and I did, and I spent another 18 years there, enjoying my job, until I retired from the company at 59. The skills I learned allowed me to work another two years as a contractor before I started getting SS. So the advice I got from the seminar leader was spot on. In my whole life I only got a handful of jobs I applied for, so I didn't feel like I had any option but to stick it out until something better came along. Lucky for me it did.
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Originally Posted by onthehotseat
Some background: I'm college educated but chose a field for the sake of getting a degree, not because I loved it. I ended up working in customer service and operations for 10+ years until I decided in my mid 30s that it was time to make something of my last 20 or so years and went back to school in a technical field getting a diploma in 16 months that included a brief internship. It took a while to land my first job as I was interviewing out of state but I finally landed something and have been there for the past 20 months. It's in transportation logistics/admin.
Initially it was great. Then a micromanager decided to nitpick but I kept plugging away trying to improve. She left on maternity leave and then I got another supervisor. Better, in fact she got me promoted from temp contractor without benefits to full time perm with benefits. Great, after 17 months there I felt more secure. Then there was an overhaul. Two new hires. One isn't working out (no pertinent education or experience), but the latest is a great choice. She gets along with the team, has a valuable industry specific diploma (3 year with business/management focus, company management love her.
Now all of a sudden things have gone downhill for me. An employee (driver) complained about me (some of it exaggerated, some of it true), and demanded another person take over his clients. I was told that I was to share my clients I had handled the past year with the the new well educated young hire. I was forbidden to communicate with the clients, with the complainer and could only do behind the scenes operational tasks. Talk about a blow to my confidence. Then a client I loved and employee I worked great with were removed from my portfolio of clients. After that I was invited to 2 coaching sessions (scolded by the supervisor) in addition to our daily group meeting. Then I found out that a senior manager reached out to another one of my clients and asked her if she was happy with the service I provide, actually tried to convince her to drop me as her client rep, not once but twice (I saw the senior manager's email since it was forwarded to me by my immediate supervisor. ) Luckily the client pushed back and stood up to the manager and told her no , I don't want to replace "onthehotseat" (me), so I got lucky. But the general consensus is that I'm being micromanaged now, have been subjected to several coaching sessions and feel like management wants to get rid of me to develop the new hire's skills and accelerate her learning at my expense. The manager even wrote to a colleague that the new hire would be supervised by me (same rank as the new hire, same salary) + the immediate supervisor, and an account exec, so the client could feel well supported. But I don't even make extra and why would I want to train a new hire , if it means I have less responsibilities and no extra pay? Doesn't bode well for my future.
Bottom line: if you see signs that management wants to replace you, do you fight back or throw in the towel (and move on)?
Do NOT quit. If they fire you, they have to pay unemployment benefits and most companies hate doing that.
Keep your head down and your nose clean. One day at a time. Don't make it obvious you are looking. Try not to make any enemies and leave with a clean slate behind you.
Why do you feel 1 year is not sufficient? These days most people job hop expecting an upgrade. How soon will 2 to 3 years get you upgraded where you are?
Do not put anything in writing to anyone. It is there for time in memoriam to be used against you. Help you understand? Sounds like a demand, and a questioning of their judgement. You really want to vent on them, and in writing? Really??
Maybe you aren't having a problem at all there - except in getting comfortable with how they do business. Im starting to view you differently. Maybe you need to work on yourself.
BTW, if you do look for another job, don't blame your estimation of poor management at your current one as your reason for looking. Don't ever criticize them at all. Looking for a better position where your skills can grow and blah blah blah is a good enough reason.
Last edited by ComeCloser; 12-01-2019 at 07:28 PM..
If you follow the calendar of the OP, he's only been an employee for 4 months or so. Previous to that, he was a contract employee. If he wants 2-3 years on the job as an actual employee he has 20 - 32 months to reach his goal.
Bad news. Company set up an email address that a client could use to reach me, my supervisor, senior manager and the team. Every email to me can now be viewed by the team, putting me under further scrutiny. But this client has this thing for one rep (me) to offer her support, she doesn't like trainees (the new hire) doing so. So yesterday she emailed saying she would contact me directly, and I replied perfect, please note I'll be off Tuesday so please continue to use the central email address. Fine right?
Today the supervisor emails me saying I don't need to remind the client of my day off and to communicate differently. OK no worries.
But the real problem today was a sales person (from our company) emailing me and copying my supervisor blaming me for making the wrong adjustment on something in our database such that a truck route that they were trying to sell (from Dallas to Memphis, for example) was deleted by me, and not to repeat this. This is merely days before my performance evaluation!! So I replied that the driver asked me to make adjustments in the schedule / database, and she retorted that again, the driver would not of asked me to do what I did, again copying that same supervisor I've had difficulties with recently.
Oh no...I just can't get anything right it seems. I expect this to be brought up yet again in the growing list of "complaints" about my so call bad performance.
What can I do to mitigate fall out when I get back to the office and go in front of the panel of "judges" during the review? I will definitely have a talk with the salesperson about approaching me directly in the future before copying my supervisor. I thought our relationship was better than that.
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