When a Good Work Situation Takes a Bad Turn
I love my job. I get to work with on interesting and high profile cross-business unit projects with C-level executives and I get a lot of satisfaction from what I do.
Until recently, anyway.
Last year, there were lots of organizational changes at my office. We got a new president, and he’s spent the last several months restructuring our org chart. Late in 2007, my boss’s position was eliminated. She found a wonderful opportunity within another area of the firm, however, her departure has left me with a lot of ambiguity in my role. I was to be her successor, and with the elimination of her position, my career track has been derailed. To make matters more interesting, my new leader has no idea what I do.
This could end up working to my advantage. I have been given additional responsibilities and with all of the shuffling that’s been going on in my office, I could get an opportunity to prove myself to our new leadership.
The problem? My gut tells me that I’m being set up to fail. My new supervisor has just handed down my 2008 goals and they are annoyingly ambiguous. There is nothing I hate more than ambiguity in my job. When I try to get more clarity, I get mono-syllabic responses, which isn’t very helpful or encouraging.
I’m trying to decide what to do. Should I be proactive and look for another opportunity, perhaps outside of my organization, even though I really like my current employer? Should I stick things out and hope for the best? I have received nothing but sterling performance evaluations - will that be enough to save my hide?
These are the questions I have been wrestling with as of late. It’s getting so distracting I’m having a hard time writing posts or focusing on class preparation - which is bad. I’m even considering applying for jobs in some of the larger cities my partner and I have been admiring from afar (Chicago, Twin Cities, and Portland are all very appealing to us - and we’ve always talked about doing the ex-pat thing as well), but I’m worried about selling my house.
I feel like I’m just getting control of one part of my life and the other is starting to unravel. I think that this is one of those cross-roads that will change the whole direction of my career, and I’m not sure how to make the most of it.
Stumble it!
January 8th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
I’d probably start looking around. Put out some feelers. Or at least prepare myself to do so in another month, depending on how things go.
Not clicking with a boss can really mess up a work situation, especially if you always feel uncomfortable around them. So you might as well keep an eye out for something which you feel offers enough benefits to merit the change.
January 8th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
I have learned the hard way before and there is one universal truth to the workforce:
You have to take care of yourself
Do your job, but even if it is going well, network, find out about opportunities. I woreked somewhere for 11 years and was told everything was great, titles don’t mean anything…it just isn’t true! Every manager has to try to pay you as little as you will accept. If you accept less you will always be paid less. Once I stopped listening to them and listened to myself I had rapid movement in my career, most of the time designing my own job or path.
Decide where YOU want your career to end up, and work a plan to get you there. If confronted with fuzzy direction, push back nicely to see if clarification is possible. But ALWAYS have a back-up/out plan!
You owe it to yourself.
January 9th, 2008 at 1:35 am
My blog for today was (is) going to be on Job Satisfaction. It’s funny that we were both on the same subject in life today!
I would probably stick around for awhile and see how it goes. Maybe the manager just has really bad managing skills and needs you to just figure things out for yourself, only because he isnt sure either
At least your boss isnt your husband (like mine) thats a whole set of issues all in its own
January 9th, 2008 at 10:09 am
My mom had a job she liked for a long time, but after a while, she quit getting raises, quit getting software updates, and even quit getting replacement equipment when hers broke. So she paid for her own software, replacements, and training.
Finally they eliminated her position, but gave her another one that didn’t work out and fired her.
She later learned they had been trying to get her to leave all that time. Of course once she found another job, she got a gigantic pay raise. But she also had to get over depression. And lose all the weight she gained while depressed.
If you are like my mom (and me) (likely to be clueless), then if you are actually feeling like you are being set up to fail, that is a bad sign and you should start making plans. However, if you are more likely to err the other way (seeing signs that aren’t there), then maybe you should just interpret all the generalizations to mean what you wished they mean (giving you the most enjoyable tasks, etc.), and asking if that interpretation would be okay.
You may want to also talk to the new President about the direction he sees the company taking and your place in it. That person may also not know what you do.
You might also talk to the people you have worked with on your different projects and sound them out on the direction the company is taking.
Another idea is to see if your old boss has a place for you in her new area.
Disclaimer: I don’t know what I’m talking about. I hate asking people for help and I generally stick around for far too long in jobs. When things around you change, if you can’t find a new way to fit in that you like, then your job satisfaction may plummet. I once had a job where, after a re-organization, they said they wanted to keep me, but they didn’t want to keep my position. I tried to talk them into letting me do various fun things, but they ended up sticking me with the most boring tasks of all time because of which fund I was paid from, so I decided to leave.
January 9th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
I hate the kind of ambiguity you’re talking about. Are there any higher-ups at your company that you completely trust? Like maybe your old boss? Someone who could give you an idea of what’s in store for the overall company and make suggestions on what your goals at the company could/should be?
I would also place a lot of value on your gut feeling and start looking elsewhere, without a sense of urgency, just to see if maybe there’s a better job out there for you. After all, it’s entirely possible that the company isn’t sure what they want for you yet (i.e., it’s not that they *want* you to fail but that they don’t know what they want you to do), and if you make a good impression, they may find a new position for you that’s ideal. I just wouldn’t want to count on it. In the meantime, the importance of professionalism and doing your best can’t be overemphasized - not that I think you would slack off, but I’m just emphasizing that you want them to be a good reference for you and all that should you move on.
In any event, this must be very stressful and I’m sorry about that. I wish you loads of luck in figuring this out.
January 14th, 2008 at 8:16 am
I think you should start looking. That may at least give you a feeling of being in control. Also, are there other opportunities in the company?