I accepted a position that included managing a small IT staff. The Sr. manager hired me & asked if I was intending to stay for several years since they would be retiring w/i 2 yrs & wanted somone who would ease into their position. They pointed out that prev. asst. managers failed because they were all too pushy & clashed w/ the Sr. For over a year, I’ve had no problems”tending
the shop” while Sr was on vacations until now after the Sr. went on the last holiday vacation and returned. Just before vacation Sr. had asked me to set up some work assignments which I did & started going over the new assignments w/ the workers the week before the Sr. left for vacation. On return Sr. goes ballistic when I say in passing that I completed handing out the new assignments which would begin in two weeks. I was stymied. The Sr. tells me I shouldn’t have “started anything new” while they were gone. I tell Sr. that I thought the slow holiday period was a great time to prep the new assigns. Although all employees were aware of the assignments the Sr. left, the Sr tells me that that was a big mistake & that the workers view me as “untrustworthy” – I had thought I had gotten nothing but positive feedback from the workers & don’t know why the Sr. would be reacting this way. This was before any employees had arrived since vacation time, so they hadn’t had any time to give feedback – although it may be relating something previous – I have no idea. Sr. tells me ” I’m just trying to help you” by telling me this – but I sense it is the Sr that views me as untrustworthy. Since I did not initiate anything new or something the Sr. was unaware of, I feel that I was simply continuing to do what I was asked to do. I was too stymied to argue w/ them but feel that if this Sr views me as
“untrustworthy” then I’m wasting my time @ this job because when this Sr. leaves it may be unlikely I will be promoted into their position; the very reason I was hired. – Am I being dense on not forseeing this reaction? – Any suggestions on how to handle this is welcome..
