I have an employee who recently went behind my back and asked my boss for approval on something that I had previously told him “no” on. His excuse was “…it was late and you were gone, so I asked Ted…” The bad part is, my boss told him yes! This is surprising, because my boss and I had agreed previously that we were on the same page about this particular issue.
The fact that my boss changed his mind is really not the issue. I am more annoyed at the fact that a) he changed the rules mid-game and didn’t inform me, but more importantly b) the fact that he trumped a decision that I made (that we had previously agreed on) with my employee. I am also annoyed with my employee because he absolutely knew what my answer would be because I had told him no previously. The fact that he went to my boss on this issue in my opinion is more than a little disrespectful. When he approached me to tell me that he went to my boss, his comment was?.?I went to Ted on this and he approved it, but I just wanted to get your input?..?
I worry that this will destroy my credibility with my team if this sort of thing continues. How would you handle this situation?
To give you some background on the dynamics at play in this situation:
-My boss is still a relatively new manager, and as such tends to be real “flakey” when it comes to making decisions and sticking to them. He is known for “changing the rules mid-game” so to speak
-The employee in question is not only a new employee to our organization, but new to the working world and the dynamics of office politics.
