Advice on a tricky situation in work

LegacyUser

I'm going unregistered for this and I hopefully won't make myself identifiable.

I love my job, but I don't like my work environment. I don't see a way to change it.

I'll try and explain some background. I work in a small team. We all have our individual roles within the team. As a team we work on different levels. We have a line manager, then there would be three levels - junior, middle and senior. I'm currently occupying the "senior" position in the team.

I have had some issues with my line manager previously. I had some personal issues that had an impact on my performance and I was (rightly) pulled up on it. Since then I've been working really hard on not letting my personal issues impact my work. Full disclosure - the personal issues are mental health related, likely made worse by a stressful work environment.

Recently, someone on our team got a promotion from junior to middle. This person is very friendly with out line manager - they would socialise outside of work and any news that the line manager has (engagement, holidays etc) is told to this middle person and that's how the rest of us find out.

Recently we have had some issues in our team - something that we need to use to do our work needed to be repaired. It was functional, but it made sense to fix it before it became a bigger problem. My line manager and the middle level person were on annual leave so I dealt with it in the best way that I could - I organised for somebody to come in and fix what needed to be fixed. I was on annual leave last week so I wasn't here to witness this, but one of the junior members of the team said that last week the middle member of the team was complaining about how I handled the situation, saying that I acted out of turn and that I over reacted.

I'm not sure how to broach this issue with either the middle person or our line manager. Before I was employed, the middle person would have been the most senior member of the junior team (if that makes sense), so they were in charge of doing lots of things. However when I started, it made sense for me to take over some of the duties. Since they were promoted some of the activities have been transferred back, and we now share the roles.

I know I should bring up the issue with either/both of them. But I am concerned that my previous poor performance will be mentioned again if I bring it up with the line manager. I am also concerned that if I bring it up with the middle person that they'll be straight on to our line manager to tell them that I had spoken to them.

I'm stuck and unsure of how to proceed. Would appreciate any advice. I'm even open to hearing "get over yourself" or "you're over-reacting".

_Brian

I can't see why you need to do anything.
I'd say stop overthinking it and keep working hard to do your job well, then switch off and enjoy your off time.

readytosnap

As Above.

Musketeer4

It appears to me that there isn't an actual problem, other than a subordinate doing some petty bitching about something that's not really their business.

If the job is going to plan and client and boss are happy, then you've nothing to worry about.

You are overthinking it. Chill out.

The only thing that I'd say could be handled better is the annual leave arrangements. It wasn't a great idea to have several people on leave at the same time.

Ben Gadot

All you can do is move on from it OP. Sh1t happens basically, you showed a bit of initiative and it didn't go as hoped, not the end of the world.

As for the middle member, people who talk too much will eventually come undone. One day he or she will take for granted who their talking to and will get slapped down.

Teyla Emmagan

Until your boss says something to you about it then do nothing OP. Ignore this "middle " person. So far there is no issue and you are worrying about nothing.

You seem very anxious though, that's no good for you.

Irish_Elect_Eng

Did you have the authority to organise the repair? What I mean is did you have the authority to authorise the expenditure. If you had, then as others have said, you did the right thing, proactively.

If not then you should discuss with your line manager and ensure that you have approval from him to authorise repairs up to an agreed cost. People can be very sensitive about DOAs as they are directly realated to position and authority. If you did overstep into the other guys responsibility, apologise, state that you have discussed it with your line manager and now understand the DOA levels, etc.

LegacyUser

_Brian wrote: »

I can't see why you need to do anything. 
I'd say stop overthinking it and keep working hard to do your job well, then switch off and enjoy your off time.

Musketeer4 wrote: »

It appears to me that there isn't an actual problem, other than a subordinate doing some petty bitching about something that's not really their business.

If the job is going to plan and client and boss are happy, then you've nothing to worry about. 

You are overthinking it. Chill out.

The only thing that I'd say could be handled better is the annual leave arrangements. It wasn't a great idea to have several people on leave at the same time.

The issue is that previously things that I have said in an informal situation have been repeated back to our line manager, and the line manager lets the middle persons opinion of me cloud their judgement. I have previously been called out on things that weren't my fault but no amount of discussion would persuade my manager otherwise.

My manager is quite hostile towards me at the best of times, and uses the middle person to make an example of what I should be doing. However comparing our roles is like comparing chalk and cheese. The overall goal is the same but the tasks to get there are completely different. 

It concerns me that the petty bitching is resulting in the opinion that my line manager has over my ability to do my job is rapidly decreasing.

And annual leave is fairly flexible. It wouldn't be unusual for a few to be off together. Our roles are linked but we don't rely on others to get things done.

Ben Gadot wrote: »

All you can do is move on from it OP. Sh1t happens basically, you showed a bit of initiative and it didn't go as hoped, not the end of the world.

As for the middle member, people who talk too much will eventually come undone. One day he or she will take for granted who their talking to and will get slapped down.

It's not that it didn't go as hoped, but every single other person, including my line manager, was on board with this thing. However when the middle person got involved everybody seemed to change their mind and backtrack - including my line manager who made me look like an idiot yesterday. In a roundabout way I spoke to other senior members and other line managers that aren't related to our team and they all agreed that my actions were the appropriate one, however they're not my line manager and my line manager has done a complete 180 on what was initially said to me.

Teyla Emmagan wrote: »

Until your boss says something to you about it then do nothing OP. Ignore this "middle " person. So far there is no issue and you are worrying about nothing. 

You seem very anxious though, that's no good for you.

I am anxious. Issues have arisen before that resulted in me being placed on probation. Currently I'm working my ass off during the probationary period to prove myself to my line manager. They appear to have made a decision on me and nothing I seem to say or do can change their opinion of me.

I think that I'm probably not explaining the entire situation properly, but equally I'm probably being a bit over sensitive to the situation because I have concerns for my job.

Irish_Elect_Eng wrote: »

Did you have the authority to organise the repair? What I mean is did you have the authority to authorise the expenditure. If you had, then as others have said, you did the right thing, proactively.

If not then you should discuss with your line manager and ensure that you have approval from him to authorise repairs up to an agreed cost. People can be very sensitive about DOAs as they are directly realated to position and authority. If you did overstep into the other guys responsibility, apologise, state that you have discussed it with your line manager and now understand the DOA levels, etc.

My actions had zero costs billed to our team. I would never action anything financial without approval.

When I spoke to my line manager initially, they were happy with the action as it meant that the repair happened quickly and before any downtime would be needed on the system. So my line manager was initially content, however when the middle person got involved the attitude of my line manager changed drastically and I was told that I over reacted (despite other team leaders that share the system also requesting the repair as I had run some diagnostics that said that the issues we were experiencing were as a direct result of the problem and the action needed to be taken).

My issue isn't how I dealt with the issue. I acted in a manner that I deemed appropriate and I was backed up by some others and I had irrefutable data to show the issue.

My issue is how the response of the middle level staff member was able to initiate an entire 180 in how my line manager reacted to me.

My concern is that the middle member is complaining about me to our line manager when they socialise, and that her opinion of me changes based on the middle members thoughts on me on a day to day basis.

A junior staff member also implied that they were aware of a sensitive issue that was only discussed between myself and my line manager, and that they were aware of it based on some comments that were made by the middle member. Which would imply that my line manager discussed my personal situation with somebody who has no right to know the details.

So I guess that is the issue rather than my actions.

Ben Gadot

Why would he apologise to the middle guy? I'd maybe understand if it was his specific duty but even then, given the OP is the senior team member, I don't see anything wrong in a senior member taking on the duty of someone who is on leave.

This middle bloke is clearly snakey given that he doesn't mind causing dissension amongst the juniors behind the OP's back, so the last thing I'd be doing is conceding to him. Concede to the boss, that's it.

ligerdub

This middle guy needs to know who is boss here. This crap about them cosying up to your boss is unprofessional.