Forced to take a promotion.

LegacyUser

Going unreged for this one. I've been in my current role for a little over a year. The organisation has undergone much change during that period. A significant number of members of staff, including the vast majority of the senior executive, have left the organisation during that time and the organisation has been restructured. I'm a non-managerial level employee, for the record.

The CIO; a former product manager and business analyst, with a very strong personality, to put it very politely, is over our department. My immediate manager is terrified of him and they rarely speak. A few months back he decided to take on all of the architectural design decisions in the organisation. This resulted in a conflict within the organisation and the Head of Analytics, technical architect, database administrator and one of the data analysts decided to move on. The Head of Analytics, who questioned and challenged the CIO, was relieved of her duties by the CIO, to be exact.

As the months have passed, the CIO has interacted within me from time to time, to get some feedback on his design decisions before imparting his instructions to the development teams. Most, if not all of his designs are woolly at best and on providing any sort of negative feedback, the shutters come down pretty quickly and he tells me that I'm wrong. I've pushed back on the meeting requests from time to time but he refuses to take 'no' for an answer. Last week, he walked down to my desk, pointed at me and pointed at the meeting rooms, as if to say 'get in there'.

The consequences of the poor design have started to come to the fore over the last few weeks. I was called into a meeting yesterday morning and he told me that he had "decided" to move me to a new position, a position in which I would take over the work he had started. I'm no fool and I'm well aware of the fact that I'm being set up to take the blame for his mess, so I told him that I was happy with my current position in the organisation. He stopped and stared at me, for a good five to ten seconds and told me that he didn't understand what I was saying. We chatted a little more and he made it know that he was very unhappy and disappointed with my lack of ambition and my refusal to accept the new job title he was giving me. He closed the meeting by stating the he wants me to take the rest of the week to consider his offer; which is just a new job title and I responded by telling him that my response will be the same. He told me that I should "think long and hard about it".

Given the nature of the meeting, I decide to sit down with the HR manager this afternoon. I've developed a very good relationship with her over the past year, helping her out with recruitment days etc. I voiced my concerns about the meeting and she informed me that he's been a troublesome figure in the organisation for a number of years. He was promoted to CIO, contrary to her advice, with a number of complaints open against him. She told me that she could bring my issue to the attention of the CEO but it's not going to solve my problem.

Under normal circumstances, I'd be moving on to a new organisation but I've accepted a place on a degree level course, starting in September. I was planning working in this organisation until then but I am more than a little concerned that I could be in for a very rocky few months or I could face the same fate as the Head of Analytics, which would be a horrible thing to have to explain to future employers. Anyone any idea how best I should deal with this? Half thinking of resigning and telling people that I decided to go travelling for the summer months but I was off on sick leave (in hospital) for a few months before I went into this job, so that'd be two gaps on my c.v..

ongarboy

OP - it sounds like a rotten situation to be in. It doesn't sound like your manager who is "terrified" of the CIO would be able to offer you impartial advice on the best approach (usually your manager is a good mentor for such situations as they often would have walked the same path as you earlier in their career). Maybe put it out there with your manager to solicit a different opinion anyway.

What I would say is that it is mid June now and that you would only have 3 months most to perform this role. If you feel it wouldn't be overly stressful and you could handle it whilst ensuring you do not take responsibility for any failings that occurred before your time on the job, I'd suggest giving it a go. You will be out of there for good in 3 short months.

Alternatively, do stay where you are in your current position and put up with this guy's "disappointment" and ride it out. Either way, you will be out of there soon. I wouldn't just leave and face the summer with no work leaving you out of pocket financially. It's unlikely you'd get alternative employment in that industry for such a short period of time.

Lux23

Do they know you plan to leave in September? Could you not use that as an excuse to say no? As in, you won't be around to finish the job?

loyatemu

DontWantJobTitle wrote: »

I voiced my concerns about the meeting and she informed me that he's been a troublesome figure in the organisation for a number of years. He was promoted to CIO, contrary to her advice, with a number of complaints open against him.

if she told you this directly, then you've got a sh!t HR manager as well as a sh!t CIO.

BaZmO*

loyatemu wrote: »

if she told you this directly, then you've got a sh!t HR manager as well as a sh!t CIO.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing. Strange that she would divulge this information. But stuff like this normally happens in dysfunctional companies.

Back OT. If they know you're leaving it's probably easier to say no to the new position.

If they don't know, you've got two choices, say no and ride it out. It'd be a pain but they can hardly sack you if you're permanent. Or, say yes and just make sure you're clear about the quality of work you're taking over. Either way it'll only be 3 months and if you're clever about it you might be able to negotiate a pay rise.

whampiri

Refuse the job. Document everything and when the inevitable bullying or threat of a transfer comes knocking, contact HR in relation to it. Make sure that everything is documented.

If it's decided that your role is being made redundant you get to walk out the door with a paycheck and if they hire someone else into your current role, you can sue for a sham redundancy.

tHE vAGGABOND

Yea, put every single thing in writing. Email minutes of meetings, "just to confirm we said this in the meeting and I replied that"

If it did come down to them trying to disipline you, or you trying to go legal with them - written down is all that matters.

rock22

You could delay any 'promotion' by negotiating proper compensation. Look for much higher salary, maybe bigger office company car etc.
You will find that he can reassign duties/responsibilities to you but he cannot approve new salary etc.

In these circumstances you should be able to extend the negotiations to September.

OMM 0000

I'm no fool and I'm well aware of the fact that I'm being set up to take the blame for his mess, so I told him that I was happy with my current position in the organisation.

I don't agree with this.

You're not giving other people enough credit.

I would take the position (+ higher salary) and spend the first few weeks documenting the current problems, and your proposed solutions. Then share this with your boss via e-mail, or if possible, bring it up during the management meeting.

Your document should not be problem focussed or overly negative. It should be focussed on the solutions.

There are two big advantages here:

1. You are letting everyone know the problems were there before you took over, and you're a positive person trying their best to solve them.

2. You have a clear roadmap of your tasks ahead of you, and you will receive praise, etc., as each problem is ticked off the list.

Turn a negative into a positive. Personally I love working in companies which are chaotic and ****ed, because it's very easy to be the problem solver and rewarded with raises and promotions.

bee06

Lux23 wrote: »

Do they know you plan to leave in September? Could you not use that as an excuse to say no? As in, you won't be around to finish the job?

This, I would have thought it was be an easy enough conversation to say that it didn’t make sense for you to take it since by the time you are up to speed you’ll be leaving and they’ll be back at square one.

andrewshort89

I would simply refuse the 'opportunity'. It may be rough for a while but you can weather the storm, acquiescing doesn't necessarily make life and easier so you might as well make the choice for the best option for you.

Seth Brundle

andrewshort89 wrote: »

I would simply refuse the 'opportunity'. It may be rough for a while but you can weather the storm, acquiescing doesn't necessarily make life and easier so you might as well make the choice for the best option for you.

This happened six months ago?!?!

andrewshort89

Ah... fair point. Not sure how I came across this one.

emeldc

ILikeBoats wrote: »

Got Imola tickets. Hotels booked. Just flights to get now. Woo!

All GA entries were 99% apart from Zurich so I'd say the majority of 10C will get their tickets.
Seating is a different story

Cool :rolleyes:

ILikeBoats

Oops!