Significant role changes - options?

LegacyUser

Hi all,

Regular poster but anon as it's a small country and you never know who might be reading

I'll try and keep it as brief as I can...

So last year I accepted a job with a company that involved operational management duties, leading a team of staff and reporting to the director of the department.

It was busy, a lot of stuff was changing as the wider company was in the midst of significant organisational change, but I was able to start driving some improvements and stabilise the team after a lot of leavers, and my boss and other seniors were all happy with what I was doing.

Fast forward 6 months...

By now my director has left the company as a result of the changes, and myself and the team now fall under a manager who is not-in country. As part of the reshuffle I report not to him (technically) but a subordinate who was just given that role. I've also lost the teams I had, and most of the operational responsibilities.

Instead I'm in an oversight role that could be considered more senior (certainly that's what I'm constantly told), but in reality has less influence or ability to change/improve anything that I'm still technically "accountable" for. Those that now have that responsibility are also not in-country for the most part.

The issue is that I still find myself being pulled into issues that I've been told to back away from, and yet when I do that (by sending the person the right way), it invariably lands back on my desk anyway as the "new guys" don't have the local knowledge, experience or indeed time (in fairness to them) to get involved at the same level.

The problem with that though is that I'm then getting grief from my new manager for doing so. Despite numerous attempts on my part to explain the reality of life on the ground vs the model he's built, he's increasingly seeing me as part of the issue at this stage.

In my defence, this isn't the job I came to do and while the contract does say they reserve the right to alter the job "within reason", I don't think that would cover a complete change of role and responsibility, and several levels down the org chart.

But... I'm not there long enough to qualify for redundancy (if it was even on the table), there's no obvious replacement role that would fit better (they offered me a team lead position which would be a further step down), and I don't think HR would be any help for those reasons either.

So, am I just screwed and left with no option but to leave?

Appreciate any feedback - cheers!