Career Advice - How do you seek a demotion?

May 12, 2009 7:30 PM

Career Advice - How do you seek a demotion?

I work in a "customer service" industry, and enjoyed and was very good working directly with customers. After our "Director" and "Assistant Director" left the company, a peer was promoted to Director and I to Assistant. We "cleaned house" to begin turning around our "branch" of the business, and so our first nine months on the job was sheer hell. After this, my Director was promoted to a "Regional Director," and I reluctantly became acting Director. For six months, I continued and expanded what we had started. After this, we hired a new Director with great experience and leadership skills, and I happily returned to Assistant. A year later, we've moved from being a "problematic branch" to one that meets targets, performs very well on critical indicators, and creates improved processes that other branches adopt.

Despite the "happy ending" you'd expect, on a daily basis, the job becomes more and more impossible due to long-standing weaknesses in the company's infrastructure. Directors and Assistants from many branches have tried for several years to prompt resolution, and failed. Recent events leave my Director and me expecting the resulting problems to get worse. We both fear burning out if we stay in these positions much longer.

So, my Director is going to retire. Since, in the grand scheme of things, my company is successful and I like both what we do and the people I work with, I want to return to my previous direct customer work. The Director and I both are willing to remain in our positions for up to 12 months to train our replacements (my future bosses) and ensure a smooth transition.

What advice would you give on how to seek, and manage well, a return to a lower position in the company?

posted by Dolan to human relations (4 comments total)

First, I would seek employment at a new company. You mention that the company has basic infrastructure problems. These will follow you no matter where you are in the company, and you should be aware of this.

Start working on your resume right now. Then, once you have a solid resume in hand, start applying elsewhere. You are willing to stay in your position for a year, which is a huge help. That gives you time to apply, investigate, and be choosy about where you want to work next. The fact is, if you've got serious problems in the workplace due to the company itself, you're just putting off the worst of things to come.

With your experiences and advancement, perhaps you could seek a position as a higher tier customer service agent, the "executive customer service" type who handles important customers who need efficient service from people who have the power to provide it. That way, you're still advanced in your career above where you were, yet you get to deal with people directly.

Don't feel any loyalty to a company that is making life hard on you. While there's no need to burn bridges, if you can find a worthwhile offer, it's completely fair for you to move on to a position more suited to your abilities.
posted by Saydur at 8:39 PM on May 12 [1 favorite has favorites]

First, I would seek employment at a new company. You mention that the company has basic infrastructure problems. These will follow you no matter where you are in the company, and you should be aware of this.

I disagree. I'm not sure what you're referring to by "infrastructure" but every company has issues that drive the mgmt ranks nuts. Is it logistics? Technology? Centralized vs. decentralized decision making?

I would make an appointment with the person who has authority to make this happen and ask. I think you have an obligation to the company to explain why you're making the request, even if others have brought up the same problems before. Just as you did in this question, don't explain in a "this is a stupid process" way but in a "these factors make it difficult to do the job because of X, Y, and Z" way.

Just keep in mind that you may not hit it off with the new director or assistant director. Good luck!
posted by txvtchick at 5:45 AM on May 13

Just realize that as you gain more and more experience in your respective career, you're going to develop the "right way" to do things. Shying away from a management position is in direct conflict with this natural phenomena, especially when you're going to be hiring some unknown.

I know a lot of people that have this same desire to "not move up" because, frankly, corporate politics really do suck. But just realize that you can only remain ignorant of it for so long before it seeps into your life again.
posted by teabag at 8:12 AM on May 13

Thanks for the feedback.

"every company has issues that drive the mgmt ranks nuts. Is it logistics? Technology? Centralized vs. decentralized decision making?" Yes. All three and more.

Discussions sometimes make a short-term difference, but other Directors face the same issue. They can't devote full attention to Thing A, their responsibility, since they have to divert attention to Crises M. If you produce Thing B, which is dependent on Thing A, then you have to make Thing A complete before you start Thing B. After some work on Thing B, Crises N suddenly occurs... except if you look close, you'll see the new crises is really Crises M again since it actually wasn't resolved. You know Thing B isn't done, but it will just have to do for the folks who make Thing C because Crises M has landed on you this time.

Some of this will undoubtedly follow me "down" but at the same time... I'll have a smaller field of things to worry about and be responsible for. THAT is what I long for... :)
posted by Dolan at 3:57 PM on May 14