New boss, say hello to the employee that's been doing her job and yours for a year.
August 31, 2010 11:39 AM Subscribe
Have you ever had to "hold down the fort" at work for a long time without a supervisor, and then one day, you finally got a boss? I'm going to be that boss. Help!
I'm walking into a position that has essentially been vacant for a year due to a hiring freeze, and the entry-level gal has been holding her own for a long time. I know I have a lot to learn from her. Hivemind, if you've ever been in this position (as the entry-level person who's about to get a new boss), can you share some wisdom with me? What did your new boss do that was great? What was not so great? What do you wish you could have told him or her starting out?
I'm walking into a position that has essentially been vacant for a year due to a hiring freeze, and the entry-level gal has been holding her own for a long time. I know I have a lot to learn from her. Hivemind, if you've ever been in this position (as the entry-level person who's about to get a new boss), can you share some wisdom with me? What did your new boss do that was great? What was not so great? What do you wish you could have told him or her starting out?
I think rmd1023 nailed it. She could be harboring some animosity towards whoever holds this position, especially if she applied for it and didn't get it. Tread softly, be respectful of the work and stress that she's had to deal with for the last year. Don't freak out too much if she's initially cold or less than forthcoming with information.
posted by brand-gnu at 11:53 AM on August 31, 2010
posted by brand-gnu at 11:53 AM on August 31, 2010
Yes, I have been that person (the one "holding-down-the-fort").
!) How long has the "entry-level gal" been holding her own? You say "for a long time" - I'd be careful about getting used to thinking of her as entry-level anymore. Even if she is just out of college, she's been doing the work of two people for a while, and I am positive she doesn't view herself as entry-level anymore. Try to think of her as a fairly seasoned employee.
My first position out of college, I didn't have a supervisor. I had to figure it all out on my own for about 6 months until I got one. She left after a year, leaving me to do both our work again for 6 months until someone new was hired. I certainly would've resented being thought of as entry-level at that point, even though I'd only been out of college for 2 years.
2) Be sure to introduce yourself in a respectful manner. I had moved into telecommuting when I found out I was getting a new boss when she IMed me one day. I was royally pissed I didn't even rate a phone call. I assume you will meet in person, set up a formal "getting to know each other" meeting.
3) Obviously stuff like be sure she knows you value her, look to her for tips and tricks, etc.
posted by coupdefoudre at 11:54 AM on August 31, 2010 [2 favorites]
!) How long has the "entry-level gal" been holding her own? You say "for a long time" - I'd be careful about getting used to thinking of her as entry-level anymore. Even if she is just out of college, she's been doing the work of two people for a while, and I am positive she doesn't view herself as entry-level anymore. Try to think of her as a fairly seasoned employee.
My first position out of college, I didn't have a supervisor. I had to figure it all out on my own for about 6 months until I got one. She left after a year, leaving me to do both our work again for 6 months until someone new was hired. I certainly would've resented being thought of as entry-level at that point, even though I'd only been out of college for 2 years.
2) Be sure to introduce yourself in a respectful manner. I had moved into telecommuting when I found out I was getting a new boss when she IMed me one day. I was royally pissed I didn't even rate a phone call. I assume you will meet in person, set up a formal "getting to know each other" meeting.
3) Obviously stuff like be sure she knows you value her, look to her for tips and tricks, etc.
posted by coupdefoudre at 11:54 AM on August 31, 2010 [2 favorites]
Depending on the situation and culture at your new office, you may want to let the entry-level gal know that the skills she has learned/exhibited/put into place during the period when she was holding down the fort will help her as she advances through the company. Maybe she needs a raise. Maybe she needs a promotion, or simply a new title. Basically do as much as possible to recognize and respect whatever it was that she's been doing while she's been working without a supervisor.
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:09 PM on August 31, 2010
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:09 PM on August 31, 2010
Talk to this person before they have an opportunity to build an impression of you, preferably over lunch or in another casual environment to avoid the stress and anxiety of a traditional "step into my office" meeting -- use this opportunity to appear confident, approachable and friendly. Make it clear you are there to relieve them of some of the burden they've surely been working to juggle in addition to their other duties, listen, be receptive, be candid, proactively ping them to see if there is anything you can do to help streamline their work or make their time in the office more comfortable, as in this "time of transition," they may have been without an outlet for any concerns or complaints. This person may or may not be dealing with mixed emotions about your arrival; it's your job to squelch the negative.
posted by biggity at 12:17 PM on August 31, 2010
posted by biggity at 12:17 PM on August 31, 2010
I've been in this situation (twice!). What I struggled with as an entry-level person stuck punching above my weight, so to speak, was how to bring issues up to senior management. It was pretty much impossible for me in my position to get face time or recognition from management, so while I could do the day-to-day tasks, it was difficult to advance or get support on substantial issues. You can bring to the table the ability to be the intermediary between senior management and this person. Let her know that you are there to advocate for her and support her on any issues that need to be addressed that she may not have had the power to bring up herself.
And as others have said above, focus on learning from her at the beginning, as she is the expert on her job at this point. Be willing to have her delegate tasks to you for awhile, until are you up to speed and able to take on more of a leadership role. I was actually very relieved when I got my boss back; you may find this is the case for her as well. Good luck!
posted by just_ducky at 12:30 PM on August 31, 2010 [3 favorites]
And as others have said above, focus on learning from her at the beginning, as she is the expert on her job at this point. Be willing to have her delegate tasks to you for awhile, until are you up to speed and able to take on more of a leadership role. I was actually very relieved when I got my boss back; you may find this is the case for her as well. Good luck!
posted by just_ducky at 12:30 PM on August 31, 2010 [3 favorites]
Yep. Been there too (the one "holding-down-the-fort").
The boss who came in at first, after a bit more than a year, I didn't get on with so well. It was only when we got drunk at her leaving drinks, I realised she wasn't the 'bad guy' I'd marked her down as. To cut a long story short, simplifying horribly, our conversations might go something like this:
Me: I think we should something like X.
Her: No, we can't do X, we have to do Y.
Me: We tried Y last year, it failed spectacularly, everything points towards X.
Her: I said we're not doing X. Get on with Y.
At leaving drinks:
Her: I can't believe senior management wouldn't let us do X.
Me: Whaaa-aa-aa?
Her: I kept telling them that Y was stupid, but they insisted there was no budget for X.
In other words, her management style was to "shield" subordinates from upper level office politics and the like. She looked at it as her job to "protect" me from all that bollocks, let her take the flak so I could get on with the productivity stuff. It was from good intentions, but I only figured that out too late. At the time, it felt like my input/experience was being ignored/disregarded by her.
Honestly, I would have felt a bit put out by being excluded from those level of discussions anyway, because I'm fairly bright, capable (I believe) of sticking my tuppence worth into a 'strategic' conversation, and our organisational culture encourages that from lowly pay grades (she came from a different sector with a different culture). But it rankled especially because for the past year and a half, those very same senior management people had, in the absence of a boss figure, been coming directly to me for a steer on issues relating to my work/team. So I was well used to providing input to people several grades above, and also to getting the 'why not' details back in response.
Anyway, she didn't last long (didn't get on with that organisational culture), then I had another ~1yr of bosslessness, then another guy arrived, and that's worked out much better.
There's the obvious inverse of the above: if a third party blocks what I/we think should happen, he confides, shares the frustration. If he disagrees with what I think, we argue it out; even if I'm not persuaded, the courtesy of letting me make a case / explaining where he's coming from suffices to make me go along gracefully.
Added to that: being relaxed and straight up about the de facto inverted power dynamic, not trying to hide from / bluster over / squirm about it. "I've been asked to change X / speak to the head of Y, and I don't have a clue how we handle that / who that is. Can you show me?"
And generally, concentrating on what he's there to do - strategic direction stuff (which I wasn't really picking up whilst fort-holding) - and letting me continue as 'king of the castle' on what I'm there to do - operational stuff (which I was). i.e., broadly, he defines what needs to be done, and by when, but doesn't unduly tell me how to do it, or in what order.
All this may or not relate to your particular roles, and your particular sector/industry/organisational culture, obviously.
Regardless, I think it boils down to treating people like competent adults, so the fact you're thoughtful enough to even post this Ask suggests to me you'll be fine.
posted by Slyfen at 12:36 PM on August 31, 2010
The boss who came in at first, after a bit more than a year, I didn't get on with so well. It was only when we got drunk at her leaving drinks, I realised she wasn't the 'bad guy' I'd marked her down as. To cut a long story short, simplifying horribly, our conversations might go something like this:
Me: I think we should something like X.
Her: No, we can't do X, we have to do Y.
Me: We tried Y last year, it failed spectacularly, everything points towards X.
Her: I said we're not doing X. Get on with Y.
At leaving drinks:
Her: I can't believe senior management wouldn't let us do X.
Me: Whaaa-aa-aa?
Her: I kept telling them that Y was stupid, but they insisted there was no budget for X.
In other words, her management style was to "shield" subordinates from upper level office politics and the like. She looked at it as her job to "protect" me from all that bollocks, let her take the flak so I could get on with the productivity stuff. It was from good intentions, but I only figured that out too late. At the time, it felt like my input/experience was being ignored/disregarded by her.
Honestly, I would have felt a bit put out by being excluded from those level of discussions anyway, because I'm fairly bright, capable (I believe) of sticking my tuppence worth into a 'strategic' conversation, and our organisational culture encourages that from lowly pay grades (she came from a different sector with a different culture). But it rankled especially because for the past year and a half, those very same senior management people had, in the absence of a boss figure, been coming directly to me for a steer on issues relating to my work/team. So I was well used to providing input to people several grades above, and also to getting the 'why not' details back in response.
Anyway, she didn't last long (didn't get on with that organisational culture), then I had another ~1yr of bosslessness, then another guy arrived, and that's worked out much better.
There's the obvious inverse of the above: if a third party blocks what I/we think should happen, he confides, shares the frustration. If he disagrees with what I think, we argue it out; even if I'm not persuaded, the courtesy of letting me make a case / explaining where he's coming from suffices to make me go along gracefully.
Added to that: being relaxed and straight up about the de facto inverted power dynamic, not trying to hide from / bluster over / squirm about it. "I've been asked to change X / speak to the head of Y, and I don't have a clue how we handle that / who that is. Can you show me?"
And generally, concentrating on what he's there to do - strategic direction stuff (which I wasn't really picking up whilst fort-holding) - and letting me continue as 'king of the castle' on what I'm there to do - operational stuff (which I was). i.e., broadly, he defines what needs to be done, and by when, but doesn't unduly tell me how to do it, or in what order.
All this may or not relate to your particular roles, and your particular sector/industry/organisational culture, obviously.
Regardless, I think it boils down to treating people like competent adults, so the fact you're thoughtful enough to even post this Ask suggests to me you'll be fine.
posted by Slyfen at 12:36 PM on August 31, 2010
Also (having posted) - just_ducky's first para is fantastic. My current boss never really spelt it out up front like that, but thinking about it now he 'won me over' in large part by delivering in exactly that regard.
posted by Slyfen at 12:41 PM on August 31, 2010
posted by Slyfen at 12:41 PM on August 31, 2010
Ask her what she needs from you. I was in this position and what would really have helped was for my new boss to have sat down and said, hey, what is my job description, exactly? We were in a situation where there was no senior management and nobody else, just a very hands off board. Be willing to follow her around and learn from her. Find out what parts of the job she wants to keep and what she wants you to be doing. In other words, really listen to her. It would have probably been a very good idea if my boss had looked to me for guidance instead of just launching herself out on her own without any real idea what she was doing.
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:42 PM on August 31, 2010
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:42 PM on August 31, 2010
I've been in this situation once before and am now in it again!
I agree with biggity. Let her know you want to help relieve some of her work load.
Also, as mygothlaundry says, make sure she knows exactly what is expected of her.
Ask her which aspects of her job she most enjoys. If there's something she likes to work on in particular, let her keep working on it (as long as she's doing a good job). Ask her what she likes least and if it's something that's appropriate for you to do, offer to help with it.
At the very least, make her feel like she has some control over her job and that you two are going to be working as a team. Keep her updated with the things happening in the department. The last time this happened to me, I felt very isolated because the new boss cut me off from all my coworkers. She also decided she had to "learn" my job, so she left me with nothing to do for months while she did my job. Having nothing to do gets dull very quickly and her actions made me feel like I was unimportant to the company.
posted by parakeetdog at 12:57 PM on August 31, 2010
I agree with biggity. Let her know you want to help relieve some of her work load.
Also, as mygothlaundry says, make sure she knows exactly what is expected of her.
Ask her which aspects of her job she most enjoys. If there's something she likes to work on in particular, let her keep working on it (as long as she's doing a good job). Ask her what she likes least and if it's something that's appropriate for you to do, offer to help with it.
At the very least, make her feel like she has some control over her job and that you two are going to be working as a team. Keep her updated with the things happening in the department. The last time this happened to me, I felt very isolated because the new boss cut me off from all my coworkers. She also decided she had to "learn" my job, so she left me with nothing to do for months while she did my job. Having nothing to do gets dull very quickly and her actions made me feel like I was unimportant to the company.
posted by parakeetdog at 12:57 PM on August 31, 2010
Don't come in and start micromanaging. For the love of god, don't get up in her business all the time. She's used to working "on her own" and most of the time, she's found that she doesn't "need" you as a boss by now, so coming on strong isn't going to go over well. It is polite to ask her what she does, but don't make her reiterate it to you over and over and over again at every staff meeting. Don't try to debug the job for her (this one in particular drives me nuts), she knows it better than you do, and knows why we do it In That Way, probably because they can't get it to work in the other way you just thought up 2 seconds ago. Respect her experience.
Asking her what you can do to help her sounds like the right idea to me.
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:24 PM on August 31, 2010 [4 favorites]
Asking her what you can do to help her sounds like the right idea to me.
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:24 PM on August 31, 2010 [4 favorites]
Find out (not from her) if she applied for your job or not. And if she did, why she didn't get it. Also get her job description from HR - what should she be doing?
Find out from your boss what the objectives for your team are in the coming 6 months / year. If she's been "holding the fort" rather than doing the job of 2 people, there are plenty of things that need starting.
Nthing the shadowing her, getting a feel for what she's been doing, what hasn't been able to be done, what the obstacles have been (that you can help her overcome), and what work you can take from her to enable her to focus more closely on her actual job. (And be willing to rewrite her job description if it's no longer appropriate)
As others have said, don't micromanage. After a shadowing period, you should have a good feel for what she's doing. Ask her for a regular highlight report - for each project / piece of work, what's been done, what's going to be done in the next reporting period, what the opportunities are for more work in the future, and what her stumbling blocks are.
Communicate - keep her in the loop about what's going on and how the decision making happens, and ask for her opinion.
If she's been doing a good job, no need to change too much too soon. But if there's something you want to change, make it happen - if she's really resistant, agree to review it in 3/6 months time - if it works, she'll be on board, if it doesn't, be willing to revert back.
Find out how she wants to progress her career, and try and make opportunities for her that she wouldn't be able to do by herself.
Good luck and enjoy your new job!
posted by finding.perdita at 1:53 PM on August 31, 2010
Find out from your boss what the objectives for your team are in the coming 6 months / year. If she's been "holding the fort" rather than doing the job of 2 people, there are plenty of things that need starting.
Nthing the shadowing her, getting a feel for what she's been doing, what hasn't been able to be done, what the obstacles have been (that you can help her overcome), and what work you can take from her to enable her to focus more closely on her actual job. (And be willing to rewrite her job description if it's no longer appropriate)
As others have said, don't micromanage. After a shadowing period, you should have a good feel for what she's doing. Ask her for a regular highlight report - for each project / piece of work, what's been done, what's going to be done in the next reporting period, what the opportunities are for more work in the future, and what her stumbling blocks are.
Communicate - keep her in the loop about what's going on and how the decision making happens, and ask for her opinion.
If she's been doing a good job, no need to change too much too soon. But if there's something you want to change, make it happen - if she's really resistant, agree to review it in 3/6 months time - if it works, she'll be on board, if it doesn't, be willing to revert back.
Find out how she wants to progress her career, and try and make opportunities for her that she wouldn't be able to do by herself.
Good luck and enjoy your new job!
posted by finding.perdita at 1:53 PM on August 31, 2010
I am that "entry level" person (yet sr. in title). I applied for "your job" and guess what? Yea I'm bitter so you're going to have to stop with the "entry level" attitude. If she was holding down the fort, doing her job, and a boss' job, she is far beyond 'entry level'. How about recognizing her talent and promting her? Get to know her, the desires, etc. Do NOT take her job away from her now that you're head honcho in town. You know, you have Big Boss things to do and she has functional things to do. Let her do them.
And like Jenfullmoon said do NOT micromanage the competent. Sometimes she didn't get the job because of politics not because of lack of talent.
posted by stormpooper at 11:59 AM on October 28, 2010
And like Jenfullmoon said do NOT micromanage the competent. Sometimes she didn't get the job because of politics not because of lack of talent.
posted by stormpooper at 11:59 AM on October 28, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by rmd1023 at 11:45 AM on August 31, 2010 [4 favorites]