Division of labor

September 17, 2013 4:19 PM

I support a division in a large corporation. My supervisor seems to have a long-standing issue with someone in management. How to proceed?

My supervisor seems to have issues with this manager; she always demands the maximum delivery in the minimum amount of time. This leads to pressure for my supervisor (Y), and ultimately to me, as there are multiple projects going on at the same time. X always expects us to work first and solely for her. Ultimately, we are expected to develop our own solution.

We are supposed to be evaluated in the next couple of months. In the meantime, I would like to become better at "managing up" and resolving situations like these. How do I make my needs clear without getting too involved?

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (3 answers total)

What kind of workflow system does your support team use? Do you use a ticket system to track cases, so that both your team and the requester can see where the task is in the queue and what else is going on? I've often found that making your workflow more transparent helps to calm people down. But if it doesn't, it at least gives you cover.

When X demands to be first, you can send messages to your superiors, and even to other people with cases in the queue, to say "I have been instructed by X to dust his widgets immediately. That will mean that I will not be able to put out the fire that is currently burning in Y's widget until Friday, meaning that it might burn down the building. It also means that I will not be able to replace Z's widget until Thursday, which is preventing him from making the big presentation to the President." You can seek permission from your bosses for that workflow. You can also notify other users, and if they see it happening that X is requiring you to prioritize his tasks, or that he's trying to get you in trouble when you deal with stuff FIFO or in order of importance, they can go to their bosses and advocate that X not be allowed to jump the queue. But as a support person working with people who all think their stuff should be done instantly, the best thing you can do for yourself is to be absolutely transparent about what you're doing and when. It's the easiest way to defend yourself when jerks get huffy about not being the center of the universe.
posted by decathecting at 4:45 PM on September 17, 2013 [3 favorites]

Assuming you are an individual contributor then I'd say you can give clarity to the demanding manager about your priorities and when you will get to their requests. If she doesn''t like your answer then your supervisor is the person to resolve that conflict. Ideally, you and your supervisor should have a well-understood process so the other manager gets a consistent picture and you don't give your boss nasty surprises.

Beyond that, managing her expectations is really your supervisor's problem (or should be).
posted by crocomancer at 2:36 AM on September 18, 2013

All you can do is create a scheduling/logging system if one is not already in place so that you can keep track of time, priorities, and deadlines. Your supervisor will have to make the call on priorities or reassignments if there are conflicts. You should definitely point out to your supervisor where there are conflicts and offer solutions to meeting multiple deadlines. Beyond that, don't sweat it - you can only do what you can do, the rest is up to your bosses.
posted by JJ86 at 12:32 PM on September 18, 2013