In wrong job? - advice appreciated!

rhubarbjam

Hi All,

I'm new to this forum - I found it online and it looked helpful. I'd really appreciate some perspectives on my work situation, so I'll explain as briefly as possible..
I've worked in the arts for about 15 years now, and aimed to get into the work area I'm in now. I work in an arts capacity for a large national institution for health. While I love certain aspects of the job, I find the politics and hierarchy of the organisation very difficult to cope with. This difficult aspect of the job has made me feel depressed and hopeless to the point where I'm taking the occasional day/s off. I've also been recently diagnosed with fibroids (which vary from person to person) which causes me considerable pain and related tiredness for about two weeks each month.
My problem is that 1. I feel physically run down as well as depressed, and 2. My Line Manager is very unsupportive. He has undermined me in meetings and seems to be generally undermining things that I find useful. For example - my Director requested that I have one-to-ones with him each month, but my Line Manager intervened and requested that he also attend these meetings). Two collegaues who are in higher status positions to my Line Manager offered the use of a spare office space for occassions when I need to work in a less noisy environment (my office is open plan, but none of the people there are related to my work - it's very noisy), but again my Line Manager intervened and said that this was not acceptable except in situations where it's absolutely neccessary. In general I find my Line Manager to be micro managing and controlling. As anyone knows who's experienced this - it makes you feel that your autonomy is taken and that you are being belittled.
I am just beginning to get my projects going, and this aspect is exciting and rewarding. However, I also fear that I can't cope with this environment and to be honest, if I had enough savings, I would consider resigning and find other work. At the moment I am seeking other suitable jobs, but it's not easy as I relocated to start this job, I'm not in my home town and to lose the job would mean huge upheaval.
Apologies for this slightly rambling post - any initial thoughts especially from anyone with similar experiences, would be really welcome!

djk1000

It seems that the job is not the problem, it's your line manager. These things can certainly be difficult to deal with, but don't leave the job just yet! You need to look at this objectively and try to keep emotion out of it. Look at things from the managers point of view, try to understand his/her motivation and personality and then use that to your advantage. I can't really say more than that without knowing more about the situation. Is this manager new to managing people? If not, does he/she act like this with other staff? When the manager said that you couldn't use a private room, did you ask why? maybe the manager had reasons, but didn't communicate them well. As for micro managing, the manager may just need some time to learn to trust you.

If you come to the point that you are about to walk out the door, then and only then should you consider being confrontational ( a last resort) in that event, sit down with the manager and discuss your feelings rationally, if that doesn't work, talk to their boss. If all else fails, then you can leave. One thing you need to do now is keep an accurate diary of what happens between you and your manager each day, be objective and factual, use dates and times, keep copies of emails, make notes of conversations and phonecalls. This can all be useful when you want to make your case to more senior management, or if you believe you have a case for constructive dismissal.

rhubarbjam

Hi dk
Thanks for your reply
My Line Manager did say that as far as he was concerned it was bad practice to not be based in the main office. I question that because my job takes me out of the office quite a lot (to meet external people as well as internal staff) I am absolutely available at all times on mobile, and in this spare office, on email, phone and mobile. My Line Manager has managed many people in his work, but I've not observed his management of others because the people in our office (he's in a nearby room) are not people he line manages. He does manage his PA of course, but that's different as her job by definition is to assist him.
To give you an example of his behaviour - I have management of a budget that is for new projects. My Line Manager decided he wanted to use some of this budget for other purposes. I went to HR to ask advice in strictest confidence, they advised me to discuss it with my Director. My Director assured me that this budget was only for the purposes of new projects, he then requested that I meet with him on a 121 basis once a month - as mentioned though, my Line Manager intervened. My Line Manager also expected me to not attend an Arts Board meeting (he wanted me to attend something else which others could have dealt with) this is also strange as I am the sole arts related person in the organisation who would surely need to be at the arts board meeting! The issue that worries me now is that my feeling of hopelessness has led me to taking too many days off. I'm sure that I will be in line for a verbal warning soon. I don't want things to escalate, but taking this on might require a metaphorical fight that I can't win!

djk1000

It seems like the line manager has a different idea about responsibility, authority and role to the idea you have. For instance, you "manage" a budget, well it seems you have the responsibility for the budget, but not the authority, that's not very fair! You see attending a certain meeting to be important to your job, he doesn't.

Ok, here's my suggestion.

Write a detailed job description, what the position which you hold entails, things like,

Should attend Arts Council meeting X times per year to keep the organisation up to date.
Accepts complete responsibility, but exercises full authority over XX budget. Attends one to one meeting with director monthly to update (minutes to be sent to line manager after meeting)

etc etc etc. Make sure that you show the benefits to the organisation of you doing what's in the description.

Take this to the director, say that you're having some trouble with defining your position and what your authority and responsibilites are, say that you'd like him to look over this job description and ask him to make comments, additions etc, then sign off on it.

From then on, use it subtly but confidently to keep your line manager in his place. If he tries to touch your budget, say that your job description makes you responsible for using it appropriately and that he'll have to go to the director to get at it.

If the line manager pulls you up for not doing something anytime soon, tell him that it's because you need a quite space to get things done, sum that up in an email and cc the director, like this,

Hi XXX

following on from our conversation, I appreciate what your saying about not getting xxx done on time, my solution for the future would be to let me use that quiet office space, as I'm sure it will increase the amount of work I can get done for the organisation on a daily basis, I feel that this is more important than being in the room with people.


Or something like that anyway;)

rhubarbjam

Thankyou!
That is excellent advice - it's difficult to stay logical and constructive when you feel bogged down. I'll crack on with getting this job requirements/description together and keeping my Director in the picture. If I can stay positive then I think my Line Manager will get off my back - which is all I need to make this job work I think.
You sound like someone who has experience of working in large organsiations - half my issue is that I've worked in smaller environments - I'll get there eventually!
Thanks again