Am I being pushed out of this job?

Perhaps if you are experienced and well respected this new manager just wants to establish his authority above you, so he is pushing hard to show you and the others that he is not weak. If that’s the case he will micromanage long enough and hard enough to make his point, and once everyone sees he’s the manager to be obeyed (and he has learned enough of his new role to feel confident) he’ll relax. So I’d give him a few months and see how he goes.

Not always so easy. I have been working at my job for 20 years with 18 of them being a word processor. This job got phased out and then I was given duties of a lower pay grade then I had been doing. Nothing of importance just doing whatever needed to be done which was mainly phone calls to the clients. I asked to be trained on other tasks but this did not happen. I have two years to retirement and right now I know I have to stay here for these two years as I work for the state. I have been verbally abused and always compared to someone else who may have been faster at the job but with an error rate of at 25%. I have not had any complaints the 20 years I have been at this company but it seems everything I do lately is being scrutinized and so much stress going I wonder if it is worth it at all.

I am in the same situation now. I have a new boss who is trying to push me out of my job to hire his friend who lay off by other bank. Another reason is my income is much higher. In 2008, I brought over $150 million new deposit business money into the bank. When I took over my book was only $43 million. All the business I have been obtaining are from cold calling by myself. This year. Since he is on the job, he did not know any commercial banking at all, and he every day come to my office to ask me what I do, how I do,how I get contacts. He even ask me to give him all of my contacts because he want to give to the new hire to follow up with my contacts. I love my job and I work hard for it. I got up 4 AM in the morning to fly to other city for a business meeting which may have $10 million new deposit money, and back home same day at 11 PM, next day, I am on time sit in my office at 8:00 AM, one day, I had client lunch spend one and half hours, my new boss keeps saying that I gone lunch too long. more worse is that, one of my cold calling client finally give me a new money of $4 million new business from cold calling, he even disagree me to waive the $6.75 bank draft fee for this new client. I do not know how to handle it. a new client give me $5 million new money business,( all my business book by phone call). I want to meet with client face to face at client’s office, where is 6 hour drive from Vancouver. but he disagrees and say it will cost too much money for the bank, is not worth. by in fact. I got this $5 million new deposit business, our branch can make a min. of over $100,000.00 per year just by having this new deposit of $5 million at our branch. and he keeps saying the this client cost too much for the bank. God. I do not know what to do. he is a very good friend with Sr. VP BC regional. I do not know what to do. I have no motivation on the job now. ( I have lose over $48 million new money due to I am not free to do what I need to do to get the business as I was in 2008 ) It is very sad that a good and royal employee push out of the job where she loves.

Mark & Lynne offer good advice, which you should follow if you can. However, your suspicions may be accurate, and that’s why you have to document everything & bring in HR if necessary. Many years ago the company that I worked for changed Presidents. The new President wanted to have a new assistant and what he did was to take away the existing assistant’s responsibilities and gave them to a younger woman. The existing assistant “took the hint” and left the company within 2 months thereafter. In this bad economy, it is exceptionally difficult for older workers to get a job unless they can be hired by a government agency (where they really enforce age discrimination). I would do everything possible to keep your job (especially if you like your work), and see if you and the your boss can figure out a way to work harmoniously.

I have had the same similar situation on two separate occasions. The first time I was a lot younger and it was the worst experience. I did find out in the end (after I left) that indeed the new manager wanted me out because she wanted to bring in her assistant from the job she had left. The second time, of course a different job, I requested a face to face, wrote all of my concerns down based on examples (facts) vs. emotion. I told my boss I would do the best that I could but it would take time to get to know each other, requested he clarify his mgmt technique, and was open to his questions. It was like an interview to figure out if we were the right fit for each other. He respected that in the long run and it worked out. I think bottom line is, life is too short. Many companies don’t care about age, it’s about your experience and hard work. The stress on your health is not worth the job, you can get another one but not another body.

I agree with many of the previous posts. I think it’s very important to document and communicate with your new manager. I hope everything works out.

The fact may be just that: he is new and you are not. Your new manager has his own expectations and may not care that his predecessor(s) where happy with the way you work. It may even be that your work style goes against his wishes.
Have a meeting and ask him what and how he wants you to assist him. Be as specific as possible. I made an interview list with questions as: do you want me to open your mail; do you want me to screen your calls; do you have certain people that you are always/never available for; do you like to meet daily/weekly/monthly; do you want daily/weekly status reports; do you like detail reports or globals. The more specific you can be, the more you have to defend yourself if he still keeps picking on you. If you can show that you have had no previous problems and good reviews, he will have a hard time selling the fact that you are not competent and/or willing to change. Especially when you can show how much effort and detail you have gone through to find out his wishes and wants. You may impress him after all. Good luck.

People who think that the new supervisor might be trying to push you out might be way off base. Just because a new person starts giving someone bad reviews who previously received good ones doesn’t mean there is an ulterior motive. It often means the employee is not measuring up to the expectations of the new supervisor. It can be as simple as this: A new boss means new expectations.

I say this because I have been in the reverse situation, with someone under me having said she never received a negative review from any supervisor in her life until I came aboard. But just because she was doing things the way other supervisors wanted her to do them, it didn’t mean she was doing things the way I wanted her to do them. And yes, I can be a micromanager. However, we were able to solve the problems after months of my being disappointed in her performance by doing two things. First, we sat down and I explained what my expectations were, how I wanted her to do things, when I wanted her to do things, etc. Second, we had weekly meetings to discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly, so things were dealt with on a timely basis rather than being allowed to build up. Within weeks, the problem was gone.

Micromanagers are detailed oriented, so I would suggest sitting down with the person and going over, IN DETAIL, what they expect, what they like about what you are doing, and what they do not like about what you are doing. Document it in a follow-up e-mail to make sure you are both on the same page (excuse the pun).

OK, you can tell I have been on to something other than working as an assistant these days–I just realized I had a couple of errors! Please note the corrections: Keep a pleasant attitude and if he does not respond, discuss with HR. Document what you discuss (I have found a follow-up email restating what is expected or discussed with supervisor or HR is always a good practice.)

Lynne is right find out exactly what the manager’s expectations are. This does not have to be confrontational but rather “let’s get to know each other better so I can respond to your requests as needed.” Keep a pleasant attitude and if things he does not respond, discuss with HR. Document what you discuss (I have found a follow up email restating what was expected or discussed with supervisor or HR is allows a good practice.) A good HR manager will check into the circumstances and get communication in place.

And as Lorynn notes–life is short–maybe there is something you wish you could be doing. Being unhappy in a position simply is not worth it–I moved on and am so glad I did–I was close to retirement as well but now have found new energy (and ways to cut back, the money just isn’t that important and there are other ways to get the benefits.) Good luck.

Lynne is giving good advice. I worked for a micromanager and it is VERY frustrating. I started documenting every thing I did in my Outlook calendar and would print and show him if there was ever a question. At my first yearly review he started with, “let’s see what you’ve done wrong this year.” Right then I knew he was the problem, not me – he was exhausting. He was the biggest challenge I ever faced in the workplace.

On the other hand – it is illegal if they are really trying to push you out. You need to go to HR to start documenting situations you’re encountering and you need to document details for yourself too. All you have to do is mention to HR what you’ve stated about not having problems in the past and that you’re in fear of “agism” and they should straighten him out. Agism is a huge discrimination liability.

In the mean time maybe you can set a meeting with him to go over his expectations of what he wants out of you (which HE should have done being new) and maybe this will help communications between the two of you. Hang in there.

Sounds like the Administrator I was working for who eventually pushed me right out of my position. Although I did many of the things Lynne suggested in her comments, the new Administrator just did not want me there and did everything in their power to get rid of me. They wanted their own person in the position and not someone with years of experience. I left, the Administrator is still a micro-manager and has gone through two assistants since my leaving.

Life is too short. Get out!

He may not be pushing you out. Some managers are a little more intense and it isn’t necessarily a personal issue with you. You have to learn to adapt to him. Give him updates on where you are at with projects before he asks. When he gives you an assignment, ask for very specific instructions on what he is looking for and write it down in front of him. If you complete a project and he isn’t happy, ask him what you could do differently in the future to meet his needs. As he gets to know you and learns that you are competent, he may back off, but you have to beat him to the punch by informing him of everything each step of the way. This may also bring to light areas where he wants you to move differently so that you don’t complete the entire project and find out it wasn’t what he wanted. Good luck!