Reflections

Recently a new manager was hired and since that day, feelings, perceptions, and thoughts of what was once a great team to work for, have been rapidly declining. The team all believed that the newly hired manager was going to rally behind the troops because she was promoted from within our team. She knows the challenges we faced on a day-to-day basis and the team figured she would have our backs when it came to down to an “us against them” situation. We could not have been more wrong. The team and I feel that we are being micro-managed, we never were until now. Most of the team is now looking to other positions within the company to get out from under her management. We understand that she is new at management and that she is trying to put her “stamp” on the department but it is causing resentment toward her because of her management style. We perceive her as aspiring to continue up the corporate ladder and she will stop at nothing, even throwing her colleagues under the bus, to achieve her goals. She now only sees us as her subordinates. She holds a grudge if you do not accomplish a task up to her standards and then uses position and coercive power to influence the team perform to her standards.

Looking back on the experience, there are multiple perspectives at play. I will start with the team’s perspective. We assumed that since she came from our team, she would understand that the high-stress situations we deal with daily merit down-time when the tasks (shows) are completed. Live television is a high-stress environment. After each show we are now mandated to complete individual projects that have no bearing on performance appraisals. It seems that we are doing busy work to fill time. As to her perspective, she wants to make an impact as a new manager. She saw things while as an hourly employee that she felt needed to be changed. She has the ambition to succeed and strong work ethic which most likely drives her belief that down-time is...