possumk
Mechanical
- Mar 10, 2007
- 22
I'm looking for some advice on my current work situation.
I did “X” for 7 years at another company, at my current company 2.5 years doing “Y.” Approached by my old company to go back and manage “X” there. Didn’t want to go back, but the offer had sounded like a good fit, so I approached my manager to discuss managing “X” here.
Mngr thought it would be an excellent thing for me and a great use of the skills I had gained in "X" and "Y", and thought we should take the suggestion to our higher-up.
The only obstacle I saw was someone else was already doing the job that I wanted to be doing (just a minor detail, huh?. My manager didn't see this as an obstacle. I still was feeling weird about it, so I opened my conversation with my Mngr and Mngr's boss that I was aware "Bob" was already handling many of these responsibilities and had no intentions of 'stealing' his job, but I just wanted to see if a mutually beneficial solution might exist. As luck would have it, as this was all coming to a head, someone else told me that Bob was going to take on another role (in the works before I even requested the new role). This made me feel a little better about my request.
During our meeting, the big boss was quite happy with what I was proposing and gave me the on-the-spot “OK”. I immediately began working with Bob, and upper management had talked to Bob and assured me that all was kosher and moving forward. I was told Bob has been ready to have other responsibilities for a while and didn't mind passing the torch. I still had to get a feel for how "X" was done at this company and knock the rust off my skills, so reporting to Bob for a while was what I expected. Bob gave me work to do but there has been no transitioning happening. He hasn't even said things like, "When you do this, you'll need to know, blah, blah. . ." or asked me to do some things only he does, rather than things all the reports do. He's a nice guy but not the most outgoing personality, so I am having a hard time reading him. It's been 2 months now, and I'm back up to speed and ready to jump into the position with both feet but don't know how. Note that Bob has not started his new role officially as he's taking over for a person who's retiring, and that has not yet happened. I'm just worried he's going to try to handle both roles since he's not handing over any responsibilities yet and the retirement is within a couple weeks.
Should I discuss things with Bob, or our manager, the two together, or sit and wait? Am I worried about nothing and things will magically fall into place when the 3rd guy retires? The whole situation is strange because of the bass-ackwards way I ended up in the position. I am not the type of person to ask for what I want normally, so I feel like a bad guy. . .
Advice, comments, please
I did “X” for 7 years at another company, at my current company 2.5 years doing “Y.” Approached by my old company to go back and manage “X” there. Didn’t want to go back, but the offer had sounded like a good fit, so I approached my manager to discuss managing “X” here.
Mngr thought it would be an excellent thing for me and a great use of the skills I had gained in "X" and "Y", and thought we should take the suggestion to our higher-up.
The only obstacle I saw was someone else was already doing the job that I wanted to be doing (just a minor detail, huh?. My manager didn't see this as an obstacle. I still was feeling weird about it, so I opened my conversation with my Mngr and Mngr's boss that I was aware "Bob" was already handling many of these responsibilities and had no intentions of 'stealing' his job, but I just wanted to see if a mutually beneficial solution might exist. As luck would have it, as this was all coming to a head, someone else told me that Bob was going to take on another role (in the works before I even requested the new role). This made me feel a little better about my request.
During our meeting, the big boss was quite happy with what I was proposing and gave me the on-the-spot “OK”. I immediately began working with Bob, and upper management had talked to Bob and assured me that all was kosher and moving forward. I was told Bob has been ready to have other responsibilities for a while and didn't mind passing the torch. I still had to get a feel for how "X" was done at this company and knock the rust off my skills, so reporting to Bob for a while was what I expected. Bob gave me work to do but there has been no transitioning happening. He hasn't even said things like, "When you do this, you'll need to know, blah, blah. . ." or asked me to do some things only he does, rather than things all the reports do. He's a nice guy but not the most outgoing personality, so I am having a hard time reading him. It's been 2 months now, and I'm back up to speed and ready to jump into the position with both feet but don't know how. Note that Bob has not started his new role officially as he's taking over for a person who's retiring, and that has not yet happened. I'm just worried he's going to try to handle both roles since he's not handing over any responsibilities yet and the retirement is within a couple weeks.
Should I discuss things with Bob, or our manager, the two together, or sit and wait? Am I worried about nothing and things will magically fall into place when the 3rd guy retires? The whole situation is strange because of the bass-ackwards way I ended up in the position. I am not the type of person to ask for what I want normally, so I feel like a bad guy. . .
Advice, comments, please
