Turning down a promotion and getting screwed?

[JDFR]

Colleague at work appears to be walking in to a potential disaster and I would appreciate a viewpoint on what they should do.

Their boss is being promoted and in turn they have been offered their boss' old job. Except without any pay increase and still having to do their own job!

Naturally, they have said no but it would now seem the promoted role will now be split across multiple people and dramatically change how my colleague's current job functions.

Any ideas/suggestions? It's hard looking on from a different department and seeing someone I call a friend being screwed over so would appreciate a balanced and neutral viewpoint.

[Sir Bagalot]

JDFR said:

Naturally, they have said no

Why did they say no?

Why couldn't they just say yes, do the role for 18 months, get the experience, put on CV, then find a new job in a firm who would value them?

I haven't alwats got paid for the roles I did but if the firm wasn't willing to pay then it was a simple case of gaining experience to climb the ladder elsewhere

[Sir Fergie]

JDFR said:

Colleague at work appears to be walking in to a potential disaster and I would appreciate a viewpoint on what they should do.

Their boss is being promoted and in turn they have been offered their boss' old job. Except without any pay increase and still having to do their own job!

Naturally, they have said no but it would now seem the promoted role will now be split across multiple people and dramatically change how my colleague's current job functions.

Any ideas/suggestions? It's hard looking on from a different department and seeing someone I call a friend being screwed over so would appreciate a balanced and neutral viewpoint.

[Sir Fergie]

JDFR said:

Colleague at work appears to be walking in to a potential disaster and I would appreciate a viewpoint on what they should do.

Their boss is being promoted and in turn they have been offered their boss' old job. Except without any pay increase and still having to do their own job!

Naturally, they have said no but it would now seem the promoted role will now be split across multiple people and dramatically change how my colleague's current job functions.

Any ideas/suggestions? It's hard looking on from a different department and seeing someone I call a friend being screwed over so would appreciate a balanced and neutral viewpoint.

Id be looking for another job in that scenario - am i right in thinking that the dramatic change in how your colleagues role means lots of extra work for your colleague.

Have the company any sensible reason for not replacing the boss role at all.

I take it that because the colleague was asked to take on the boss role that the company thinks your colleague is good. Hence they should go to work for a company that actually appreciates good staff and don't take the urine in terms of expectations about the work load of their staff.

Best of luck

Sir Fergie

[Sir Fergie]

Sir Bagalot said:

Why did they say no?

Why couldn't they just say yes, do the role for 18 months, get the experience, put on CV, then find a new job in a firm who would value them?

I haven't alwats got paid for the roles I did but if the firm wasn't willing to pay then it was a simple case of gaining experience to climb the ladder elsewhere

I suspect that the reason for saying no - in addition to not been paid - is that the OPs friend would actually have 2 jobs now - their existing job plus the new role.

Its all very well saying that "oh yes do the role for 18 months and get the experience".

But we must be realistic here - exactly what would the OPs friend be faced with from a work viewpoint in the new role. He or she will quite likely face one or more of the following scenarios.

Old bosses role - say 40 hours a week - plus existing role - which was also 40 hours a week - now assuming the workload remains the same - this means the OPs friend could be doing 80 hours a week for 40 hours pay.

In a hands on management role - maybe its possible for the OPs friend to do their own job and the mgt role at the same time. But you are down 1 person - so someone is going to have a higher workload - probably the Ops friend.

If the OPs friend had taken the role - and things went wrong - than OPs friend would be made the fall guy for it.

To be honest the only way i could see the 2 roles been able to be performed successfully is where the existing role is in an office and the new role is in the same office - ie where OPs friend was offered the role of office manager. It may be possible to continue a role as accounts clerk and also attend to management duties in the office at the same time. I would still consider that too much however.

But if you take say a hospital nurse working in a ward - there is no way she could in addition take on a management role overseeing say 3 wards - and also continue her existing staff nurse role in the ward.

Id love to know what the exact roles are - both the existing role for OPs friend and the role they were offered - however i know that due to confidentiality reasons the OP may not be in a position to give further details - and i respect that.

Sir Fergie

[Gargamel]

But, you get in there first, then you manage expectations. You are now the boss, delegate some work, keep control of your time carefully.

build a solid business case for bringing on an extra resource or person.

not rocket science is it.

[Sir Fergie]

Gargamel said:

But, you get in there first, then you manage expectations. You are now the boss, delegate some work, keep control of your time carefully.

build a solid business case for bringing on an extra resource or person.

not rocket science is it.

I get where you are coming from - but we are clearly both looking at the issue from a different viewpoint.

You see the situation as been - you are now the boss - so you can address the issue of having to do 2 roles etc. A fair point imo.

My outlook on it is that say you are a receptionist in a hotel - and your boss is the general manager.

But the general manager leaves - and you are offered the general managers role - but you still have to do your receptionist role as well. Impossible i agree - but thats the type of scenario i have in my head when i think of the OPs friends situation.

In saying that mind - i see nothing wrong with a hands on manager who has done roles at lower levels previously. For example - i think its possible to train a Nurse or Paramedic to take on management roles say in a hospital or in the Ambulance service.

But it shouldn't imo be a case of getting rid of the manager - getting the Nurse or Paramedic in - and not bothering to replace the Nurse or Paramedic in their existing roles. I wouldn't be happy with the idea of a Nurse having to do say 35 hours on the hospital ward in a staff nurse role - and then having to also do a management role on top.

Sir Fergie