What should i do if my manager doesn't respond to my emails.

[mikyccity]

I work with US based team, in our team there are 3 offshore guys including myself. The other two guys are in Asia and i am the only one in UK for that team.

My line manager is also in US and he joined the company about 9 months ago. I have never met him but we talk about projects in daily stand up meetings.

I had a different line manager in the start and he had good line management skills even when he was running a massive team, he was someone you can easily talk to. He is now running a different team, my new manager has really poor line management skills. He is very technical and good at running projects but he doesn't respond to his emails.

In last one year, i would say he has only responded to 5% of my emails. If i sent him a skype message, he would respond to hi message but won't answer my question which i found very bizarre . I think its not just me, he doesn't respond to others email either. It feels like that he does check his emails but only respond to important ones.

I was hired in UK so that i can work closely with UK sales and marketing team and bring their needs to development team but its not happening because new line manager doesn't think that way.

What should i do in this situation? I need to go to different office next week and i am still waiting for him to approve my travel expenses. The head of sales in UK sent him an email as well saying that mike needs to be on site next week so can he help me with the approval. Its been two days, no reply from him.

Recently he made one guy redundant in our team and we were told that he has been made redundant because of his role and its a management decision. It didn't make any sense to me in the start , why would company let the permanent guy go and keep the contractor. But when i asked my colleague on LinkedIn he said the new line manager didn't like him from day one and he made him redundant because he had opinions that was in conflict with him. He was a very nice guy and he was always there to answer any of my technical questions.

I don't know what to do , if i politely complain to my manager's boos then may be my manager will make me redundant. I have been thinking about bringing this up to head of sales guy in UK, i know him very well and he is a nice guys.

Any suggestion or advice on how to tackle this situation?

Edited by mikyccity on Saturday 2nd June 12:11

[hajaba123]

Phone him and talk about it or am I missing something?

[mikyccity]

hajaba123 said:

Phone him and talk about it or am I missing something?

I have reminded him 3 times already, sent him emails and skype message. I don't feel like talking to him on this anymore.

I was on site in march this year and he hasn't approve my those expenses either, he said he is finding ways to approve them. Don't know what does this mean.

He doesn't know how to motivate team, he is very formal and i find it hard to have any conversation with him.

I always had very good relations with my all line managers in previous roles but this one is a strange one.

[Lotus Notes]

I'd try phoning him at a convenient time and just cover the travel sign-off. Sometimes you get a boss who's too busy and prioritises things differently. You won't change that..

If there's no response, get his boss to sign-off the travel.

PS - Stress less about the situation!

[Sheetmaself]

Start writing the Emails so that no response gives you a response. Such as if you dont agree with this direction please respond otherwise i will start to progress this action.

[surveyor]

Difficult. My line manager can get a litttle like this. My tried and tested method is to schedule a day in the office, get up early and be there before he gets busy.

Harder to do remotely. I would perhaps try and send a meeting request to nail a time down for a discussion..

[NDA]

Are these mission-critical emails? Are they copied to others in the business? Do you send a weekly or monthly report to this person where no response could be noted?

[Mr Pointy]

Are you out of pocket for the expenses for the last trip? If so, don't go on this trip until he sorts out both sets of expenses. If it cause problems then just explain that you requested approval in good time but he didn't issue it.

Often people act like this as a method of asserting power & showing who is in control. They'll answer emails when they feel like it & you can wait. It's an extension of making people sit in Reception for half an hour before they are seen. Needless to say they are ususally poor managers.

I'd start looking for a new position either with another team in your current company or elsewhere. It's unlikley you'll win if you take matters over his head so consider moving on your own terms.

[mikyccity]

Mr Pointy said:

Are you out of pocket for the expenses for the last trip? If so, don't go on this trip until he sorts out both sets of expenses. If it cause problems then just explain that you requested approval in good time but he didn't issue it.

Often people act like this as a method of asserting power & showing who is in control. They'll answer emails when they feel like it & you can wait. It's an extension of making people sit in Reception for half an hour before they are seen. Needless to say they are ususally poor managers.

I'd start looking for a new position either with another team in your current company or elsewhere. It's unlikley you'll win if you take matters over his head so consider moving on your own terms.

A bit, but the important thing is that i am the only one who suppose to setup up training and new starts machines on site next week. I will clear my position to head of sales person because he was the one who pushed US team to do the hiring for UK office before my line manager took over this team.

I totally agree with not winning if i take the matter over his head. It may make the things worse.

I fully understand that he may already have a lot on his plate and don't have time to respond to all emails. But at least he can message me saying i will come back to on this later instead of hanging me their thinking bad about him.

There is no one from my team here in the office, all the sales and marketing guys work from different office now and they all get together at least once a week in the new office. They ask me to join them once a week so that i can be a part of something and they purposed this to my line manager few months ago but he didn't reply.

Edited by mikyccity on Saturday 2nd June 14:05

[Du1point8]

Sheetmaself said:

Start writing the Emails so that no response gives you a response. Such as if you dont agree with this direction please respond otherwise i will start to progress this action.

This is my preferred technique.

[ReallyReallyGood]

Can you CC his boss in on your emails?

[deggles]

mikyccity said:

My line manager is also in US and he joined the company about 9 months ago. I have never met him but we talk about projects in daily stand up meetings.

Bring it up in the daily standup if it's something impeding your work

[mikyccity]

ReallyReallyGood said:

Can you CC his boss in on your emails?

I would love to but i think he is not going to like it.

[Pothole]

mikyccity said:

ReallyReallyGood said:

Can you CC his boss in on your emails?

I would love to but i think he is not going to like it.

Never a good approach. Passive/aggressive bullst.

OP, you as a person cannot be made redundant because a line manager doesn't agree with something you do or say. The position is what is made redundant.