I had to train the person who is now my new manager.
By @avalol · Work
I was asked to onboard a 'new senior member of the team.' I spent three weeks showing her everything, only to find out she was my new boss. Now she's making our jobs harder by implementing my own processes, but incorrectly.
The full story
My old manager left a couple months ago and our department has been in limbo. Corporate finally hired someone externally, and my grandboss asked if I would 'onboard a new senior team member' since I have the most experience with our internal systems. I've been here five years, so I know everything inside and out. I was happy to help. For three straight weeks, I sat with this woman, let's call her 'Jane', and walked her through every single one of our processes. I made her detailed guides, shared my screen for hours, and explained the logic and history behind why we do things a certain way. She was nice and seemed to be catching on quickly. Then, at a team meeting, they announced that Jane was our new department head, and my manager. It was a bit of a surprise, but I figured it was fine. The awkwardness started last week. She's started rolling out 'new, streamlined initiatives' to 'improve our workflow.' The problem is, they're not new. They are the exact workflows and systems I taught her, but she's fundamentally misunderstood some key parts. She's presenting my own methods back to me and the team, but as a broken, less-efficient version. For example, I showed her our live project tracker we use to assign tasks and prevent people from duplicating work. Her 'new' system that she proudly presented in a PowerPoint deck involves her exporting that tracker to a static PDF at the start of the day and emailing it to the team. This completely defeats the purpose of a live document. In the past week alone, two of my coworkers have wasted hours on the same task because they were both working off the outdated morning PDF. I am a logical person. I see a few paths. 1) I say nothing, let our team's efficiency tank, and do double the work to fix the errors her broken system creates. 2) I try to talk to her privately, but that feels like I'm questioning her authority a month in. How do I say 'you're implementing the system I taught you incorrectly' without sounding condescending? 3) I can try to correct a 'misunderstanding' in a team meeting, but that feels like public humiliation. I don't know what to do. It's incredibly awkward watching her try to 'lead' using butchered versions of my own instructions.
How people voted
- On their side — 28% (68 votes)
- Both sides — 43% (104 votes)
- Other side — 28% (68 votes)
Readers say “Both sides” (43%) — 240 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@maddy — Weak.
@tessagain — I'd 'maliciously comply' with her broken system until everything breaks and then be like 'Gosh, if only there was a live tracker to prevent this!'
@sashaee — nah let it crash and burn lol
@reallytho — Are you sure you're not just mad they hired someone over you?
@noelkk — That's so frustrating! It was unfair of them to put you in that position without telling you who you were training.
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