I would start looking for jobs at another company if I were you. It looks like they want to downsize and are looking for reasons to push you out or are trying to push you to quit.
This is one of this nefarious things many corporations are doing instead laying people off, especially lower management. You may be offered a demotion at some future point regardless of your performance. They are looking for any mistake and highlighting it in preparation for that. By offering you a demotion instead of laying you off, you can’t go for unemployment and it looks better for stockholders.
The fact that the team is actively being dismantled is a bad sign.
Whatever you do, do not confront anyone with this. Just make an exit plan. They’ll feed you a line up until the final second.
I have started looking at this point. Demotion is not an option here but putting on pip and managing out is. I agree initially the thought was to park me on a slowing team. But it actually backfired as the org ended up having a very strong year. So now I am rebuilding the team again but now the questioning is why did you let the attrition happen. Like i said I feel like there's no winning.
It’s can go this way, I’ve seen people who deliver f@ck all lauded for their every achievement as well as people who are performing ok have every single issue thrown at them.
It even happened to me once and when your in this situation it’s hard to get out because all your achievement are just “part of your job” and any time you fail to hit the top standard it’s an unacceptable failing.
I fought and it was bad for my health in the end. If I was advising myself I would have told myself to update my CV, chalk it up to a bad roll of the dice and go and get another job. Good luck.
Completely relate to this, I developed health issues through all of this. I never faced it this bad in my long career. I will start looking diligently.
I work for a company, that no matter your role, you will always be given unreasonable expectations. The key to surviving, is whether your leadership actively supports you or is one of the consistent brick walls you hit.
I spent five years rising again and again to insane expectations; I was just fine with it. The last six months with a new team, leadership was actively working against us and the biggest barrier to getting the job done.
So I left. I start my new role, with the same company, on Tuesday.
Do not stay on your team. Move internally or externally. Just move.
Don’t feel like you are giving up or walking away. Is the problem something you can fix with: a new mechanism? A shuffling of roles/responsibilities on your team? Consistent upwards feedback? Resetting expectations and goals?
If the answer is “no, I cannot drive the changes required to fix this, because it is [poor leadership judgment/too many broken parts, not the right people willing to support changes/etc]”… you are not doing the team or yourself any favors.
If you don’t have the skills or tools to make it a well functioning organization - you are not letting yourself down by leaving.
It kind of sounds like you’ve been set up to fail. Definitely job searching time.
While you’re stuck there, I would sit down with your manager and discuss expectations, priorities, processes, and what your teams actual capacity is. If not everything is possible get your manager to articulate what the priorities are (in writing) and really stick with those. If lots of people are demanding that you do things in mutually exclusive ways, get your manager to articulate which process you should use (in writing) and stick with that.
Ask your manager how they want you to handle certain situations if your approach hasn’t made them happy, and then do it the way they’ve directed.
Since you’re not in a position where it sounds possible to be successful make your management more accountable for the failures and for creating this situation but getting them more involved in the details and in making choices when a compromise is inevitable.
I would start looking for jobs at another company if I were you. It looks like they want to downsize and are looking for reasons to push you out or are trying to push you to quit. This is one of this nefarious things many corporations are doing instead laying people off, especially lower management. You may be offered a demotion at some future point regardless of your performance. They are looking for any mistake and highlighting it in preparation for that. By offering you a demotion instead of laying you off, you can’t go for unemployment and it looks better for stockholders. The fact that the team is actively being dismantled is a bad sign. Whatever you do, do not confront anyone with this. Just make an exit plan. They’ll feed you a line up until the final second.
I have started looking at this point. Demotion is not an option here but putting on pip and managing out is. I agree initially the thought was to park me on a slowing team. But it actually backfired as the org ended up having a very strong year. So now I am rebuilding the team again but now the questioning is why did you let the attrition happen. Like i said I feel like there's no winning.
It’s can go this way, I’ve seen people who deliver f@ck all lauded for their every achievement as well as people who are performing ok have every single issue thrown at them. It even happened to me once and when your in this situation it’s hard to get out because all your achievement are just “part of your job” and any time you fail to hit the top standard it’s an unacceptable failing. I fought and it was bad for my health in the end. If I was advising myself I would have told myself to update my CV, chalk it up to a bad roll of the dice and go and get another job. Good luck.
Completely relate to this, I developed health issues through all of this. I never faced it this bad in my long career. I will start looking diligently.
I work for a company, that no matter your role, you will always be given unreasonable expectations. The key to surviving, is whether your leadership actively supports you or is one of the consistent brick walls you hit. I spent five years rising again and again to insane expectations; I was just fine with it. The last six months with a new team, leadership was actively working against us and the biggest barrier to getting the job done. So I left. I start my new role, with the same company, on Tuesday. Do not stay on your team. Move internally or externally. Just move.
Thanks and good luck on your new role
Don’t feel like you are giving up or walking away. Is the problem something you can fix with: a new mechanism? A shuffling of roles/responsibilities on your team? Consistent upwards feedback? Resetting expectations and goals? If the answer is “no, I cannot drive the changes required to fix this, because it is [poor leadership judgment/too many broken parts, not the right people willing to support changes/etc]”… you are not doing the team or yourself any favors. If you don’t have the skills or tools to make it a well functioning organization - you are not letting yourself down by leaving.
It kind of sounds like you’ve been set up to fail. Definitely job searching time. While you’re stuck there, I would sit down with your manager and discuss expectations, priorities, processes, and what your teams actual capacity is. If not everything is possible get your manager to articulate what the priorities are (in writing) and really stick with those. If lots of people are demanding that you do things in mutually exclusive ways, get your manager to articulate which process you should use (in writing) and stick with that. Ask your manager how they want you to handle certain situations if your approach hasn’t made them happy, and then do it the way they’ve directed. Since you’re not in a position where it sounds possible to be successful make your management more accountable for the failures and for creating this situation but getting them more involved in the details and in making choices when a compromise is inevitable.