![\"Text](\"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/images\/likechange.jpg\")
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Dear Office Politics,<\/p>\n
We were acquired last year and nobody wanted to change. Then we changed and I LIKED it. I liked it a LOT. I was excited to be part of the new company and play in a bigger sandbox and with a new director.<\/p>\n
Now my new director is returning me to my old manager and they’re putting the old team together. This would be great news to almost every one of my colleagues at the acquired company who long for the old days. Well I don’t want to be managed by her anymore.<\/p>\n
While he considered the move and asked my thoughts, I took the risk and told the new director I didn’t want to go back. Partly because I liked the change, and because I couldn’t see any way of filtering my contributions and ideas upward without going through her. He said he understood and I wouldn’t lose access or my voice, but it feels like a giant step backwards. I know I liked the difference, but I don’t know how to tell her that I did, or what specifically I liked about the difference. Or how I’d want to improve things in the future.<\/p>\n
I feel like the acquisition was a big new opportunity, and now it’s just more of the same. It nags at me that we have the same amount of experience, especially considering our tenure at the new company. And it’s not like she had a special gift as my manager before. We have different goals and objectives and I don’t trust her ambitions to work out for anybody but her! I don’t want to tell her this but if I don’t say something, it’s never going to change.<\/p>\n
I can’t afford to leave in this economy. She sort of could, and I thought she was considering it. Maybe this was the thing she was waiting for to make her decision: the chance to torture Me some more! (perhaps that’s a wee bit of sarcasm). We were friends outside of the company and before I worked for her. Maybe we’ll be friends again. But I need help to face this problem.<\/p>\n
Changeling<\/p>\n
OFFICE-POLITICS ADVISER ERIKA ANDERSEN<\/strong> Dear Changeling,<\/p>\n OK, let me take a crack at helping you sort this out. To start with, I think you\u2019re a lot clearer about this than you think. For instance, you say you don\u2019t know what you \u201cliked about the difference\u201d between your original boss and the new director. But then you go on to say you feel like you\u2019ve gone from \u201ca big new opportunity\u201d to \u201cmore of the same.\u201d You also say it bugs you that you and your old boss have the same amount of experience, that you don\u2019t think she\u2019s a very good manager, that you have different goals, and that you feel she\u2019s over-focused on fulfilling her own ambitions (vs. supporting you or others, I assume). Sounds like you know exactly what you think!<\/p>\n So the tough part is \u2013 what to do about it. I\u2019ve said this before, but I\u2019ll say it again: in any situation that you don\u2019t like, you have three choices. You can 1) learn to accept it, 2) work to change it, or 3) leave it.<\/p>\n How would each of those options work? <\/strong><\/p>\n Learn to accept it:<\/strong> In this approach, you assume that she\u2019s not going to change much, if at all, and that your new (now former) boss is not going to suddenly change his mind and take you back. Now, think about what it would take, given those assumptions, for you to enjoy coming to work every day. How would you do that? That is, what and who would you focus on? How would you keep growing? What would you have to let go of, mentally?<\/p>\n Work to change it: <\/strong>In this scenario, you\u2019d focus on seeing whether you could modify your old (new) boss\u2019 behavior. For instance, could you make the effort to have a conversation with her where you create new agreements about how you\u2019ll work together? (You might request, for instance, that you have weekly meetings where you have a chance to present ideas to her and then work together to decide how and whether to present them to others. Or you might ask for specific new responsibilities that you feel will give you more autonomy and would be helpful to her as well. These are just some examples.)<\/p>\n Leave it: <\/strong>If you don\u2019t feel you can accept the current situation or change it, you can always leave. Truly, you can. Dust off and update your resume, get clear about the kind of job you\u2019d like, call a recruiter, put the word out on the street.<\/p>\n When I say this to people, they sometimes say, \u201cI\u2019m not sure you understand; it\u2019s more complicated than that.\u201d My response: \u201cReally? Is it? What other choices do you have that I haven\u2019t covered?\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m pretty convinced that \u201caccept, change or leave\u201d is about it. If that\u2019s true, then you can decide which one is best for you, and pursue it 100%.<\/p>\n Let us know how it goes\u2026.<\/p>\n Thanks for writing to Office Politics.<\/p>\n Warmly,<\/p>\n Erika Andersen, Author<\/p>\n Erika Andersen<\/a> is the author of Growing Great Employees<\/a>, newly released in paperback, which is a Kirkus Reviews recommended business book for 2007. Erika Andersen and her colleagues at Proteus International, the company she founded in 1990, offer practical approaches for individuals and organizations to clarify and move toward their hoped-for-future. Much of Erika\u2019s recent work has focused on vision and strategy, executive coaching, and culture change. She has served as consultant and advisor to the CEOs and senior executives of corporations like MTV Networks, Molson Coors Brewing, Rainbow Media Holdings, Union Square Hospitality Group, and Comcast Corporation. Erika is an inaugural author of the Penguin Speakers Bureau, and she has been quoted in the New York Times, Industry Week, Investors\u2019 Business daily, and Fortune.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Office Politics, We were acquired last year and nobody wanted to change. Then we changed and I LIKED it. I liked it a LOT. I was excited to be part of the new company and play in a bigger sandbox and with a new director. Now my new director is returning me to my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[408,193,665],"class_list":["post-332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-office-politics","tag-change","tag-erika-andersen","tag-office-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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