"Our receptionist became a favorite to the new GM..."

Dear Office-Politics,

My company was bought out by a larger corporation and have since fired the Vice President (my immediate supervisor) and the controller. Both of those jobs fell to me, though, no title or compensation was bestowed. In that time our receptionist became a favorite to the new found General Manager that was sent to take over. During a recent review that came six months late I was given a bad rating for giving an air of tension towards the receptionist. However, he did concede that it never truly had any effect on my job, which up to that point in the review was exemplary. Now, I am human, and do feel some resentment
towards the receptionist as she is making out like a bandit from this change of power. She is now over the HR dept locally and takes a Monday off every two weeks, has taken four vacation weeks off so far this year, comes in late everyday, and frankly does a shoddy job. I have brought this particular situation up with a manager at the home location. His advice was to contact the HR Vice President and seek a solution to this problem. I have not contacted the HR VP for fear of a serious backlash from our GM. Is there some sound advice you could give me concerning these issues?

Takeover Survivor

Dear Takeover Survivor,

You mention two issues, your increased responsibilities (without increased compensation) and the receptionist's performance. You discuss the second more than the first, but I encourage you to ask yourself if you are really more upset by the former. Certainly it sounds like you have been poorly treated and unless there is at least a promise of recognition for the significant work you are doing you should consider developing a strategy to ensure that you are fairly treated. If the firm is taking advantage of you perhaps it is time to start polishing your resume.

With respect to the receptionist - what you describe is a classic bind that occurs in too many workplaces. If the manager is genuinely favouring this employee inappropriately then there is no easy way to get the matter dealt with. The suggestion of approaching the Vice President of Human Resources is an appropriate one, but it is not risk free. Nonetheless I would encourage you to make the approach as it sounds like the situation is bad enough that it will have a negative impact on your emotional health and functioning if you try to ignore it.

Good luck.

Dr. John Burton

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