Blocking and Tackling

Today I had a very awkward meeting with the new Bossman. He's in town from Atlanta along with his usual travel partners (for some reason, the "senior leadership team" travels in a pack). During our sync-up discussion, the topic of my requested transfer came up, and as expected, he said the usual things like "what made you decide to look elsewhere", and "I thought you were interested in the management track instead of the technical track". And as expected, he laid the guilt trip out nice and heavy: "I went to bat for you for this and this" and "Do you know how fortunate you are to be reporting directly to a Director" etc.

Well, I held my tongue and did not get baited into a revealing debate with him. At this point, what's the point? I'll let HR deal with it. Did new Bossman ever find a replacement for Mr. N when he left the team in November, or Mr. Z when he left the team last month? Did his peers address the gaps left by Mr. D and Mr. B when they left the company? This could be case study of how to dismantle a highly motivated, highly skilled team. The six of us all got along, knew our own strengths and weaknesses, and worked towards common goals. The merger and subsequent change in senior leadership forced out our original Bossman, and closely following, 3 of the 6 team members are gone. (hey, that's a 50% reduction in overhead costs!)

Bottom line, the new Bossman is unwilling to let me transfer to the other group for another 6 months. I'm held hostage for 6 months. Speaking with HR last week, my HR rep told me that most lateral transfers take place in 4 to 8 weeks, max, and such transfers should not be "blocked" by the manager. So with that, I'll have to call my HR rep and keep him aware of the situation.

Tune in tomorrow for another episode of "As The Stomach Turns".