our new boss is ruining the organization and is angry that I’m pushing back. Ask a manager

A reader writes:

I really need an outside perspective on what’s happening at work. I am a deputy director at a small organization with 10 full-time employees (including the director) and two part-time employees. About a year ago our old director left. She essentially built the current version of our organization from the ground up and her management style can best be described as ‘trust your people to do their jobs’. She was quite hands-off, but addressed issues as they arose, even though we had no formal system for reviews. Our atmosphere could be described as “Chaotic Good” (to put it in Dungeons & Dragons terms) and a place where we take the work seriously, but not ourselves. We’ve done a lot of work in the community to overcome the negative feelings many people had about previous versions of our organization.

When the director left because he was not interested in applying for the director position, I stepped in as interim director while our board conducted a search. One of the things the board made very clear to every candidate they interviewed was that the staff was great and didn’t need an overhaul. They weren’t looking for a repairman, but someone to continue the great work already being done. Employees had the opportunity to meet the finalists and the board asked for our feedback. Every staff member had some level of reservations about the candidate they ultimately hired (usually that she wouldn’t fit into our culture), but were open to being proven wrong.

Well, Marcia hasn’t even been here six months and the wheels are falling off. During this time, she imposed a strict service desk schedule, changed the job descriptions of our three frontline employees, reorganized all of our storage, updated our scheduling system, and changed the workflow for several of our processes. Furthermore, she shows in small ways that she doesn’t fully trust the staff to do their jobs and that she doesn’t like the way we’re used to doing things. The feedback I have received from many employees shows that they are dissatisfied with the direction things are going and the speed at which changes are being implemented. Change is not the problem – we are used to change – but it is imposed without much input from staff and very quickly.

I have spoken to Marcia a few times about my concerns and the concerns of some of the staff and other staff have also spoken to her. Eventually it got to the point where I sent her an email suggesting we bring in an outside facilitator to help us resolve the communication challenges we were experiencing so we can move forward in a positive direction. I really think it is possible to save this, but I know we don’t have the skills to do it ourselves.

After two weeks of radio silence, including personal, I received an email on Friday 15 minutes before we closed saying no to a facilitator because she didn’t trust my judgment. She then listed the reasons why she thinks I have done more to improve staff morale and said a formal communication would follow outlining my plan for improvement.

At this point I have no idea what to do next. I’m mainly wondering if this is as strange as I think. Is her response reasonable? Was I going too far with that suggestion?

I think you have two options here: start planning to leave or go to the board. Or both!

Your boss has told you that she does not trust your judgment and believes you are responsible for undermining staff morale, and said she plans to impose a formal improvement plan on you.

These are very bad signals about your future in the organization. This is a manager who doesn’t want you around, doesn’t respect your work, and may be laying the groundwork for firing you.

You didn’t go too far in suggesting an external facilitator, but I suspect Marcia took that as one more sign that you don’t agree with the direction she’s taking things. I suspect her perspective would be, “I understand. things that need to be changed, I change them, the person who did my job on an interim basis before I came here fights me about it, I heard her several times but then I didn’t agree Together with her I wanted they bring in an external facilitator to continue to encourage me to see things her way. Oh, and I think she might be fueling staff dissatisfaction under the guise of ‘concern.’

Is Marcia wrong about that? Very possible! It’s also possible that some of what she changes are things the board asked her to change – or things she said she would change and got their approval for. The fact that the board emphasizes to the candidates that no overhaul is needed does not mean that they expect that a new director would not change something. It’s also true that while ‘Chaotic Good’ may have been an improvement over what it used to be, it’s not necessarily where an organization should remain permanently.

I don’t know which one it is – or if it’s a combination of the two – but what I do know is that the person in charge of your organization is telling you quite clearly that she sees you as a threat to the stability of the organization, and that A bad omen for your future there.

Normally, I’m not a big fan of going to the board, because nonprofit boards generally shouldn’t get involved in day-to-day personnel matters. Many will reflexively support the executive director and judge them on things other than staff morale, and if it doesn’t work, you have a target on your back. It’s a high-risk move that rarely pays off except in the most egregious of situations. But in this case you were interim director, so you probably know the board members and your word carries some weight. It may be worth having a discreet conversation with one or two board members about what’s going on, including whether you think Marcia is laying the groundwork to push you out.

I don’t know what will come of that. There’s bound to be drama that way! But it sounds like the situation has reached that point unless you prefer to leave altogether (which is definitely a path you should consider as well).