How Would You Feel?

About a week ago, I was informed that my bright shiny and rewarding job of Software Development Manager was being eliminated in an organizational flattening. This was a "no fault" move - I had done nothing wrong, the organization was simply too management heavy. As a result, I was being provided the opportunity to select from any one of three different jobs to fulfill; Lead Software Developer, Lead Project Manager, or Senior Application Architect. I was to receive the same compensation for the new role.

Many of you may say, "That is unfortunate, but at least you are still employed and did not get a cut in pay." While I recognize both of these factors, I struggle to find genuine tiding in the situation and certainly no comfort.

Less than one month prior to this flattening of the organization, a new manager was moved into our group. There was no requisition open. We had no need. He brought with him only two employees and no defined set of responsibility. He had, however, been with the company for ten years compared to my one. He had been a manager in another division of IT, but had grown weary of the struggles of the role and asked that he be placed somewhere else. This gentleman is now my boss and has inherited my 17 person organization as his own.

It is the orchestration of these events that trouble me. There was no open position or need in our group for another manager. We were already manager heavy and we knew it. He was unhappy in his role and wanted something else. I suspect he makes a great deal more than I and could not have been easily moved into a lower pay-grade without a salary adjustment or extremely limited opportunity for raises and incentives.

Should they reward his loyalty? Certainly. Should I or anyone else have to lose their position because he elected to step down from his own? I think not. And to add insult to injury, he is now my boss.

I will work to fulfill my new role to the best of my abilities. But for this company to ask or expect my loyalty from this point forward is perverted.