Confrontations are not good options, but manipulation to get transferred to a new department is good enough if your relationship with your boss is not congenial.. Bear in mind that this solution receives mixed reviews. It works best under optimal conditions, but even then, strategy and caution are recommended.
As a temporary measure, it is virtually a fail-safe technique. If you're working for an obnoxious despot who's blocking your every move, a transfer to a new department can be likened to a brief stop at a way station until you find a new job.
Jim, a computer programmer, is a good example of someone who successfully used this strategy. Jim recently left a mid-size company to join a large engineering company as a senior programmer. But 8 months prior to leaving his job, he got transferred to a new department to get away from an unreasonable boss. But there was a rub. As Jim tells it:
I was in the classic I-love-my-job-but-hate-my-boss situation. And there was no way to rectify it. We were of the same age, yet he lacked experience. It sounds boastful, but I was a much better programmer, and he knew it. This was the cause of all our problems. His promotion to supervisor exemplified corporate politics at its worst.
An executive vice president owed a powerful vendor a favor and hired his brother--my boss--who supposedly came highly recommended. But that didn't do me much good. As soon as he looked at my work and checked out my credentials, he knew he was out matched. In a low-key way, he did everything possible to undermine my work and make me look bad in front of management.
When I turned in a project for review, he took weeks to get back to me with comments, which were usually negative. But the incident that told me my situation was hopeless was when he had me rework a project I had been working on for 2 months, including weekends.
I poured my heart and soul into developing an intricate software application for an important client. What's more, I knew it worked because I had a programmer friend critique and test it. I find it a great way to get an objective opinion about my work from someone I trust. When my boss gave the project a thumbs-down, I faced up to the fact that my situation was unsalvageable. If I didn't do something soon, it would only get worse. That's when I decided to look for a new job. Thankfully, the market for programmers was incredible. There were plenty of jobs. The trick was finding the right one.
Through a friend, Jim found what he thought was the perfect job. The only hitch was it wouldn't be vacant for 8 months, which meant Jim had to endure more torture. As a temporary measure, he thought he'd go for transfer to a new department. Thanks to the reorganization in another department, an opening occurred and Jim jumped on it. His new supervisor knew why he was transferring and welcomed him with open arms.
Talent Wins
Valued workers stand the best chance of making a smooth transfer. Jim was lucky. Not only did he find a better job, but he was able to find an ally who okayed the transfer. When he left the firm, his new supervisor understood and supported the move.
Even if he didn't have someone in his corner, the temporary move would have been easy to pull off because he had great credentials. And even if he blundered and explained the reasons for his transfer, another department head would have scooped him up. In the programming community, creativity is highly valued.
Jim's story proves that talent wins out. The industry you've in or the nature of your work doesn't matter. If you've a rising star, you usually have a great deal of mobility.
The Best Transfer Opportunities
The bigger the company, the easier it is to transfer to a new department, provided you have the right qualifications. In many large companies, a transfer amounts to a long bureaucratic procedure that can often take months to execute.
There's paperwork, procedures, and endless delays. That's the bad news. The good news is that large companies are more likely to give you the opportunity to start over.
If you've got a sense of adventure, a transfer can also be a very exciting and prudent career move. Sprawling conglomerates and international companies, for instance, regularly post positions in different parts of the country, even the world.
Depending on how mobile and flexible you are, you may be able to pull off a transfer to another part of the country. Susan, a bilingual administrative assistant employed by a Fortune 500 company, recently transferred from the New York corporate headquarters to a San Francisco regional office. It amounted to a major lifestyle move, which was endorsed by her husband, a high school history teacher. Susan says, "I was lucky because my husband also wanted to move to California.
He decided to give up his job and find another in San Francisco. After teaching in one school for 8 years, it amounted to a major change. If he wanted to keep his job and stay in New York, I would have understood and not requested the transfer.
But we both wanted to see what it was like living and working in a different part of the country.
There are other advantages to transferring to another division or office. Many people who endorse the transfer option say it's like working for a new company. Although your pay checks are still being cut by the parent company, you may be pleasantly surprised to encounter new work styles.
The corporate culture of a regional office is often very different from that of the home office. Trudy works for a large national Boston-based apparel company. She recently transferred to a regional office 40 miles away to free herself from a tyrannical boss who was making her life miserable. Trudy describes the change: "It felt like I was taking a new job. The central office is tense, fast-paced, and very competitive, whereas the atmosphere at the regional office is more casual and laid back. Most of the people don't seem as obsessed and frantic about building careers. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the regional office is located in a suburban/rural community and the main office is in a big city."
But Trudy also observes that the downside to working in a regional office was a lower likelihood of strategic promotions. "There are promotional opportunities no matter where you work in the company," she goes on, "but the best ones are in the home office because it is where major decisions are made. This is where senior management sets policy and doles out promotions. It's the only place to be if you are intent on moving up the ladder."
Tyrone discovered a similar situation when he transferred to a regional office of a major shoe manufacturer. He had to get away from a power-obsessed paranoid boss who felt Tyrone was after his job. Unfortunately, Tyrone wound up hurting his career by taking a sales job at a regional office. Over his decade-long stay with the company, he had worked hard to become one of the company's top producers. For 3 straight years, he won vacations all over the globe for turning in outstanding performances. Management had its eye on him, and corporate scuttlebutt had it that one day he'd be promoted to an executive slot. It was well known that the most direct route to the executive suite was via sales. But once Tyrone moved to a regional office, he slipped out of management s sightlines and hampered his chances of promotion.
It's possible to be promoted to a power job in a regional office or even to be transferred back to the home office for a better position; nonetheless, strategic promotional opportunities are a lot more difficult to negotiate.
Getting Lost in the Crowd
Even if you don't pack your things and transfer to another company office, you can still get a new start by transferring to a new department within the same building. Corporate offices of many large companies amount to towering skyscrapers with 30 to 50 floors. Workers often don't know who is working on the floor beneath or above them. The advantage of transfer ring within a large company is that it s easy to get lost in the crowd and start over.
Attempting a transfer in a start-up, small, or family-run company could be a serious mistake; generally the smaller the company, the more dangerous the move.
Small companies are often incestuous communities and hotbeds of gossip. They can be likened to small towns where privacy is a myth. Even if you attempt to execute a transfer tactfully, count on everyone knowing about it. Most small organizations breed powerful and virulent grapevines where gossip quickly finds its way from the loading dock to the corporate suite. Even if youh'e covered your tracks by burying the true reason for a transfer, assume veteran staffers will discover your real motives. And even if they're wrong, within hours of your move, everyone will know you transferred to get clear of a despotic boss.
Also expect to be treated as if you are a failure or malcontent. Even though you're trying to get away from a raving lunatic, many staffers will label you a quitter who couldn't take the heat. It can be even worse in small family-run organizations where family members control every rung of the organizational ladder.
As is the case in many large companies, family-run companies can be beset with political problems triggered by jealousy and the quest for power and money. For example, low-ranking family members have a tough time moving up, yet it's doubly hard, often impossible, for outsiders to wield power.
A lateral move, even under the most innocuous conditions, will be looked upon with a certain degree of skepticism.
Before knowing the details, the assumption may be that there is a malcontent in our ranks.
Caution: You could be putting your career on the line by requesting a transfer in a family-managed company, especially if the demon you're fleeing is a family member. If the family member is low on the totem pole, maybe you stand a chance.
But if he or she wields any power, think twice about opening your mouth. You can figure out the repercussions. Advice: Regardless of the type of company, try to negotiate a low-profile transfer -- the quieter the better.
Case Studies
To best illustrate how to execute a smooth transfer, let s follow two people through the process. It won't take you long to figure out who made the right moves.
Henry's Story: Henry was employed by a large engineering firm, having worked his way up from associate engineer to senior project manager. After putting in 12 years, he commanded a good deal of respect. But at this precarious point in his career, Henry was very unhappy. Without warning, a companywide reorganization resulted in his reporting to a boss 20 years his junior.
They had an immediate clash of personalities. For all the obvious reasons, both men despised each other and there was no disguising their hatred. Henrys boss was an Ivy League graduate who landed his job because of political clout. His father was a high-ranking member of the board of directors who literally handed his son the supervisory job without consulting anyone.
Henry, on the other hand, was a hardworking engineer who came up through the ranks. He earned his engineering degree by attending a state college at night while working days. Henry started at the bottom; his boss started at the top. Henry was experienced and knowledgeable; his boss was a novice.
Henry knew he had a problem the moment he clapped eyes on his young boss. For 6 months, he tried to make a go of it. But not a day went by when the young man wasn't blocking him or interfering with his work. He savagely criticized Henry's work and decision-making power. Almost always, the boss was wrong.
Henry couldn't take it anymore and wanted out. He had no intention of leaving the company for which he had worked hard to build a career. Instead, he decided to transfer to a new department. He figured anything was better than working for an incompetent bungler.
But Henry was very vocal about his feelings. He was anything but discreet. There wasn't a person who didn't know about his hatred for his new boss. He complained to his buddies on the loading docks as well as to colleagues, supervisors, and secretaries.
He started the transfer process by speaking to the director of his company's human resources department, who already knew about his problem. Bad news travels fast. The director of human resources bluntly told him that it would be difficult making a clean break because everyone knew how he felt about his boss. Henry was told that a transfer would be approved, but it wouldn't be a smooth transition in light of the bad feelings between the two men. But that wasn't half the story. Henry's transfer request also became a political issue.
Getting away from a bad boss is difficult enough, but this one happened to be a well-placed manager.
Despite the human resource manager's good intentions, finding a new home for Henry wasn't easy. Although Henry boasted an impressive track record, many supervisors didn't want him in their departments because he was deemed loose cannon. Suddenly, everyone forgot about Henry's past accomplishments. Instead, he was viewed as a wild man who couldn't keep his mouth shut and make peace with a bad situation. The water-cooler scuttlebutt went something like, "So Henry can't get on with his boss. What's the big deal? How many people can?" The thinking was that he should have kept quiet and just coped with a bad situation like employees have done since the beginning of time.
It took several weeks to find a department that would welcome Henry. But even after he got what he wanted, things were never the same.
The unhappy conclusion to this story is that Henry wound up leaving the company a year after he transferred to the new department. His transfer turned out to be a bad solution.
Judy's Story: Judy also had grave problems with her boss. But unlike Henry, who inherited a bad boss, Judy was saddled with Sally, an insecure and incompetent boss, the moment she joined a large cosmetics firm as a marketing coordinator 3 years ago. Her situation was a delicate one. Sally had been with the company for 15 years. She began working nights as a clerk and gradually moved up to a senior marketing slot. Nobody knows how she did it because she wasn't the brightest person at the company. What's more, her decision-making powers left something to be desired. But Sally was a hard worker and she was persistent, which landed her successive promotions. As Woody Allen observed, there is something to be said for just showing up. For more than 2 years, Judy tried to make the best of a tough situation. As she learned more, her confidence level grew. She had many good ideas that should have been developed and tested. They could have meant increased sales for the company and promotions for Judy. The problem was that Sally blocked her. Sally knew Judy was a shining star, but she was afraid she would undermine her own position in the firm.
These feelings weren't unfounded either. So she made Judy feel uncomfortable and inadequate. Sally knew that Judy was a natural marketing person. She had insight and creative instincts that Sally lacked. Judy had a knack for analyzing a situation and coming up with a great solution. Sally, on the other hand, would agonize over decisions and often wind up making bad ones. There was no way Sally could endorse, encourage, and promote Judy. In her mind, she'd be threatening her own position in the firm.
Judy knew this and decided that the only way she could find an outlet for her talents was to transfer to another department. But Judy also realized that to make a smooth transition to a new department she had to proceed cautiously and strategically. It had to be meticulously planned down to the last detail, and it would take time to execute.
Instinctively, Judy knew she had to pave the way by buildIng support on all fronts. First, she had to find a new home within the company. Being an outgoing person with friends everywhere, she found a number of departments that would welcome her with open arms. She picked a department with products she felt would be a good fit for her background.
Then Judy began to lay the foundation for her move. She spoke to the supervisor of the new department about her desire to switch. She diplomatically left Sally out of the conversation. She explained the reason for her move was to gain experience working with new products and to learn more about the business. She made a point of saying she felt lateral moves within a company are an excellent career-building strategy. The supervisor agreed. Judy left knowing she had an ally.
She picked a supervisor who would encourage her to grow and express herself. She was right. The supervisor said she would endorse the transfer if Sally agreed to let Judy leave.
Now that she had a place to go, the most difficult part of the transfer was still ahead: getting Sally to approve the move. Judy knew that if she presented her case properly, Sally would welcome the move and be glad to get rid of her.
On a slow day, Judy knocked on Sally'S door and asked to speak to her privately. She said she enjoyed working with Sally and had learned a lot from her. But at this point in her career, she wanted another product area so she could gain new insights into the business. She went on about how much she loved the business, emphasizing that she was restless and wanted to try something different. Then she told her where she wanted to move. The reasons were twofold: the products intrigued her and the department was shorthanded. She also said the supervisor of the department would endorse the transfer if Sally approved it.
Cleverly, Judy kept the discussion to business issues, avoiding any hot buttons that might jinx her chances of getting the transfer. Never once did she mention the problems in their relationship. Telling Sally that she was responsible for putting her career on hold wasn't going to work in her favor. Judy judiciously avoided any explosive issues.
The tactic worked immediately. Once Judy spelled out the facts, Sally's face lightened and she said she appreciated her honesty. She understood that she wanted to learn more and would do everything in her power to make sure the transfer went through. Of course, Judy knew Sally couldn't wait to get rid of her. She also knew that Sally secretly hoped she would take a new job. Transferring to another department turned out to be ideal.
Just as Judy got up to leave, Sally said she would miss her and that she had been a valuable asset. Judy almost choked when she heard that, but she managed to smile graciously. Three weeks later, Judy packed her things and moved to the new department. She felt good knowing she had secured a smooth transfer, not an easy feat by any stretch of the imagination.
Analysis
Using the two case studies as examples, here show to execute a smooth transfer.
Deal Only with Business Issues: A big mistake is making your transfer a personal issue. Corporations, although they won't admit it, prefer to deal with business, not personal issues. You're there to do a job. Companies pride themselves on hiring team players. Even though human resources and employee relations departments are supposed to deal with problem employees and personality disputes, they deem them a tedious annoyance that they'd rather avoid. If you have a problem with another employee or with your boss, they prefer you solve it yourself.
If you want to get away from a demon boss, find a business reason for the transfer. That's exactly what Judy did. She told her boss, along with anyone else who asked, that the reason for the transfer was to work on new products and to learn more about the business. It's hard to dispute bottom-line logic. But if you mention a personality dispute, you'll muddy the situation with non-business issues.
Remember the credo of most businesses: Profits are more important than people.
Keep Your Emotions in Check: When you're angry or feel upset about something, it's often difficult to think rationally and objectively. Unfortunately, Henry couldn't pull in the reins on his emotions, which meant he was operating at a distinct disadvantage. Fueled by his outrage, he managed to do everything wrong and put his foot in his mouth every step of the way. The results were disastrous. If you hope to pull off a successful transfer, check your emotions at the door.
Plan Your Transfer Carefully: Judy planned and executed the transfer as if playing a game of chess. Every move was carefully thought out for its ultimate effect. Unlike Henry, she made no rash moves. All her work paid off. Not only did she get her transfer, but it turned out to be a smart career move in the process.
Don't Burn Bridges: Make friends, not enemies. The main idea is to build relationships, not destroy them. That is precisely what Judy did. Henry, however, never thought of the consequences of alienating his boss. He was doubly foolish by failing to consider his boss's position in the managerial hierarchy. If he ever considered how much power his boss wielded, he never would have attempted the transfer.
Another major faux pas was trying to execute the transfer through the company's human resources department. By doing so, he elevated his problem to a minor company crisis involving many levels. As soon as it was aired in human resources, every major department head knew about Henrys problems.
Judy, however, found a new home within the company herself, never involving the human resources department. When a transfer is negotiated correctly, the human resources department will be the last to know about it. After all, its function is to oversee the staffing process. If the initial search-and-find process is negotiated by managers, the human resources department has nothing more to do than process the paper work.
Maybe Henry would have stood a remote chance of pulling off the transfer if he first found a department that needed him and a supervisor who appreciated his talents. Instead, he created havoc by burning bridges all around him.
Be Discreet. Whatever you do, don't tell everyone within earshot that you're planning a transfer because you hate your boss. Be very careful who you confide in. Only confide in people you trust implicitly. The fewer people you tell the better. If the wrong person should hear about your plans, the rumor mill will be primed, and you'll be put in the uncomfortable position of having to defend yourself.
Consider the Timing of Your Move: Finally, timing must be considered. Plan your transfer at a time when you can command the necessary support and attention. Don't even think of attempting a transfer at busy times of the month or during deadlines. During crises or critical earnings periods, employee transfers are considered trivial matters that no manager wants to think about.
Don't Lose Sight of Your Goals: Don't forget why you have going through the trouble of transferring to another department. It's not to vent your spleen or get even with a crazy boss, but to get on with your career in a better setting. If you keep yourself centered with those goals dead ahead, you stand a good chance of achieving them.
If you think transferring is dangerous, going above your boss's head can be akin to committing corporate suicide if done incorrectly.
