A day in the life of a Middle Manager...

I've had enough

I genuinely can't work for this company any longer. I am actually at the point where I am writing my resignation letter in anticipation of a meeting my boss has asked me to attend about my 'attitude'.

This is the culmination of working, for the last eight months or so, for a boss who I never see and seems to genuinely not give a toss about the department I head. The department (which is small anyway) has gone from a total of five people to a total of three, including myself, yet we are doing more work than we ever did even with five people.

We get no appreciation for the work we do though and that's the main problem.

The sales people have successfully taken over the company to the extent that we are *so* revenue driven that the average discount being given on orders is somewhere in the region of 20 - 25% or more. Once you strip away that amount we are definitely into the realms of losing money hand-over-fist as the average gross margin (not markup) on the products is somewhere around 25 - 28% maximum. On some products (such as ADSL) it is MUCH lower. Obiously once you take into account the S, G and A costs the net margin on these products will be somewhere around 10% (this is an expensive business). On ADSL the net margin will be around 3%, if not a net loss.

Of course, we are revenue driven rather than margin driven because the sales people are commissioned on revenue, not margin. So, it doesn't matter if the sale actually results in a net loss, they still get their 5% (or whatever the figure is) commission.

Anyway, the issue which has resulted in breaking the camel's back is as follows...

A sales bod (well there's a surprise) promised a customer an unfeasably short leadtime on a product without seeking authorisation from me. When the order came in I rejected it. This led to a very public slanging match by email in which I used the facts and he used emotions. The fact is that the product he wanted to order was non-pricebook and would take around five working days to arrive from our supplier. I told him this and he just went nuts, saying that he was surprised by my defeatist attitude and that I hadn't even tried to get it quicker.

In the end, I wrote a very conciliatory email in which I explained the facts as I saw them. I also, at about the same time, thought I'd better let my boss know about the spat as he'd no doubt hear about it anyway. BIG mistake.

The email I got back accused me of sending emails which were unacceptable in tone. He also said that this had got to stop and said that he wanted to see me on Tuesday about my attitude. Hmmm.... I was kinda expecting to be backed up on this one, especially as I had gone out of my way to calm the situation down.

Anyway, this coming Tuesday will bring forth one of two scenarios...

1. He starts giving me a hard time about my attitude and I ask him to say whether he backs me as a manager or not. If he doesn't I hand my letter there and then. This means I have cause for Constructive Dismissal as he has admitted he does not back me. The company have also very much changed my job spec without consultation also so that's another cause.

2. He backs down. My boss tends to be very much more bold behind a keyboard than he is in person.

I actually think 2 is more likely but it is not going to stop me looking for another job to start ASAP. I have the backing of my wife to just resign and spend the next month looking for another job and that is something I am SERIOUSLY considering doing...

Wish me luck!