Former boss asking current boss for my time?

redcard

Missme wrote: »

Not quite. Each situation has it's own merits and what's obvious to you with your probably bionic eye ain't obvious to me.

I'd say directors of all sorts might benefit from walking in their staffs' shoes. Isn't there a TV series where bosses do that and come out of it understanding their business better?

It's reality TV, not a documentary.

PlutoinCapricorn

I doubt whether the current line manager thinks it is a reasonable request!

I do agree that the former manager did the right thing in approaching the current one first though.

Takeaway_Addict

Missme wrote: »

Not quite. Each situation has it's own merits and what's obvious to you with your probably bionic eye ain't obvious to me.

I'd say directors of all sorts might benefit from walking in their staffs' shoes. Isn't there a TV series where bosses do that and come out of it understanding their business better?

undercover boss and its quite heavily staged IMO

wapow

Some people just have an inability to read between the lines. What are you doing here?

Steve, would like to hear how your conversation went. Unfortunately it seems politics is at play. Hopefully your new boss actually sticks up for those under his management and will pick up on the fact that you don't want to go back and will put a stop to this!

hcb42

I think in most organisations, if the line manager was obstructive, this would not be received well.

Everyone is in it together - ultimately, you cant have departments working against each other or not helping in a need period.

Takeaway_Addict

hcb42 wrote: »

I think in most organisations, if the line manager was obstructive, this would not be received well.

Everyone is in it together - ultimately, you cant have departments working against each other or not helping in a need period.

This is right, if the other department needs help still then its reasonable to ask the OP to go and help.

The only real way the OP could even argue against this is if they had raised grievances before hand and the working relationship was clearly destroyed. The fact the OP did a 3 month handover would show to me this isn't likely to be the case from his employers view so for him to say it is an issue now would be obstructive against him.

stevetuk

Thanks for the later replies everyone, I appreciate the reasoned views and advice!

To close off, the answer was "no unless there are specific needs" to which the answer was "we've reevaluated and there aren't". I think it was a case of convenience and when asked for justification there wasn't one.

All's well that ends well.

PlutoinCapricorn

It sounds as though the old department was just trying it on.

stevetuk

PlutoinCapricorn wrote: »

It sounds as though the old department was just trying it on.

As the Magic 8-Ball would say - "all signs point to yes"
When pressed for the specifics they had no business case/justification or need and had to admit that. Fortunately they did, and so it didn't become the unpleasant mess it could have been...! I must admit, I was surprised they didn't argue the case (at all). I did expect this to become problematic. Think I over-worried!

PlutoinCapricorn

Some posters thought that you were letting the team down or damaging the company by not going back to help your old department out, but what effect would this have had on your new department and thus the whole organisation?

It does not help any company in the long run to help to hide incompetence and bad planning.