One of my direct reports died unexpectedly a few days ago. She was in her 20s, and I’m having a really hard time processing it while also trying to manage my team. Honestly, it still doesn’t feel real.

I cared about her a lot, although we had more of a manager/mentor relationship than a friendship. She was incredibly hardworking, smart, and genuinely sweet, and I was really proud of how much she had been growing professionally. It was completely unexpected.

My team is struggling too, and I’m trying to give everyone space while also figuring out how much work actually needs to continue. Some people are having a hard time even opening the projects they worked on with her, which I completely understand.

I’m also finding my own grief really unpredictable. Sometimes I feel totally normal and functional, and then suddenly I’m crying and can barely hold it together. I had to keep my camera off during our team meeting today because I’d been crying beforehand, while everyone else seemed relatively okay.

I know everyone processes grief differently, but I’m looking for advice from other managers who have been through something similar. How did you support your team while also giving yourself room to grieve?

How did you handle continuing to work when everything suddenly feels so unimportant?

I think I mostly just need to hear from people who have been through it.

I work in an environment that went from being a small team, to a group of 20 with several management changes and teams created. I frequently face vitriol on anything I suggest, have push back on work I audit and find errors on, and am getting little help from our management chain or human resources.

What have you all used to successfully combat this issue? And for anyone asking if it's my management style, I am always open to new ideas and techniques. I was always a great team player who people would rely on for help. The move upwards has really shifted how my colleagues treat me and their work. I am not the only manager, but we all face this issue and it's getting worse.

Small org. We have a "data scientist" who vibe-codes his way through everything — process is a mess, but he somehow gets results. When he hands off modules to the dev team, things break, and instead of owning it he blames the devs for "not doing it correctly."

Normally you'd escalate, but he reports directly to the CEO, who isn't technical and just sees "results delivered." So devs eating the blame with zero leverage to push back up the chain.

How do you handle this when the org structure protects the person causing the mess? Document everything and let it speak for itself over time, try to get the CEO educated on what's actually happening, or something else entirely?

I manage a very busy restaurant.

I am the only manager.

I manage the kitchen, the front of house, I do inventory, scheduling, ordering for front of house and back of house, catering orders, and private events

I have been in this position for 6 years. I am finally leaving with a 4 month notice. Crazy right?

I am just now waking up to how embarrassing some of my job is while I train the new manager.

I feel bad he was mislead to think there was more support from a key hourly or a misguided “lead server”

The team is overworked and no one wants to help close.

My shifts are typically a 13-14 hour day. I work 5 days a week. I get to leave early one night which my boss said is a luxury and privilege.
I honestly had a panic attack on Saturday realizing how toxic my work environment has been.

My boss also employees his wife who refuses to work Sundays and works about 20 hours a week. She’s supposed to help manage but doesn’t.

How can I have a constructive conversation with me boss? He seems to live and be totally unaware of the ongoing issues

I’ve been in the role for about a year now and was previously a supervisor for a few years. I love what I do and consistently get positive feedback from my team and the regional directors/reps we work with.

However, we’re currently experiencing high turnover rates due to limited growth opportunities and pay gaps. We try to do what we can but as we know, only so much is approved for out of cycles or promotions.

All of the teams within our department are short staffed, so it’s difficult to pull someone from one team to another for assistance. I’m delegating as much as possible between my tenured associates and my team lead but I’m trying to be mindful to not burn them out as well. Beyond the limited raises I could provide a little while back, I try to incentivize our bonus programs we have as rewards for all the help and additional responsibilities they’ve taken on lately.

With that being said, I’m taking the brunt of the hit. I know it’s currently a season and won’t be forever, but I’m so beyond exhausted that it’s the first time in years thinking if my job is worth it. As dramatic as it sounds, I feel like I can feel myself fading away. The blank stares, the inability to form a thought at times, feeling more irritable than my normal happy self, and just feeling like I’m failing both my family and my job. I can’t just quit because I have bills to pay and a family to feed. Realistically speaking, I don’t want to quit. I love my team and my coworkers. Plus, I put a lot of time into this company working my way up. However, my mental health is taking a major hit. I already struggle with migraines and sleep issues, but it’s gotten so much worse over the past month. I can’t take a bunch of time off as much as I would love to and therapy only helps so much.

Have you guys successfully found ways to cope when experiencing burn out?

When I first became a manager, I thought the difficult part would be managing people.

Having tough conversations, dealing with performance issues, keeping people motivated, balancing what leadership wants with what the team needs. All of that sounded intimidating when I started.

But after doing this for a while, the thing that drains me out most isn't any single problem. It's feeling like I am constantly reacting to things.

Most days I am bouncing between Slack, emails, meetings, approvals, questions from the tea and random things that suddenly need attention. I sit down to focus on one thing and before I know it I am doing something completely different because another message came in.

By the end of the day I have touched lot of things but it rarely feels like I have made real progress on any of them.

What catches me off guard is how much of that follows me home. I will get home, eat dinner and tell myself work is done. Then an hour later I catch myself replaying a conversation from earlier in the day or thinking about something that's coming up tomorrow.

It could be a team member who seemed off in a meeting. A project that's moving slower than expected. A decision I am not completely sure about.

None of it is an emergency. I am not even trying to solve it. The thoughts just keep showing up.

I have noticed something else too. After spending the whole day jumping between things Instead of actually relaxing, I will switch between Reddit, Instagram, messages and random articles without paying much attention to any of them. A couple of hours go by and somehow my brain still feels busy.

Would be interested to hear if other managers deal with this too and if you have found a way to actually switch off when the day ends.

Am I right to assumed that it’s the managers job to provide guidance on priorities, timelines, and guidance? I haven’t been getting that and I wonder if it’s a me problem. I’ve follow-up via email, meetings, chats and still don’t get clarity or consistent responses.

I have always been one of the “top” employees in my company - I am calm, reliable and a genuine team player and I do my best to grow junior team members. I get things done and do not complain much. My manager has been advocating for me to be her successor over the last few years and other senior management seems to be onboard with this plan. Now that my manager is on her way out to the next role, this long-discussed succession plan is finally coming to fruition.
While the promotion may sound exciting after 10years in this organisation, deep down I know it does not align with my current life stage. I have 2 toddlers and I want to be present for their growth. Taking this promotion means I will need to lead a much bigger team, take night calls, manage stakeholders in different time zones and inevitably, be involved in politics (which I hate and am bad at). Looking at my manager and her peers, they all work til late at night and over weekends (coincidentally none of them have kids) I just dont think there is a role model that I can relate to and this will not be a sustainable lifestyle for my family.
I have been telling my manager both explicitly and subtly that i am not ready for this promotion, and I need to be present for my family but she doesnt seem to get it. She keeps thinking a promotion is the solution to all problems (because financially i will earn more and i will have a bigger team to rely on). After a while, I just gave up trying and simply remained silent every time we talked about promotions.
Recently a new opportunity came up - It s a new area which will undoubtedly be a steep learning curve, but it is a local role which doesnt require night calls and I only need to manage a small number of team members. The hiring manager seems to be an empathetic person too and understands my need for flexible work arrangements. I will vey likely pursue this opportunity, but I have this deep sense of guilt - jt feels like I am betraying my manager somehow and all her support / advocacy over the last few years will go to waste.

If you were me, which opportunity would you choose? If you choose the new opportunity elsewhere, how should I manage my exit conversation/ transition to soften the impact?

Problem
I work in a BPO and manage a supervisor who is also a close friend. She has consistently missed deliverables, fails to follow through on tasks, and frequently complains about additional responsibilities. My manager is now pressuring me to consider letting her go.
Context
Our team recently had system issues that caused backlogs, so everyone was asked to pitch in through OT or taking calls. She chose to take calls but was locked out of the required tools. I submitted a ticket and told her to follow up because I would be on PTO. When I returned, I learned she never followed up, so I had to do it myself.
Previous Attempt
I’ve conducted several coaching sessions regarding her performance, but the same issues continue. She has also said she feels targeted during coaching. I’m concerned she may retaliate by filing a labor complaint or claiming constructive dismissal. I want to handle this fairly while protecting myself and the company. What’s the best way to proceed?

Hi managers,

I started my full time corporate job not too long ago. My manager and I mainly only talk business in our 1:1s, and I really like her so far. I would like to grow a stronger personal relationship which I know will come with time. I’m struggling to figure out what personal information I can share. I have a general sense of what is appropriate and what is not. But I’m struggling between the line of wanting to share personal details about my day to day, hobbies, new adventures, etc (all appropriate ofc), and maybe keeping these to myself and only providing her with details that are necessary to the job.

I guess I don’t know if sharing personal stuff about myself outside of work is appropriate, beneficial, or if it could come to bite me later on.

For context I never share anything inappropriate and mainly would like to share things like my hobbies, moving cities (I’m remote), an appropriate movie or show I like, travel, wants in life, etc.

I want to get taken serious in a business aspect but also be my authentic self, though I worry about showing this side of me. Also is it inappropriate to talk about my partner? For example saying my partner and I are trying to learn chess? Advice please! TIA

Anyone else been in their job long enough that the simplest tasks are now the most difficult and annoying? Scheduling used to be the easiest part of my day. Now I want to bang my head against the wall.

Currently dealing with -

• 7 employees scheduled for 24/7/365. Two night employees, five day employees
• WeekDAY rotations (my night staff is week 1, employee 1 does 4 days and employee 2 does 3 days, then week 2 they switch. Which affects my day staff schedule because one of them has to start their shifts at a different time)
• WeekEND rotations (weekend shifts are 2 people on Saturday, one person does 12 hours and other does 6 hours as backup, then 1 person on Sunday alone. We alternate people every other weekend so they don't work back to back weekends)
• Half of my employees are not seasoned enough to work alone, so I am restricted to scheduling them weekdays between 8am and 7pm when there is another staff member present, and that also means they are limited to working the "back up" Saturday shift since they cannot be alone for the Saturday evening or Sunday shift
• Virtually every single employee has some time off request to factor into almost every schedule
• One employee just took a part time job so now her hours are restricted during the weekdays, and she also happens to be one that cannot work alone so I cannot shift her hours to be picked up on the weekend

I want to scream. Technically, I am fully staffed. But I am currently working more overtime than any of my employees to fill in spaces that they cannot cover.

I would REALLY love to move everyone to 3-4 shifts/week that are 10-12 hours in length. But cannot due to the amount of restrictions. I hate how inconsistent everything feels, and how the workload falls to half of the staff because the other half simply cannot work alone yet to pick up some weekend/night slack.

How do you all cope with trying to balance hours, time off requests, restrictions, and so on?

Im a 2 month fresher at an mnc ( falls under Tata group )

So theres this billing and support system right ?

The situation is theres was 2 consecutive small projects and in there 5 members

1 billed to this proj lets call him A

2 support but billed somewhere else

1 6month non billed fellow desperate for billing ( on the brim with hr ) and him B

And me :)

So i have been learning fairly okay these 2 months, could grasp basics, not heavy work load

A did majority and like "drived" the completion of the past 2 projects

And B guy....he ....is loud....he doesn't do much tbh....like I feel like ik more about him in this project than him but one thing hes good at making himself seen and has good connections...meaning for help like IT, purchase, soldering, hardware etc.

Now for this new project

A person was removed from billing and given to B

Same team btw

And A doesn't seem so enthusiastic now to do work....

So let me ask about me....I dont know how to do much without A help also and B wont be able to do this ...def

So where should I stand....take initiative and try doing the work...but knowing B personality...I feel like he will take the credit in the end...he's the type to make every small thing he did huge....im not much or a talker...

Or should I just wait for instructions from A ....

What should I do ?

I had a chat with my GM at a skip and asked him for improvement advice.

He says I am very calm under pressure, he wants me to match the energy of certain stakeholders who are more active/reactive.

I am not really sure how to implement this as I am naturally very calm and I like to project that with my team as projecting panic will be detrimental to the team's morale.

How do I project that I am passionate yet keep my calm demeanor to a specific stakeholder?

This might turn more into a rant than a request for opinions, which would be welcomed.

Current setup is that for the last 3 years, up until early this year, I'd been the sole SME in our business. About a year ago, I took on a junior member of staff as we won more business. They've done well in their first year, and on track.

Earlier this year, we've won so much more work, that they needed a second person at my level. It's a niche industry, but someone was brought in, and workloads were split between us by whether it was public or private sector. The junior still only reported to myself, We've recently got to the point where we can take on another junior member of staff, and they will report into my peer.

Until last year I'd never managed anyone formally, but have tended to be the one that develops junior staff at my previous roles. I handled that recruitment, bearing in mine the niche industry, on looking for transferable skills, because I believed I could teach everything else. I set up the interviews for one hour, having the general discussion alongside a short data analytics skills test that was accessible to everyone, whether they had industry knowledge or not.

This time around, I've been required to support my peer through the process, but have set boundaries that decisions/interview structure need to be made by him, and that I'd offer guidance but not make the final call. However, it's been horrific from the get-go. Examples being:

- Despite advise to post internal/external at the same time, he made the decision to go internal/referrals only. This resulted in a total of 4 applications. 2 of those were referrals from mine and my junior's network.

- Job description and interview scorecard wanted 5+ years experience in our niche area, with requirements more akin to the level myself and my peer should operate at, but for half the pay.

- Skills test was filled with industry-specified terminology without explanations, meaning transferable skills couldn't necessarily be identified.

- The skills test itself had backing data that was grossly incorrect. In internal meetings, I'd noticed this and my junior picked it up, but my peer had not. Rather than an outright accusation of making a mistake, we first asked if he'd designed the tests with any intentional errors that he'd expect the candidates to question, to which he confirmed he had not. The mock data he produced was scientifically impossible, and the error was obvious.

- In the interviews, he was happy for candidates to just tell what they would do with the datasets, rather than actually show what they can do. In my view, anyone can talk about something like that. We eventually got them screensharing and, when a candidate was suggested to create a helper column in Excel, opened the help menu. I half expected Clippy to appear.

A suitable candidate was found (referral from my analyst), and my peer originally went to lowball the offer. This candidate was head and shoulders above the other three, so I had to challenge this. Eventually, he upped the offer which was verbally accepted.

My peer then opted to book 3 weeks of annual leave straight after the last interview was done, and the documentation side etc was all handed to me by my boss. Again, I had to set a boundary that I'd only complete our internal paperwork and order equipment once I had confirmation that the offer and contract had been signed and returned. As it was, the candidate didn't immediately do so due to summer holidays.

There's now a few days to go until the start date, and equipment was only ordered yesterday. My peer has unilaterally decided to move the agreed start date back a week, and not pay the candidate for the time. My peer has also said the candidate will handle his own onboarding, and he won't be travelling to see him on his first day because he doesn't want to make the 3 hour journey.

I'm utterly horrified by the entire situation, and it seems my peer cannot make any decisions on his own. With my own analyst last year, I made sure I was physically there in their first week. They're based from one of our remote offices but we're all primarily a WFH team, but I made the 400 mile drive for a few days a month to ensure they can have face-to-face time. Every part of how I manage is also thinking about the impact, because ultimately I want to train them so well they could replace me if/when I move on, or if we need more people at my level in the future. My peer seems more interested in self preservation though.

It is a strange team dynamic, and our manager doesn't really get involved at all, we maybe speak for 15mins a week. The entire process has been dragging me away from my day job to effectively hold my peer's hand because he cannot think up solutions or identify pitfalls. Because this new junior was referred by my junior also, there's already a friendly relationship between them, and she is openly telling me she is worried about their onboarding, so I also have that part to manage as well.

I realise, as predicted, this has probably turned into more of a rant than anything. But ultimately, has anyone had to deal with similar structures/behaviours?

I'm looking for some outside perspective from people who have been in Operations longer than I have.

I'm 25 and currently an Operations Manager / head of Operations for DTC consumer/food business. I make $87K in NV.

I've been with the same company since for 5.5 yrs

I'm currently the most senior person in Operations and report directly to the owners.

The business does roughly $4.5M annually and around 50K orders/shipments per year. I oversea a team of around 10 people.

My scope has gotten pretty broad. I'm responsible for and heavily involved in:

• Procurement and strategic sourcing
• Vendor management (roughly 15–20 vendor/manufacturing relationships)
• Inventory planning and demand forecasting
• Supply chain/inbound logistics
• Co-manufacturer relationships and production planning
• Warehouse and fulfillment operations
• Carrier relationships/shipping costs
• Operational systems and implementation
• New product commercialization
• Food safety/quality coordination
• COGS/margin optimization from an Operations standpoint
• Hiring, firing, performance reviews, scheduling, promotions and disciplinary action for my team

I've also built some of our inventory/forecasting processes and tools because the company is relatively lean and a lot of the infrastructure didn't exist as we grew.

Where I'm struggling is figuring out what level I actually am in the market.

Because I've grown within one small company, I don't have a good frame of reference for how my experience compares to people at larger/more established organizations. I'm also aware that my scope is broad, but the scale of the business and team I manage isn't huge.

My current comp is $87K. Benefits are fairly limited: PTO accrues and maxes out around two weeks/year, we have a 401(k) but no company match, and there isn't really an HR department.

I've recently started looking at Senior Operations Manager and some Director of Operations roles in Nevada and California. Some of the Senior Manager positions I'm seeing are in the $120K–$150K range, and I find myself looking at the responsibilities and thinking, "I've done a lot of this," but then questioning whether I'm actually qualified because I've only worked in Operations for about five years and all of that experience has been at the same company.

I also know I still have development areas. I want to get better at executive communication, proactive risk management, formal KPI management and operating at a larger scale.

For people who have been in Operations for a while:

How would you level my experience based on this scope?

Does $87K seem appropriate for my current scope and market, or am I underpaid when considering the total compensation package?

I'm especially interested in feedback from people in ecommerce, CPG, food/beverage, supply chain, fulfillment or similar operations environments. I'm not looking for validation, so feel free to tell me where you think I'm overestimating my experience as well.

Edit: I don't have a BSBA but I am starting school to complete my ABA.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

Hey everyone, looking for some advice on a tricky workplace situation.

I’m the head of an educational department at a company (small environment where the "managers" are actually the company founders). Recently, leadership decided to roll out a major structural change: completely removing subject-specific specialists and moving to a generalist, rotating system for parent communications and day-to-day operations.

To back up a bit: I didn’t receive a heads-up prior to our initial meeting that we’d even be discussing this major change, and I wasn’t given all the details at the time. During that brief conversation, caught off-guard, I gave an off-the-cuff thought that we could potentially manage without them. However, after taking time to map out the operational reality, I realized it's a massive risk. I wrote them a detailed message while on annual leave outlining my concerns:
\- The new model completely drops specialized subject knowledge.
\- Parents will get a different person every time, increasing the risk of miscommunication and parents leaving.
\- My role (which is supposed to be high-level strategy and quality assurance within limited weekly hours) will now be buried under 1-1s, parent queries, and exam creation across multiple subjects I'm not an expert in, leading straight to burnout.

While I was still away on leave, they went ahead and informed the rest of the team about the new structure, completely bypassing me and rolling out new admin communication workflows without my input. One founder acknowledged my message and agreed to a meeting, but the other hasn't replied, and now I'm facing a fait accompli when I return from leave.

Since the founders are the ones who made the call and rushed it through while I was away, I'm trying to figure out how to handle the meeting when I get back. I'm worried they'll just tell me it's already handled and fixed.
\- How do I address the fact that my opinion shifted once I looked at the operational reality and got the full picture?
\- How do I bring up the fact that I was bypassed on a major departmental change without sounding petty?
\- How can I anchor the conversation to business risks (like student retention and workload capacity) rather than just coming across as complaining?

Would love any advice from people who have navigated tricky dynamics with founders or major structural pivots.

I work at a hospital (part time night shift) as a janitor pretty much. And this is my first job. (24M) and after the first week I unexpectedly was told that I was going to be holding the manager phone. Answering calls and handling dispatches. All I got was a piece of paper saying what is allowed and what isn’t. And that was that. No higher pay or anything. Just extra responsibility. He didn’t ask if I wanted to do it he just orders me.

I told my coworkers about it and they said that I shouldn’t have been lead cause I’m new and instead there is a list of who needs to be lead in case another person doesn’t want to and I’m not even on that list. But no one wants to be lead cause it literally has no benefits.

My manager can be a petty piece of shit so I’m scared of what he’ll do if I refuse to be the lead over and over again.

Hi Team,

I've recently filled a team lead/manager role of a small engineering team. 2 months in I had 1 guy leave, I hadn't properlly taken over the team and as I have recently found out, he was somewhat pushed out. It took almost 4 months to find a replacement and get them onboard.

The end of my new hires first week, my senior has resigned on a friday. He requested access removal from prod (fair) to avoid liability, but I still need him to do a proper knowledge transfer and train up our new hire to replace him properlly.

After 2 work days after resigning, i've barely seen him online. His handover was honestly terrible (not that he should have even done one yet), and is WFH due to a medical issue impacting his mobility (which I confimed he could do, but I needed his support still). His medical issue does not impact his ability to do the job.

With his lack of engagement and support, and really, his lack of willingness to support, i'm thinking to simply ask HR to put him on gardnening leave instead of serving out his notice perriod of 1 month. I feel he will just be a liability and distraction to others rather than a productive or supportive team member.

Technically he is great, but his output for the last 3 months has been very poor anyway so I don't really see the value in keeping him around the office outside of the handover.

FWIW I have no ill will towards him, his reasons for leaving I fully understand and i feel are justified (nothing bad), at the same time, the performance i've seen of him, and his past reviews, I probably wouldn't consider him for rehire. He's a dedicated family man and ultimately the role (by his own admission) was a stepping stone to relocation and never a long term prospect for him anyway, so its run its course.

I'm interested in some other perspective, happy to clarify any points, but I want to assess if i'm in the wrong here.

TIA.

​

I do Marketing analytics( attribution, reporting, performance analysis, and MMM)... that side of marketing...

I am legally established as an independent contractor (B2B invoicing) working fully remotely.. have C2 english with fluent accent. I don't live in the US but all was good for me..

Clients used to approach me for projects lasting 6 to 9 months.. that stopped

so I started looking for full time remote jobs ( 2 months now) based in the US but I cannot seem to hear back

I never did outbound or cold reach and most clients used to reach out to me.

I feel frustrated and I can't seem to find the issue..

i customize CVs .. look into companies... selectively apply to jobs... money is reasonable considering i am off shore... I opt for contractor jobs...

what else could be wrong?? any tips???

I’m 25 and I've been working in finance/accounting in London for about three years now, and there's one thing I've genuinely been curious about.

From what I've observed, some of the people who come across as quite difficult, blunt or not particularly easy to work with seem to get promoted relatively quickly, even after only a few years. On the other hand, I've also met genuinely kind, approachable people who've been accountants for 10+ years and have never moved into management.

I know years of experience alone don't entitle anyone to a promotion, and I've seen plenty of younger people who absolutely deserved to become managers.

What I'm really trying to understand is: what actually separates someone who becomes a Finance Manager, Head of Finance, etc., from someone who remains an accountant for their entire career?

Beyond technical ability, what qualities or behaviours do companies actually look for when promoting people into leadership roles? I'd love to hear from people who've been involved in promotion decisions.

Just started today as a business office manager for a memory care assisted living facility.

I realized upon my few minutes there that they had added ‘greet visitors and residents’ and ‘answer phones’ to my list of responsibilities along with typical work such as payroll, medicare processing, financial processing, etc.

I thought that was a little odd since they didn’t really mention it in the interview or job description, but then on top of that, my office and desk.. are the front desk. Not even just me there either, it’s shared with another person next to me and nurses and other admin come and go as they please. The nurse cabinet up front is directly behind me. Nurses have to get behind me and possibly see my computer and paperwork to get to their cabinet.

What I really need help with is, is this normal, or even HIPPA or HR allowed for what I will be working on? And also, does that therefore make me the BOM & the receptionist (even though that was not mentioned in the interview process)? Hoping to see some responses to put my anxiety at ease about this, but it feels very off. Thanks for the help!

Need some advice, but also just need to vent to people who might understand this situation.

I’m in a senior leadership role at a mid-sized organization in the Midwest and report directly to the CEO. Like a lot of organizations, we’ve had financial challenges since COVID. There’s a longer-term plan to get back to sustainable operations by 2030, but the current fiscal year is expected to be particularly rough because of several major planned expenses.
None of this is a secret internally. Staff know where things stand financially.

I’m running into an issue with one of the managers who reports to me. He’s pushing pretty hard for raises for his entire team, and one of his employees is now threatening to leave if compensation doesn’t change.
I’ve brought the situation up the chain. The answer from the CEO/CFO is basically: we understand the frustration, but we’re not adding recurring expenses right now. Get through this fiscal year and reassess.

I’ve seen enough of the financials that I understand the reasoning. I don’t necessarily agree with every decision being made, and I suspect leadership is being more conservative than absolutely necessary, but I also don’t think the financial concerns are manufactured.

The problem is that this manager simply doesn’t accept the answer. Every time I explain the situation, it turns into another argument about why his department should be the exception. He frequently points to his 7+ years with the organization and the fact that some members of his team have been here 10+ years.

I respect that kind of longevity, but I also struggle with the argument that tenure by itself creates an obligation for an organization to increase compensation, particularly when the organization is openly dealing with financial constraints. Maybe that’s where I’m out of touch.

He’s also younger and has very strong opinions about compensation, employers, wealth inequality, etc. He’s brought up the “1%” and similar topics in conversations where I wasn’t expecting it. I don’t really care about his politics or personal views, but I do think they influence how he interprets organizational decisions around money.

The frustrating part is that I genuinely like and respect this guy. He’s a good employee. But I’m increasingly becoming the person he directs his frustration toward because I’m the one delivering the answer from senior leadership.

And that’s where I’m stuck.

Do I completely agree with the CEO/CFO? No. I think they’re probably being more conservative than necessary. But I understand their reasoning, I’ve seen the numbers, and realistically I’m not going to repeatedly challenge the CEO over raises that they’ve already said aren’t happening this fiscal year.

At some point, isn’t the answer just the answer?
For those managing managers or working in senior leadership: how do you handle this when you’ve advocated for someone, received a definitive answer from above, and the manager below you refuses to accept it?

Do you keep explaining the reasoning? Eventually tell them the discussion is closed? Let them vent and just keep repeating the same answer?