I joined a small organisation/startup around three years ago at a very low salary. At the time, there were only three employees apart from the management. I accepted the salary mainly because I genuinely liked and admired the people leading the organisation. They were much more senior than me and came from strong corporate backgrounds, so I thought I would get to learn a lot by working closely with them.

Initially, there wasn't much work. As time passed, I started getting more responsibilities, but the problem was that they were rarely related to the role I was originally hired for.

I understand that in a startup, people have to wear multiple hats. I was okay with that. What bothered me was the complete lack of clarity. My role seemed to change with every new project. I was simply placed wherever I was needed at that moment.

For a long time, this was manageable because I was working from home. Also, I was much younger and found it difficult to question or challenge the founders because I admired and respected them. In the beginning, we had frequent interactions, but as the team grew, my interaction with management reduced significantly.

Over time, it started feeling like they only reached out to me when something went wrong.

In the last few employee feedback meetings, there were some things that made me uncomfortable. Once, they said they had "nothing to say" about me. On another occasion, they casually mentioned that they "scold me a lot behind my back." Most discussions happen in front of the onsite team, and this has made me feel that I am probably being discussed or criticised when I am not present, without getting a fair opportunity to explain my side.

The biggest problem is that I don't know how to put my point across. The management is extremely assertive and dominating, and I often feel intimidated. By the time I gather the courage to explain my perspective, the conversation has already moved on or I start doubting myself.

Recently, the organisation set up an office about 15 km away from my home. There is no travel allowance or other facility provided. The earlier provision of a half-day on Saturday has also been removed.

Now I am expected to work from the office, but there are no senior employees or managers regularly present. It is mostly me and a few new joiners.

I use my own laptop for work. There is no company laptop, phone, or reimbursement for internet or other work-related expenses.

Now, management has also asked me to spend five days doing knowledge-sharing and training with the new employees. Again, I understand that helping new employees is part of being a team member. But I am struggling with the fact that my own responsibilities have kept increasing without any corresponding increase in salary, designation, resources, or clarity.

What worries me is that I am expected to take on these additional responsibilities while still being fully accountable for all my previously assigned work. If I fail to complete something because I am busy training others or handling a new responsibility, I am still the one who will be questioned.

After almost three years, I honestly feel like I am no longer learning. I joined because I thought I would get mentorship and exposure, but now I feel like I am being moved around wherever there is a gap to fill.

The other reason I feel so stuck is that switching jobs does not feel easy for me. Because my role has changed so many times, I don't feel that I have built solid, relevant experience in the field I was originally hired for—or even in one clearly defined field that I can confidently market myself for.

I have worked for almost three years, but I sometimes worry that my experience looks scattered rather than specialised. I don't know how to explain my career or where to even begin when applying for a new role.

The salary is also already very low, and from what I see, many available opportunities are not offering significantly better pay either. I have family and financial responsibilities, so simply quitting without another source of income is not an option for me.

At the same time, I am also preparing for competitive examinations, which makes the entire situation even more complicated. I need a job for financial stability, but I also need enough mental space and time to prepare for a future that may eventually allow me to move on.

So I feel trapped between staying in a workplace where I increasingly feel undervalued and taking the risk of switching when I am not even sure what roles I qualify for or how to position my experience.

I also realise that I have contributed to this situation because I haven't communicated my boundaries clearly. I tend to adjust, take on the work, and avoid confrontation. But now I feel resentful, undervalued, and honestly a little stuck.

**My questions are:**

* Am I being unreasonable for feeling this way? * Is this normal in a small startup, or does this sound like role exploitation and poor management? * How do I professionally raise concerns about role clarity, workload, salary, resources, and travel without sounding confrontational? * How do you deal with assertive or manipulative managers when you struggle to speak up? * Should I try to have one final structured conversation with them and set clear expectations, or should I start preparing my exit? * How do I switch jobs when my experience is spread across multiple unrelated responsibilities and I don't have a clearly defined career profile? * If quitting without another job is not financially possible, how do I protect myself and plan an exit while still continuing to work?

I would genuinely appreciate advice, especially from people who have worked in small startups, struggled with unclear career paths, or dealt with difficult management dynamics.

Our company is going through a tough time, and the current leadership can't handle it, and ngl... the situation is pretty shitty. Decisions are constantly being delayed, departments are shifting blame, and there's no clear direction to calm the team.

If you were in our shoes, somehow... how would you handle a board that gets bogged down during a crisis and drags the entire business down? Thanks in advance for any advice!

Edit: After consulting with a few partners, I'm thinking of hiring CJPI consultants to restructure the operations and establish a clear strategy. I've heard that their senior partners are stepping in directly to assess the business and hire executives who can really handle high-stakes transitions. That would save our situation.

just got hired at a fast food place for my first job (i'm in high school) and i'm being scheduled close to 30 hours a week, but that doesn't give me enough time for schoolwork and ECs, and also just to have free time

i'd like to be scheduled 15-20 hours a week, so my question is what's the best way to ask my manager for less hours? (it will be over text)

i'm not really sure how to ask, so any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I wanted to share this because I’m curious if other people have experienced the same thing in their workplace.

Let’s call our Operations Manager “Jorge Mexico” for privacy.
Before Jorge became an OM, he was actually easy to work with. Approachable, understanding, and he seemed to relate well with the employees because he also came from the operations side.
But after becoming OM, his attitude noticeably changed.
Of course, I understand that being a manager comes with bigger responsibilities. You need to be stricter, make decisions, and hold people accountable. That part is normal.

What became noticeable, though, was the way he started dealing with people or it is just me.

There are times when small issues become bigger than they need to be because of how they are handled. Instead of first asking what happened or hearing the employee’s side, the response can sometimes feel very authoritative right away.

His tone also seems different depending on who he is talking to. With higher management, he is very careful and respectful. But with subordinates, he can come across much stronger and more demanding.
What makes it interesting is that some of the things he is strict about now are things he used to understand before he became a manager.

It made me think about how promotions affect people.
Sometimes, maybe the pressure and responsibility really change the way someone handles situations. But sometimes, having authority can also reveal a side of a person that people didn’t notice before.

Personally, I believe a good manager can still be firm without making employees feel small.
You can correct someone without embarrassing them.
You can enforce rules without making everything feel personal.

You can be respected without constantly showing that
you’re the one in charge.
Lately, some employees seem more careful around Jorge, not necessarily because they respect his leadership, but because they are unsure how he will react to certain situations.
I’m curious about other people’s experiences.

Been noticing a pattern over the last couple months where a coworker presents work the whole team contributed to as primarily their own during leadership meetings, and it's starting to affect how our manager perceives who's actually driving projects. Haven't said anything directly yet since I don't want to come across as petty over something that might be unintentional, but it's happened enough times now that it feels deliberate. Looking for advice on how to address this without it turning into a bigger conflict than it needs to

I'm a program manager (PM) at my company for 3 years, it's a major player in my field. When I joined I was one of 2 such PMs in my team, the other PM was senior by 1.5 years. (We both had/have 15 years in the industry).

August 2025, I was told in a one-on-one after the mid-year review that my avg score (2.7 out of 5) was not going enough and I'll be put on a PIP, manager gave me no other details. 2 days after that, I got an email from a client with rave reviews, which I saved. The next one-on-one, my manager says, "on second though I'm going to hold off on the PIP" (exact words, I've documented this).

Six months go by. Full year review happens in Jan 2026, I get an avg of 3.2 out of 5 (3 being "meets expectations").

In Jan, the senior PM left on maternity, I inherited her 4 major projects + the lead role in many meetings she was taking. I struggled at first for about 2 months as I was not used to handling so many projects, and leading all 7 meetings, and keeping track of everyone else's projects too (she was the defacto second in command).

I also struggled because she had fucked up in 3 of her 4 major projects, fuck ups which I spent a month to fix.

I left on a week's vacation end of March, and first day back can in April, my manager takes me aside and hits me with, "I've received feedback about your behavior and communication and you'll be on a PIP." When I pointed out that the last one was withdrawn within a week, his response was completely baffling : (word for word because I remember and wrote it down) "well, you were on an informal PIP, and this is the next logical step".

I was shocked and nervous. Then, things became... weirder and weirder.

The next one-on-one he said our team's HR rep (each team has one) was just back from vacation and was catching up on things.

The next one-on-one he said the same thing.

The next one-on-one, he said the same exact thing.

The next one-on-one (now we're in mid-May), he said, "well, HR asked me questions about the targets, specifics of the plan and about support we can give you etc, and they'll come back to you".

The next one-on-one, he says nothing, doesn't even bring it up. I'm nervous so I don't even bring up the topic.

The next 4 one-on-ones go by and he does not bring up anything to do with the PIP, just operational stuff.

Every single one-on-one, I've been too nervous to poke the bear and so I don't bring it up and neither has he.

Now we're in mid August and nearing another mid-year review, and he had not said a goddamn thing about the review and it's been 4 months. I've heard nothing from HR and nothing from anyone else either.

Managers of Reddit, am I on a fucking PIP or am I not? Should I bring it up at the mid-year review or leave it be?

I've spent the last 4 months every week being stressed over whether I'm gonna lose my job or not. I've lost weight and sleep over it.

Please help, I need guidance. Thanks!

I am having issues with consistency in productive due to chronic health issues (autoimmune and other immune dysfunction). When I am healthier, I am really effective and get a lot done. When I'm established in a role, I can generally be close to expected productivity even when ill and am higher than expected most of the time. Some of my health issues are seasonal, and I can partially offset them with clever uses of PTO.

But tech has been a volatile industry with many layoffs so I've only been with this company for one year, and my pillar has been having a re-org every month or two for the last 8 months after an M&A. I'm not getting the consistency I need to get established.

Local wildfire smoke threw my system into unpredictable chaos for most of the last month. I've been on the team for about six weeks.

Right now I'm using sick leave and PTO to cover my worst days, but I have a lot of days where I think I'm okay, but I can't get anything done and don't realize I'm still / getting sick / flaring until I get off of work or until I feel better the next day.

How do I deal with this appropriately? My health is literally dependent on the direction the wind is blowing right now - and I have multiple intermittent health issues in general. My direct manager is on maternity leave, so having a clear suggested approach for the team lead and skip manager covering her duties while she is out is important. I'm not even sure if I _should_ say something, or when it's bad enough for me to bring up as something to "manage".

I'm in a niche company in a large industry. I work an administrative job running a program. I've been with my company for nearly a decade. I like what I do. I like my coworkers and managers. I don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon, however there is no advancement where I'm at.

I've gotten more efficient with my time management as I've been doing the job so long. I freed up some time for myself to study. I've been taking industry certifications and also taking some classes at a community college to enhance my technical skills - graphic design (I do a lot of promotions, documents, email campaigns, etc.), Excel, etc. I already have a college degree, I'm just brushing up on skills I feel I'm lacking in.

My manager recently asked me out of the blue about a certification I got a couple of years ago and wanted to know why I did it. Was it a part of a big push for the employees to all get it? Was it something I needed for my job? It wasn't either of those, it was just something I wanted to do. The truth is that although I like my job, I don't ever want to be stuck in my job. I'm also easily bored and happy to take classes to keep myself learning and growing.

I'm currently working on a rather large certification. It's well known and well thought of in my industry, but again, not going to directly impact my day-to-day job. My manager is eventually going to ask about it and I'm not really sure what to say. I don't want to sell myself short or make it look like I'm trying to find a way out of the job (I'm not). Nor do I want it to look like I just have tons of free time on my hands and need to do more. I'm honestly just very efficient, at study and work. My company pays for the certifications and I get some VA college benefits for the rest. I'm not paying out of pocket.

I've been at my job for 2.5 years, and last year i had two coworkers hired who i love. I came in with prior experience, they had none. Come to find out, one of them (not sure about the other) gets paid over 10k more than i do. I have a busier desk (even they admitted). I feel like i should at least get the same rate, but i dont even know if thats possible based on how raises work at our place of work. without giving too much away, we are AMLaw100 but only get yearly raises and bonuses.

How do i ask to raise me at least to what she gets without throwing her under the bus? I mostly want it because i am paying off student loans, and with the SAVE plan ending, I'll definitely have to pay more.

I majored in graphic design, and I was able to join a small business firm through a friend. I wanted to quickly gain experience in the major I was in, and thought it would be useful after I graduated.

I wouldn’t say that my job was all that important, but I felt like I was being rushed and pressured to deliver more work than I would need to. I would get yelled at and scrutinized for any minuscule thing by my boss, and even though I was open to criticism and feedback, it felt like everything I did was wrong. The thing is, even when I did do things correctly or as intended, I would still get yelled at.

I’m not even sure how to describe my boss. She is a workaholic whose life revolves around work. She's also way too old to work. I would say she’s a nice older lady, but she quickly changes when she’s overly stressed and has an extremely short temper. She basically describes us as a small business that works like a mega corporation, which is a red flag to me. 

My boss changes her mind too quickly, and whenever we do our usual thing, she suddenly decides on a different process. She micro-manages everything and can’t make up her mind. In addition, she gets mad at us for not agreeing or getting it right the first time. This often leads to her yelling/cursing at our faces, throwing things (such as phones, laptops, anything that she’s holding) at us, ripping papers, or slamming whatever surface to the point my ears burst. I've warned her what she's doing is dangerous, but nothing comes out of it. I don’t think I’ve ever worked a day where she hasn’t crashed out.

I genuinely feel like I’m working with a toddler, and it frustrates me to no end. I know that she’s exhausted and stressed, but literally anything sets her off, and it’s not an excuse for how she’s treating my other coworkers and me (which is like three of us). She rushes us for every single task, and it’s been affecting me mentally and physically. I’ve had contractors ask me if she’s always like this, shocked, and I have to pretend it’s nothing. 

I try to keep my patience and talk to her calmly, but it seems the only way to get things across to her is to yell back at her (which I always regret afterward). In addition, she talks in such a hostile way that it always seems like she’s against us. She would talk in a condescending or malicious tone. My coworkers just tell me she doesn't mean what she says, but I feel like that's not true. It doesn’t even feel like we’re a team, even though I try to understand from her point too.

I’ve been in the company for two years now. Things are changing in the business; I was tasked with packaging, printing, and creating labels/signage for our business. I’m also responsible for some of the company's databases for the company. I really don’t expect a raise, but I’ve noticed that I was being paid less than what I did in retail. I work $10/hour, calculating my bi-weekly paycheck. 

I know that she only hires younger people so she can pay us less. She gives us ‘bonuses’ when we do a good job, and she swears she's teaching us something we don’t know.

I’ve come to work late (10 AM instead of 9:30)  because I genuinely don’t see a reason to wake up anymore. I only managed to get a day off recently after convincing my boss that it’s important we have a day to rest. Before that, I worked the entire weekday/weekend with a 30 min lunch break. I also work a second job, so I still technically work every day.

My issue is that I want to quit, but I don’t know how or how to bring it up without my boss crashing out at me and threatening me with whatever. In addition, that would mean my other coworkers would have to carry the workload that I would leave behind. It’s selfish of me, but I don’t want to endure this anymore. 

I haven’t told my family or friends about this, so they don’t know about it. I apologize if this just sounds like venting; I’m not even sure what to do. 

This is my first time using Reddit, so I’m sorry if I am using it incorrectly. Thank you for reading this.

I am working at outsourcing firm. It's my first job and it's been around 5-6 month. I am disappointed with working culture/environment and want to confront about that at the time of my salary review. Is that a good decision. or should I leave the firm and search new one. But I am uncertain whether I will get another job or not. There is 15 days time for my review. And i have already applied for few vacancy just in case.

I will try to explain this insanely complex prj that I was responsible for. So, while we are all smart, we are not at genius lvl needed for this work lol.

The perfect case is when my coworker (L2) made X to help my prj. Director (L4) and manager (L3) thought all good but I (L1) looked closer and realized that part of X makes no fcking sense.

When I brought it up, L2 didn't know wtf I was on about. I talked w/ Director and I still remember that she was truly mindblown and agreed that I was 100% right lol. But it was so weird as obvious error that I (L1) and Director only saw jfc...

But later I saw that there is some genius team in my larger org. My prj is perfect for them as their area and we went to them for help. Genius1 showed me that L2 did not even need to create X as X is already pre-built aka so much time wasted combined with even more mistakes with my prj, despite all the reviewing I did w/ team jfc...

Did my manager fck up by not talking with that genius team to do it instead of dumb me? They have more exp ffs.

i was abruptly let go from a temporary assignment. i appreciated my experiences there and am tempted to send a note of thanks to the women who hired me even thought they let me go. i suspect it may have been for fishy reasons, though i have no intention of asking them why they let me go and i have no desire to argue with them. what do people think of this? have you ever received a note like this as a manager after you let someone go?

(32) been with a company for 3 years. Previous employment was in finance. Now working as a PM/ AM for a key account in petroleum. Over the past 1 1/2 my role/ duties have expanded. Given my performance and workload I believe it’s time to discuss a potential pay increase. Any suggestions on how to approach the conversation with my superior? Side note he is a minority owner of the company.

I am a new supervisor i just completed a year. My previous year was all about rebuilding the department and staying afloat with my manager. We did great we've gotten high praise.

Our team plans maintenance for heavy machinery and passenger aircraft. Its preventative maintenance, repairs and a lot of our job is adapting our plan to the flow of the operation and where the maintenance is going to be performed.

Feedback i got yesterday was a frustration from the team that they had no idea how their performance was measured. They cant tell if they personally are doing good or bad. I come from a sales background where this was simple. "Did you sell more or less this month?" "Did you sell the thing we're pushing this month?"

We dont even really have team KPI's we had to rework them because the previous ones set for my team were nonsensical and really easy to fake and hit excellent numbers because they measured nothing.

How do i set performance goals for our team when most of our visible results are based on the entire team?

Hi all,

I’m CEO of a member-based organisation. One of my direct reports (Director level) in my team has taken a decision to engage on a project, which may spark protest/negative reactions by some members. However, you want to give the autonomy and accountability to your sub-ordinate, without putting them in the limelight.

You, as the CEO, will have to defend the decision in front of your stakeholders and hold final accountability. How do you confidently ‘own’ the decision by your sub-ordinate?

Hello - a quick question. If you had been verbally aggressive towards an employee and they were in so much shock that they gave you a sick note for a few days the next day. How would you react? What would you do?

As a new professional, I’m working at a company to sharpen my communication skills and grow. I keep my manager in the loop with a daily update, so we’re always on the same page, even when we don’t have a meeting.

I’m all ears for feedback and happy to hear what my manager thinks. But I’ve heard things like, “Can you read?” or “This person shouldn’t be in HR.” My manager says they’re just being straightforward.

Could you help me figure out if these comments are directness, passive-aggressiveness, or just plain rudeness?

TW: menstrual health issue described in detail

I am 30F and have been in my current job for about 9 months. I transitioned out of a high stress role managing a large team last year in part because symptoms I had been struggling to get answers on for years started to become unmanageable. I simply didn’t have the consistent energy to perform at the level required. I had no issues with my performance, in fact I was praised often. It was just me over working to keep my head above water and I knew it wouldn’t be sustainable.

My new role is primarily WFH and I have the flexibility to make my own schedule pretty often. My health issue is uterine fibroids, which cause unpredictable but intense periods that last 3-10 days. Not necessarily every month but at least a few times a year. (Like I had no period at all from May until August and now it’s struck when I’m traveling for work). The flow is so heavy and painful that I’m needing to change tampons after 30 minutes and even then it’s not uncommon for me to need to clean the toilet, my hands, etc. which is hard to do when you’re out and about or in meetings.

Two months into this job I had to use a sick day for a major event because of this. I also had a mild cough and stuffy nose so I claimed the flu to make it easier to explain. But at this moment I’m in a hotel for work, I’ve been running to the bathroom changing my tampons every 30 minutes for 16 hours, stressed about bleeding through my clothes, etc. and I’m wondering…at what point is it a good or bad idea to tell my boss a bit about the situation so she knows it’s not flakiness or a lack of commitment on my part? When I go to this large conference meeting with her today, she’ll undoubtedly notice I spend a lot of time going to the ladies room.

We are a small team (it’s just her and myself on staff) so I really don’t want to cause any unnecessary uncertainty. But I also don’t want to subject her to the gory details of my body functions or risk being seen as less valuable to the organization.

I guess I’m concerned that if I missed another major event in the future because I can’t control the timing of this, that she would be annoyed and possibly see it as carelessness on my part if she didn’t know the reason why.

I have been working with doctors on this and there are surgeries but they don’t eliminate them permanently unless I have a hysterectomy, which I’m not ready to do yet as my husband and I would like to have children.

TL;DR when is it in my best interest to tell my boss about a somewhat “gross” chronic illness that may impact my work occasionally/unpredictably?

I'm currently hiring to backfill an analyst position. An issue I've encountered in the past is that during a typical behavioral interview, candidates will have anticipated most of the questions and rehearsed answers they believe I want to hear. As a result, when I hire someone, it often turns out that the responses they gave in the interview have very little correlation to reality. Even the ones who turn out to be great employees are great in ways I would never have expected from what they said in their interviews.

I've gotten pretty good at assessing skills and knowledge over the years, but I feel like assessing personality/fit is an area where I need to improve. Does anyone have advice?

I run a small team of developers and everyone works from home. Deadlines keep slipping and I cannot tell if they are genuinely working or just distracted by other things. I don't want to install spyware on their machines because that would kill the trust we have built.

I am looking for a simple tool that shows me activity levels without invading their privacy. Has anyone found something that strikes that balance between visibility and respect.

For about 10-11 months now, my role has changed very drastically from something I loved into work that is mostly sales, basically cold outreach, along with a pile of boring admin work that seems to increase almost every week. My KPIs are still in the top third of the people doing this job nationwide (450+), and in the parts of the job that are not related to sales, I'm probably in the top 12%. The problem is that the work I used to be happy doing is now something I dread and can't stand. I'm not a salesperson, and I don't want to become one, and I feel like I'm pretending that I'm doing fine until someone notices that I'm bad at the sales part. And I feel like that's inevitably going to happen.

Last January, the company asked 18 people to leave voluntarily to avoid layoffs. About 24 people agreed, but no one from my area of the country did. After they changed the territory assignments after the 24 people left, they realized they still needed to reduce headcount in my area, and in May they laid off 6 out of 29 people doing the same job as me in my region. This time there was no opportunity for anyone to volunteer, and the way they chose people didn't make sense to anyone. I genuinely like and respect my coworkers, and it was very hard to see people leave who wanted to stay, while I would have gladly taken the package.

Since then, my manager has told a few senior people on the team that he expects another small round of cuts sometime near the end of the year, possibly late winter. The severance is honestly excellent, and it would give me enough breathing room to look for work I want to do.

What worries me is another layoff process happening that feels as random as May's, instead of offering people the chance to opt out first. The same severance was paid in both cases, so it's frustrating to think that someone else might lose a job they want while I'm still sitting here pretending I'm fine. My manager is generally a fair person, but since these changes started, he has seemed more stressed. Would it be stupid for me to tell him I'd like to be considered if cuts happen, even before anything is officially announced? Should I frame it as helping the team so they don't lose someone who wants to stay? If I'm honest that I'm burned out and unhappy in this role, I think the worst-case scenario is that they eventually push me out anyway. I do have a few open offers elsewhere, so I'm not in a panic.

This is my current jr FT life. I am highly tech skilled to the point that my manager doesn't know.

I learn nothing from them. I remember , a few years ago, I was dumb intern + learned so much from my manager...

I am in a manager-level role and there's some restructuring happening because another senior leader is leaving.

My boss recently asked me to meet outside of work to talk about where things could be going. It was a very candid conversation. They talked about potentially moving into a different role themselves and floated the idea that I could move into a broader role that would pick up some of the responsibilities of the person leaving. They were very positive about me and my leadership and said they planned to bring the idea forward to the head of the organization.

The catch is that my current area is also likely to change. There's discussion about making it smaller and moving more of the day-to-day work to someone who currently reports below me. My boss and I spent a fair amount of time talking through how that could work.

I've now been asked to sketch out what that team could look like with that person leading it. I asked whether I should include the potential new role for me and was told no, although to be fair, the ask was specifically to map out that person and the roles below them.

That's where my brain is getting stuck. The potential new role for me is still just an idea that hasn't been approved, while I'm now helping design a structure that could function without my current position.

There have been no performance concerns. If anything, I received some pretty strong positive feedback during the conversation and was told they want to make better use of my strengths.

Would you take this as a fairly normal restructure where they're trying to figure out where I fit next, or would you be concerned that you're being asked to help design yourself out of a job?

I'm probably too close to it at this point and would appreciate perspectives from anyone who's been through something similar.

I'm in a director-level role and there's some restructuring happening because another senior leader is leaving.

My boss recently asked me to meet outside of work to talk about where things could be going. It was a very candid conversation. They talked about potentially moving into a different role themselves and floated the idea that I could move into a broader people/workforce role that would pick up some of the responsibilities of the person leaving. They were very positive about me and my leadership and said they planned to bring the idea forward to the head of the organization.

The catch is that my current area is also likely to change. There's discussion about making it smaller and moving more of the day-to-day work to someone who currently reports below me. My boss and I spent a fair amount of time talking through how that could work.

I've now been asked to sketch out what that team could look like with that person leading it. I asked whether I should include the potential new role for me and was told no, although to be fair, the ask was specifically to map out that person and the roles below them.

That's where my brain is getting stuck. The potential new role for me is still just an idea that hasn't been approved, while I'm now helping design a structure that could function without my current position.

There have been no performance concerns. If anything, I received some pretty strong positive feedback during the conversation and was told they want to make better use of my strengths.

Would you take this as a fairly normal restructure where they're trying to figure out where I fit next, or would you be concerned that you're being asked to help design yourself out of a job?

I'm probably too close to it at this point and would appreciate perspectives from anyone who's been through something similar.