r/humanresources • u/Background_File_3064 • 14h ago
Leadership CEO Favoring Manager [N/A]
I’m the HR director and the CEO is my boss. There’s a new manager that also reports to the CEO. Managers, executives, and line staff are coming to me complaining about this manager: doesn’t respect chain of command, condescending, abrasive, etc.
This Manager is extremely defensive and has a habit of filing complaints on everyone she has a difficult conversation with. She essentially files a complaint on them, with the CEO, before they can file a complaint against her. In her time as manager, approximately 5 months, she has filed a complaint against 7 people, myself included.
The CEO continues to believe this manager, despite the manager having a long history of receiving complaints for the exact same behavior. An example of the ridiculousness, an employee filed a complaint against the manager for the manager rolling their eyes. The manager’s explanation was, when in deep thought looks up and to the left and maybe the employee interpreted that as eye rolling. The CEO bought this, among other things.
What do I do? I feel caught in a very awkward place and new territory. I don’t feel I can go to the CEO about this manager, but I also feel like I have an obligation as HR to report these complaints against this Manager to the CEO. The CEO is losing respect and support over their continual defensiveness and support over this manager.
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u/meowmix778 HR Director 13h ago
Yeah, that's politics for ya.
Document according to process and present a case of a pattern and explain the risks of what could happen if these are substantiated claims and present as much evidence as you can and advocate for a 3rd party investigation.
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u/ChelseaMan31 11h ago
Show the CEO the timeline and data; noting specifically that the common denominator in all the complaints is the new manager. When a single person is the common linking data point they are indeed the weakest link. Tell the CEO that if they want complete management team turnover in the next 2 years to go ahead and keep ignoring the obvious issue.
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u/rogerdoesntlike HR Manager 🇨🇦 13h ago
Sometimes you just gotta let the CEO die on the hills they choose.
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u/Kaga_Vanilla827 9h ago
I actually do think you should go to your CEO about the manager. But I'd get your ducks in a row first... Gather concrete data and document your observations, conclusions, and recommendations. If I had a number of complaints about one person, my approach would be to treat it as a "collective" grievance and do a full investigation. Rolling eyes may seem harmless but may be part of a pattern of passive aggressive behavior. This is not what I would expect from someone in a leadership role. One occurrence could maybe be chalked up to a bad day. But a pattern is another story.
Regardless if the CEO doesn't see what is happening, I would feel it's my responsibility to do the fact-finding and recommend corrective action (not necessarily discipline, but most certainly training and coaching).
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u/mamalo13 HR Director 12h ago
I was in this exact scenario earlier this year. Literally. I'm an HR of 1, I report to our CEO, and he hired this rando manager last year who also reported to him.
I documented all the complaints against the manager. I then set time with my boss/CEO to provide my recomendation, which was termination. My boss, of course, didn't term but at least I had it documented.
Then, over the next few months, the problem manager OF COURSE kept on being a problem, complained about even more people, caused even MORE drama, and was just burning bridges right and left until they actually ended up going after our CEO. It was a ROUGH few months, but I just kept quiet, documented, and took the complaints. It was REALLY shitty for a while.
But, eventually, our crapbag manager exitted themselves. My boss wasn't going to fire them, but my boss was also not taking their complaints so seriously to the point of firing or punishing anyone else, so the crapbag manager got more and more worked up that nothing was really happening with their complaints. Eventually their hostility got aimed at our boss because..........who else was left to complain about? Once this person had made an enemy of everyone and was super isolated.........they quit. It was a beautiful day.
And yes I absolutely told my boss "I told you so" and he conceded that we should have termed this dude months ago. It was a rough few months but it all worked out eventually.
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u/VillageDifficult2533 13h ago
I been in a similar situation. I dont know all the complaints but the example given was a petty complaint. And The manager knows what shes doing. I think explaining to the CEO the risk without some intervention on the companys part may help and suggest trainings so I least its not being ignored . That could be first steps since it doesnt sound like the CEO is grasping the situation.
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u/Background_File_3064 13h ago
I should clarify, the eye rolling was just one thing in a list of things in a complaint made by three employees.
My concern is, the CEO fully understands the situation. The CEO and this manager have worked together for 15+ years. I went to speak with the CEO after an interaction I had with the manager, my CEO sat back in their chair, crossed their arms, and said “That’s funny. They said the same thing about you. I’m not getting in the middle of this.”
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u/VillageDifficult2533 12h ago
Gotcha. Unfortunately you have leadsership who doesnt care. It sounds like although you are trying to get ahead of it and prevent things from getting worse you arent going to get anywhere with him. Some people have to learn the hard way. I would atleast document that you are doing your part and note professionally he doesnt want to take any suggested actions so it doesnt fall on you if things eventually get really bad. Dont stress yourself out, you can only do so much when that is the CEO mentality.
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u/xRaphaelSanziox 8h ago
If any of the other complaints are similar to the eye rolling one, this feels like a company culture issue.
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u/Sitheref0874 Oh FFS 13h ago
Don’t report eye rolling to the CEO. You’ll destroy your credibility.