What to do about (new) manager simply ignoring me?

Question

I work part time for an agency. My manager recently got replaced. Understandably she does things a differently, and may even be learning the position herself. Sometimes when I ask questions she simply ignores me. She assigns shifts without the official system. It's a bit hard to explain to someone not familiar, but I think the payroll system automatically checks the shifts from the official system to determine who gets paid how much. So I'm worried I'm not going to get paid when my shift doesn't appear in the official system (though there are different types of shifts so maybe that has an affect).

As one example I asked my manager about this and she ignores all my messages. She does this on other select topics too. How should I respond? Her manager isn't available so I have contacted the manager on top of them. I asked him some questions and the first one I said the new manager simply ignores the questions. Should I do this each question I ask him? I believe he's hoping that my manager's direct manager will be free soon to correctly resolve the issue but what should I do in the mean time?

Should I be blunt with my new manager and say

Why don't you reply to my messages? I'm not sure how to take it.

She replies to some of my messages and gives me instructions through the same communication channels, so I'm sure she's getting them. Once I was speaking with her on the phone and tried to bring up a subject and she said schedule a time to speak about it. When I tried to schedule a time she didn't reply.

Answer 1

Based on your numerous attempts to contact your manager, and the fact that you went over your manager's head in an attempt to resolve the communication gap and nothing changed I don't think there is much else you can do.

What you can do is keep doing your job well, show up on time, and don't give your new boss any ammunition to take action against you. Also, as pointed on in the comments on the question document, document, document.

Frankly in your situation, I would start looking for work elsewhere immediately.

Answer 2

You have it right: this manager is learning her job herself.

As frustrating as it may be for you, you should try to help her out. Give her the benefit of the doubt.

Keep a log of open questions you have for her. Keep it in a text file or some such thing. Keep it pared down to the minimum; remove questions that get stale, and don't duplicate questions.

Avoid accusations. Instead of saying, "On May 18, you reassigned me to second shift but you failed to update the payroll system," say this: "May 18, I worked second shift but payroll says I worked first shift."

Then, once a week, or whenever you have another question, append the list to your email. Put something polite at the top of it like "Reminder: issues I need answers for."

This gives her a chance to get it together, as far as you're concerned. Will she get it together? Maybe, maybe not, but that's out of your hands. You don't have to rescue the company from her.

Her managers almost certainly know about the situation (hey, you told them!) They aren't going to tell you what they're trying to do about it, so don't expect that.

If she or her managers don't straighten this out in a few weeks, it's definitely time to find other work if you can.

Answer 3

She replies to some of my messages and gives me instructions through the same communication channels, so I'm sure she's getting them.

So your communications are being received... good.

I have contacted the manager on top of them. I asked him some questions...

That's unfortunate, but there isn't anything you can do about it now.
You should not ask your manager's... boss's... boss any more questions.

She assigns shifts without the official system

Keep track of how much and when you work.
If you are being paid for the correct number of hours, let it go.

If they don't pay you correctly, and either your manager doesn't respond to say she'll fix it or it isn't fixed in a reasonable amount of time, then you can notify her boss's boss of that situation. Otherwise leave them all alone.