What reasons should I give to my leader when asking for a team change?

Question

I have got into a situation in my workplace and I would like to change my sub-team. The team I am working in is about 25 people working in 6 sub-teams on different problems and every sub-team has its own line manager.

I have got negative interaction with my direct line manager for quite some time now. He always tries to devalue my work and micromanage my daily works. In fact there is a long history of negative interaction between me and him and I had raised a question here in workplace in the past too (link).

I am considering to ask my team leader to change my sub-team because of two reasons:

1. I had actually enough of being humilated by my line manager. I am not able to work in my current position and ignore being humiliated regularly.
2. I am not learning anything new in my current position. I am aware this can be due to the negative interaction between me and my line manager but I am totally bored with my current work.

At the moment, I am not sure how to approach the team leader for this. He is aware of the negative interaction between me and the line manager, however, I am not sure how could I put forward my request in a professional way.

Answer 1

I am not sure how could I put forward my request in a professional way.

Focus on the experiences and positives you want to gain from moving, not the negatives of staying where you are.

So instead of saying "I'm not learning anything and my line manager's an arse, I want to move somewhere else", you say "The work that x team are doing is really interesting and an area I'm keen to learn more about, and x manager seems very knowledgeable in that area. Any chances of me being able to shift into that team in the short to medium term?"

This shows you've thought about your decision in greater depth, and have better motivations for wanting to switch rather than just "I hate my manager and I'm bored."