How to tell my company that I am having issues with my boss?

Question

I am in a services company where my employer has the responsibility to arrange or facilitate other consulting positions; usually the immediate boss takes care of this as his primary responsibility of Account and People management while my responsibility is to take care of all technical challenges in my assignment. There was a situation in the last two months that my contract came to an end, due to bearish share prices at my client. My immediate boss was informed of this downscaling, and the client gave him enough notice.

My boss just did not take this serious and informed me 1-2 weeks before the actual end date, and he was saying that he tried to find other projects but since he could not find any he was informing me to be ready to get fired or come back to the base country of my company. I kind of trembled due to the fact that my family and kids are here and the change was really a big thing.

I went back to my client and said I can do other jobs whatever that is and tried to inform of my personal situation, ambitions etc. and got an extension for another month. I went back to my earlier managers and other contacts and finally found another assignment "myself" with no help from the current boss.

The current boss, as soon as he heard that I got this opportunity, forwarded this to his boss, CC'ng me and saying congratulations. He pretended to have helped all his time with this opportunity.

The new client agreed to take me in just because I am available asap; but my boss is not relieving me for the next opportunity, stating that his revenue will be at loss if he relieves me early. He is also asking me to work for extra few days, as I had taken 2 days off for the interview at the new client.

I am unable to escalate this. He is also threatening that he can add comments and rate me on the HR tool when he moves me to the next project, and assign my reporting to another manager so he can see all those. I know he has control over me there and can say anything which I can't know.

How to tell my company that I am having issues with my boss?

Answer 1

OK, you're reporting him- on what basis, what evidence? His behavior was less than helpful but so what?

Make an appointment with HR, tell your story and let's see what they tell you. If the only evidence you've got on him is that you think he is a nut and you don't like him, that won't get you very far. The best you can produce at the moment is the email where he claims falsely to have been of assistance to you. I have no idea what the penalty is in your organization for sending knowingly making a false claim.

You can also send an email to your boss's boss stating exactly what happened, just to give your boss's boss the true picture of what went on. You can add that since your boss claimed that he found you the new assignment, you're confident that he can produce the names of the people he talked to to get you the new assignment.

Nothing like destroying the guy's credibility on a pre-emptive basis since he made a threat to you. However, be prepared for retaliation.

You've got - what, one month? Grin it and bear it for a month. You need the money. And take notes every time he screws up.

Answer 2

Any attempt to antagonise or escalate is likely to fail and result in a non satisfactory outcome for you. Even if you escalate and your manager's boss disapproves this choice, he is unlikely to overrule a justified even if shortsighted decision and risk undermining his direct report. The only viable advice is to reinforce your relationship with the other project and bear your current assignment as professionally as possible.