Hi guys,
In a tricky situation here. I'm an End User Services Director in a company of over 6000 people. I have a Helpdesk Manager reporting directly to me, who has 4 Helpdesk Team Leads with a combined 30 engineers reporting to them. I report into the VP of End User Services who reports directly to the CIO, this VP has only been with us since mid-November but it's been a long two months. I do not feel the hire was correct at all and will expand upon this later. The background behind the VP role is that it was filled by a contractor for 9 months, who didn't really do anything except overcommit (despite my disagreements and experience in my current role – been here 2 years) and under deliver. The items that were over-committed on were ones that I had publicly stated on record within the leadership team (myself, Helpdesk Manager, Helpdesk Team Leads + Contractor VP) would not succeed nor did they make business sense, and despite my protests, they went ahead and failed, though neither I or my direct and indirect reports were held accountable, I made sure of it.
My team and I delivered on the key items that I was tasked with (the contractor was tasked with them but was heavily focused on engaging with RFP's and RFI's for an external, managed service desk and didn't really get involved in the day-to-day or the stuff he was supposed to look at, he just dedicated all his time to the potential MSP and left everything else to me), an Identity Management tool roll-out (can't name it, but it made headlines recently due to source codes being stolen), an enterprise password management suite (moving away from spreadsheets), Autopilot, Intune for MDM and Laptop enrollment/asset management. I have also gotten the business from fileshares to Sharepoint Online and made massive leaps modernizing the end user space. I believe it's crucial to mention this as these were all initiatives associated with my name and those who assisted, rather than the contractor VP.
The contractor VP left, the vacant role was not advertised internally nor was it made aware to me, despite me asking numerous times what was the situation, to clarify, I do not care about that aspect, I'm over that bridge, and the role was filled by a guy we're going to call Steve. Steve has been a nightmare since day one, Steve fights us on purchase orders left right and centre despite booting me out of meetings regarding departmental budgets, looking for “valid” reasons for 10 laptops for new hires for example (despite our asset management being up to date and accurate, we were out of stock for said region, the delay in restock was that he was sitting on the PO's), questioning every expense for travel yet constantly travelling himself to “visit” the offices (we're based all over the world).
The reason I am typing this is because I feel I have reached the end of my tether with Steve. I have been chasing salary increases for my direct and indirect reports since he joined, I have provided Steve with performance metrics, feedback, salary research on their current roles and market comparisons. I am fighting tooth and nail for my team for the last two months trying to get anything in writing from him to confirm he's even speaking to HR in relation to it. Every conversation is a phone conversation, despite me sending numerous e-mails on the matter, he's clever and avoids giving written commitment. I have spoken to my local HR rep and they have agreed with me (in writing strangely enough) that Steve needs to at least acknowledge in writing my requests, that it's his duty as a manager, and this will be escalated to the HR Business Partner for our region (I'm based in Europe).
Can someone in here please advise me on what I can do further to help my team? They have to see the company hire in every department excluding our own, they were told initially before Steve joined that there would not be pay rises, yet the company hired a corporate Barista to serve at the head office – which I think is just beyond ridiculous but whatever – I am trying my best to show them my appreciation and gratitude for how hard they work and how they go above and beyond in their roles (there are some average workers yes, but they are on the path to improvement), I want them to get this pay rise and I feel like I am failing them by not rewarding them for their efforts. Can someone maybe give me some pointers on what I could do better/how I should approach this if Steve doesn't seem to be making the push with HR for the proposed salary reviews?
Apologies for the long read, but I'm tired, fed up and disappointed in this behavior, I want what's best for my team and if it comes to it, I will be encouraging them to interview elsewhere whilst supporting them with time off or whatever they need to find somewhere that will pay them the salary they deserve.
Thank you.