From our team one of designers got promoted to senior designer. The issue here is I know everything what she is trying to do here but not too sure how to handle this.
The senior designer also works as a freelancer elsewhere where she gets paid more than the full time work so she is not too bothered here but only works here for consistent fixed salary. We do not have a lead designer but have a manager who manages us.
Our manager is extremely laid back who doesn’t even do any work tbh and doesn’t care what our team does since she is not technical so she agrees to everything our senior designer says or else she usually argues with the manager ensuring things should be going her way only and why with the help of chatgpt. Also, the funny thing is our company has a policy we cannot work else where with competitors outside work but where she works as a freelancer is our competitor and our manager is aware of this but said to her to remain quite.
Apart from the above the other issue here is, the senior designer is very political and works for her best interests which is her freelance work only and because of this she insisted to hire another designer (so from home she can work on her freelance work during office hours). In general she never used to like working on Jira tasks while we are hardly ever busy (still she insisted hiring a new designer) and she mentioned to me that you be bad at something so no one ever gives you those tasks as she literally took hours possibly deliberately on when on Jira. Next, she wants to add a new document system (our existing works fine) but this new system will have all the processes that she implements in her full-time work that she also uses in her freelance work as well so she can use the documentation for her freelance work as well (she told me this).
Next she wants to buy high-spec Mac for her freelance work but because it’s expensive she’s telling the manager that our Macs are very slow and we need new Macs and this again is for her freelance work also. She’s also became everyone’s fav by private messaging nonsense on Slacks and WhatsApp since she joined I.E. when she joined within a month she messaged me saying “why you still working here? They don’t appreciate you so you should leave you deserve better” because I was the only person in her way of becoming senior as she joined after me and somehow became senior before me. I completed 15+ projects since I joined and she only completed 3 projects yet still she became senior. However, in my last review my manager told me that she will make me senior and no one will be above me as I deserve it and how hard working I am but yet she became senior.
She spends days writing emails out and hardly time on Jira / projects because she hates working on Jira tasks but the manger doesn’t see this (she again told me this). Next she wants our team to work 4 day week now instead 5 so she can work on her freelance work by giving herself only Monday off and trying to convince our team we should do 4-day week before she takes it to the company’s deputy manager.
Since she’s became senior she has become team’s fav and they always agrees to what she says because they don’t know her motives while the team says she very hard working and deserves to be senior and glad she is our senior. She once brought her husband’s bmw i8 as they own a hire car company and took our team for a drive and she told me this will ensure she is teams fav and told me this shows to the team how powerful she is.
My concerns are that she was made senior before me as I was promised otherwise while I did the most hard work, she insisted to hire a new designer when was not required so she can work on her freelance work (being her senior and hiring a new designer will both impact my career and pay rise due to team’s budget), her motive is to remains everyone fav (which is fine but with using politics), while not doing any work that doesn’t interest her, everything should revolve around her best interests while ensuring it caters for her freelance work, she works on her freelance work during office hours while using company’s resources for her freelance work and getting huge fixed salary doing nothing and being political throughout the day.
My question is that, I have my annual review in March 2024 so should I bring all her secrets and motives out to my manager or stay quiet or find another job? What are my options please? It’s really affecting my mental health.
Thanks for your time.