Is my manager going to try to fire me?
Tech marketer here. My manager is an old-school tv media guy who was hired to be our CMO. He hired me about a year ago. I quickly learned he is not up to speed on modern day marketing, let alone tech marketing. I have become increasingly worried about his irresponsible spending of our department’s budget and the lack of marketing strategy and account base strategy. He is also prone to bouts of anger and gets mad at me when I make suggestions and recommendations to him. A few months ago I joined a team meeting without him realizing and he proceeded to talk about me behind my back for 10 minutes before I let him know I was on the call. I finally decided to talk to our CEO about it and flew into town on my own dime to discuss this. I kept it focused to strategy, metrics, and data (numbers don’t lie) not the personal issues. My CEO was gracious, took notes, and genuinely seemed interested in my ideas and feedback. Said he’d have a conversation with my manager and as a courtesy let him know that we chatted. 5 other employees have talked/are planning to talk to our CEO about my manager and how he is running our marketing dept. My manager messaged me and asked if I was in the office and if I was expensing it or was there on my own dime. The next day on a meeting with multiple colleagues, he spouted off all the ideas/feedback I shared with the CEO and took credit for them. I’m worried that I’m going to see retaliation this week and that his attitude towards me is only going to get worse. What do I do? How should I deal with the fallout and inevitable treatment from my manager? How do I stop worrying about this? TC: 113K
You’re not making enough TC to worry about the success of your company. You should just have let it fail slowly and collected the paycheck until then.
Reach to HR manager and if u do not trust even them loop back to ceo or next hier about the full incident. Peace of mind is important so better get everything sorted or bust out and in parallel search on next move
He’s operating from a narrow place of fear and self preservation. He doesn’t realize good leaders cultivate and lift up reports that are smarter than them and/or have skills/experience they don’t have. This is unfortunately very common. You made your case to the ceo, he’s likely making his own case because you exposed him and is now on the defensive. Power usually wins out over “being right” so don’t be surprised if you get screwed. But try to maintain your comms with the ceo, send a follow up or recap email, etc. Provide him direct updates periodically. Make it harder for your boss to pull any underhanded sh*t without it looking extremely retaliatory. Zooming out, be in the moment and don’t worry about decisions outside your control (easier said than done I know). Corporate world is brutal and it’s not personal or a reflection of your abilities. If you have financial worries, might as well start your search.
He will manage you out. Time to GTFO
It's unfortunate but in my experience it's not worthwhile to try to actually improve something. Just play along with the people above you and do what they want, your JD doesn't matter. If they suggest burning down the company, applaud the decision and recommend adding gasoline. I am not even being salty, just telling you what it takes to survive. At the end of the day, you have/will-have a family to take care of, morality is too expensive.
Your exact story just happened to me. I just got let go 2 weeks ago. Get out of there!
Unfortunately your CEO is not too bright. You are toast.
Run. Also you shouldn’t have traveled on your own dime.