[iastategal]

Originally Posted by navane

The "issue" is that I have an expertise in a particular subject-area related to my job; a specialty if you will. My experience in this particular field extends several years back, to a time before I even started working for my present employer. Within my office, I am recognized as one of the "go to" people for this type of work, in fact, I am on the team for this subject area.


Not too long ago, my supervisor and I chatted about some of the issues we were having regarding this population of students. Towards the end of the conversation, she commended me saying that I was very good at what I do, acknowledged that I seem to have a significant amount of knowledge and experience with this area, noted that the students really seem to take to me and identified that I clearly have a passion for this particular area.

What she said next surprised me a little bit. She mentioned that she was a little concerned about having one person in the office who knows so much more than the others on a particular topic. My boss specifically cited a concern that, if I were to leave the department, I would, in effect, leave a "void". I acknowledged her concern and suggested that perhaps we should have a training session so that all of this project's team members could be on the same page.

We never did that. Instead, she appointed a co-worker to be the lead on the project (instead of me). That co-worker, as cool as she is, isn't fully up-to-speed. She and the one other employee on the project will ask *me* for help when they get stuck on a part they don't understand. It's a bit frustrating to know that I am more than qualified and yet my lead is asking me for help. At any rate, even though I was a bit confused with my supervisor's decision, I decided to be a team-player and have been taking direction from my co-worker without complaint.

A few missteps have happened with the project due to the other two co-workers inexperience or lack of knowledge on the topic. I feel bad because I want to stay humble; but, I feel frustrated. After all, my supervisor outright indicated that she felt I was very qualified, yet she chose someone else because she apparently doesn't want me to have too much power (knowledge=power). I get the concept of "spreading the knowledge in order to protect the office"; yet, logically, wouldn't an employer *want* to pick the most qualified person for a job? I could have been the lead and would have gladly trained the others to make things more equal; but I guess that wasn't an option either.

Why do managers do this?

.....Kelly

PS - Thanks for letting me vent.

as a manager, I understand exactly why your supervisor did this - it clearly isn't to punish you, or make you feel any less valuable or needed - it is actually a validation of your conversation with her earlier about more people with experience in your area of expertise, and recognition of your ability/desire to train/mentor your coworkers, and is a huge vote of confidence in your ability to train. By assigning a less experienced person to lead an assignment in this area with you as a resource trains and grows both of you - the other person learns more about this area, and you grow in your training and mentoring skills - invaluable as you move up in your organization. You need experience performing and you need experience mentoring/training your coworkers when looking to becoming a manager.

all that being said, yes some mis-steps are going to occur as the less experienced person learns, some more painful than others, and yes it would just be easier to assign you, but look for ways you can help the more junior staff member to minimize some of these mis-steps in the future. Offer to be a sounding board for her, or a go to, or just a quick hey how's it going, do you need any help can go a long way to letting them know you are there to help if they need it.