The other middle manager in my same position is leaving and C-level wants me to take his over team

[connor24]

Good afternoon,

I am 31F, been working in a start-up since 2020. I first joined as a scientist after my Ph.D. and have worked my way up to operations manager. I currently supervise a team of 10 people. I am one of two middle managers in a company with 5 C-levels. My current team has 11 people and the other middle manager, 'Mike' supervises 7. Our current work process still needs a lot of development so I have been carrying multiple hats. Mike has quit and will be leaving at the end of August. C-level wants me to take over the team of Mike, which would result in me having 18 direct reports in the current organogram. We have no money to replace Mike. I am feeling burnt out and just the thought of it gives me panic attacks. C-level thinks that if I drop a couple of meetings it will be fine. It does not really work like that. I really do not want to take over the rest of the people. Does anyone have an idea on how to stay no? Will I get fired? what rights do I have? I believe some of the C-level should take over the other team as they seem to have way more time on their agenda than me.

Thoughts??

thanks!

 

[princehere]

@connor24 Promote one or 2 of your direct reports (either from your existing pool or the ones you are about to acquire) to your lieutenants. This can be an in name only promotion or if you can wrangle some nominal pay increase from mikes returned salary pool.

Now you are directly managing 2 people and overseeing 18. You may even want to promote a 3rd but it probably depends on your team structure if that’s possible.

The advice I’m giving you is that you need to leverage your team to push you forward. Don’t put it all on your shoulders. Management believes in your ability to do so. They will likely listen to your input on how best to make this work.

 

[kaurmmd]

@connor24 My experience having been C-level at a startup for the past 3 years has been saying "no" needs to be done tactfully. Obviously I don't know your company culture, but ours has been one that requires a LOT of everyone.

My advice would be to frame it as something that could hamper growth and speed or quality. Many times if you're able to position something as a losing scenario for the company, they may find a creative solution to the issue. Are these people that worked for "Mike" cross -functional with any other leader's team? If so, maybe you could propose splitting the extra load.

Good luck! I know that the pressure cooker is real.

 

[connor24]

@kaurmmd Thanks so much for your comment. Unfortunately, none of Mike's staff is cross-functional with any other leader's team. That leaves me a bit in the void. I am a firm believer that more support and better leadership will increase our chances of existing as a company. I was one of 20 people reporting to the same person and that was not productive. In fact, it killed everybody's productivity.

 

[kaurmmd]

@connor24 Yeah I have seen that type of scenario as well. Unfortunately, like most early-stage startups right now, we have experienced the issue of having no money to bring on that needed support/leadership also. Makes for a tough situation. I'll be interested to hear how yours plays out.

 

[doesntmatter]

@kaurmmd C level needs to understand that the rest of the company simply doesn’t care as much as c level because only c level gets rich when the company skyrockets. I shouldn’t be required to carefully say “no I don’t think I’d like to double my workload for no extra comp” and the response definitely shouldn’t be “but think of the company!” Because I guarantee the company doesnt care about anything other than the bottom line

 

[kaurmmd]

@doesntmatter In a startup, nearly all employees have equity in the company. I understand your anti-capitalist sentiments, but those are best reserved for large corporate behemoths.