'Dissolve my department... and expect the same output?': Department head costs employer $30k, discovers their boss's "illegal move"

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Mar 5, 2024 11:00 AM EST

Loopholes can be so sweet. This former department head now knows this all too well after they gained more than two weeks PTO! 

Reorganizations aren't usually a positive sign. No matter how much the company insists that workers won't be impacted, they'll all feel the differences in some way. At this university, a reorganization caused the loss of several highly-trained personnel. That's an issue in a specific field, and a major loss for a university. But when the only thing that matters is "pinching pennies," employees are going to be subjected to changes that management thinks are best. 

Pinching pennies is one thing, but the head boss at this job isn't even doing things legally. He probably thought he wouldn't get caught. U/Maheu wasn't about to let this dude win, though. They shared the whole story of what went down to the malicious compliance subreddit. The worker also left an additional note in the comments section to add more information to their story. 

After you read about this reorg gone totally wrong, regale in the story of the overworked coffee shop manager who took two weeks off, quit, and then blocked their boss's phone number as things immediately started going wrong at the coffee shop. 

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  • 01
    Kub 'My new 88 www.c 187 10 CHEVOLE managers both signed the authorization... HOTS without understanding the implications'
    via Firmbee.com on Unsplash
  • 02
    Dissolve my department, demote me and expect the same output ? You got it boss
    via u/Maheu
  • 03
    I work in a highly specialised field, where it's very difficult to find and train suitable personal. By pinching pennies and not holding his promises about pay grade changes, my boss successively drove away the three specialists working in the department I led. Right before the last
    via u/Maheu
  • 04
    one put in her notice, he argued that a 2 person department didn't justify a leadership position and demoted me, and we were integrated (on paper) to another department. This was done outside of any legal framework and with a one week notice, which is illegal. During the reorganisation, the manager of the department
    via u/Maheu
  • 05
    we joined was assigned to R&D, and another manager and his deputy promoted to lead the department's daily business. We effectively had no less than 3 supervisors, all of them lacking managerial training and technical knowledge about the duties of our now defunct department (and only one of them can read the language in which 50% of our reports are written).
    via u/Maheu
  • 06
    Right after the reorganisation, I was granted one last meeting with the boss, where I pointed out that several of my duties cannot be bestowed upon the mere foot soldier I had become, nor taken over by the new leadership. He answered that his decision was final, I was to revert to my previous job description and take up any future
    via u/Maheu
  • 07
    matter with my new supervisors. I did just that, and some more: I read the state law and ordinance about state and university employees (should have done it earlier, in hindsight). I discovered that: • the illegal move by my boss doesn't carry any penalty, so there's all I can do legally
    via u/Maheu
  • 08
    • I'm allowed to take on private mandates for anything that is not explicitly mentioned in my job description (it's a gift normally meant for professors) • I get to take up to 15 days of additional paid leave per year to hold a public office • the pay grade I reverted to doesn't match my
    via u/Maheu
  • 09
    responsibilities today, even excluding the absence of leadership position, and there's an independent procedure with state HR to reevaluate the pay grade The kicker? My old job description that dates back to 7 years before is short, to say the least: 3 lines that don't even cover 50% of
    via u/Maheu
  • 10
    what my duties in the last seven years consisted of. And I have a side gig as a retained firefighter and fire instructor for which I used to take vacation days. This counts as a public office according to state law. The fallout My new managers both signed the authorisation to take on private mandates and public office without
    via u/Maheu
  • 11
    understanding the implications. I used all of the 15 days, where I legally get paid by the FD and my employer at the same time. I took on several private mandates totalling nearly an additional month of salary for 4 days of work. And the pay grade reevaluation has brought me back to the same income as with the previous leadership position. Oh, and
    via u/Maheu
  • 12
    since my speciality now has a bus factor of one and my new supervisors have been unable to staff the open positions, it was very unlucky that I fell ill at the time where I had to submit paperwork for a research grant, costing the institution 30'000$ in lost research funds.
    via u/Maheu
  • 13
    TL;DR: my boss demotes me and dissolves my team. I find several legal loopholes that allow me to work less and get more income, without my boss even noticing and with the naive blessing of my new leadership.
    via u/Maheu
  • 14
    Edit: I used the expression "private mandate", which is a direct translation of the state law legalese and seems to confuse a lot of you. Think of it as taking the contract in my name, as opposed to in the institution's name, and working on it outside of my regular hours. It's not exactly like a contractor though, because as a member of the institution,
    via u/Maheu
  • 15
    I'm still bound by some rules that don't apply to contractors. It is very weird and would not be possible if the transition had been planned and managed properly, with an update of my job description for example. /u/Dif3r explained it well :
    via u/Maheu
  • 16
    Faculty at universities will sometimes consult on the side. I've heard of engineering and marketing professors doing design or doing research and writing internal white papers for companies before. Or collaborating on a research project under their own name/lab as opposed to the universitys "brand".
    via u/Maheu
  • 17
    Edit 2: some of you were hung up on the lost research fund, so I want to clarify 2 things : 1. this was no part of the MC and I really caught a potentially serious disease. But since I had been warning for months about the lack of substitution or cross training, this came as a vindication
    via u/Maheu
  • 18
    2. no grad student or junior researcher were impacted. It just erased part of what the institution gained in not staffing the open positions
    via u/Maheu
  • 19
    latents When you leave, I hope you submit a list to their bosses of what your bosses choices cost the company after you notified them of the problems.
    via u/Maheu
  • 20
    Maheu OP. The list is ready, as well as an estimate of how much the loss of knowledge provoked by the departure of my 3 colleagues cost the university
    via u/Maheu
  • 21
    _IR_Relevant · I worked with a guy like you as a student at a public college. I got paid pretty decently for a student at $11 to basically run errands for the Environmental, Health, and
    via u/Maheu
  • 22
    Safety office of faculty management. This guy I worked with ate up every single certification he could, getting in trained in how to train people in just about everything. He would then get
    via u/Maheu
  • 23
    paid his normal salary in addition to fees for holding the classes. Since there are a lot of laws that govern how these offices are run I'm pretty confident he made a concerted effort to know them and take advantage of
    via u/Maheu
  • 24
    them where he could. He certainly knew them better than the head of the department. In a pretty chaotic office he was a steady dude who knew how to play the game.
    via u/Maheu

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