I’ve been at my job now nearly 10 years, always excelled, got good reviews, never had any issues. Then, this past April, my boss who I had always gotten along with over the 5 years we worked together, decided to leave. Now we have a new boss who technically has a higher title than my previous boss with more direct reports, and with the new boss comes new (often vague) directives, expectations, and initiatives, none of which are clearly communicated in terms of what is wanted. With the new boss also comes a new org chart and new titles and job descriptions that are equally vague and no clear understanding as to what my role will be long term, and it’s not just me this is happening to. Also, it appears that many of my previous bosses responsibilities are being laid in the lap of myself or my co-worker, with no expectation for additional compensation. Now I feel like Grandpa Simpson all of sudden “I used to be with it, then they changed what it was, now what I’m with isn’t it, and what’s it seems weird and scary to me”.
What I suspect may be happening is that I am one of several dozen remote employees this company inherited from a merger, and it’s a company that’s not especially fond of remote work in the first place. Over the last year they’ve slowly whittled away many of the remote workers who were redundant or whose responsibilities could be shifted, and those of us left are the ones who can’t so easily be replaced. Now it feels like they’re slowly building out the workforce in their office, and I think for those of us still remote it’s the frog in the boiling water metaphor, where you’re subtly training your replacement, while at the same time being setup to fail with vague directions and goals. I can probably drag my feet at this job and squeeze another year or two out of it, and I think I know the answer to this, but it’s probably time to dust off my resume, isn’t it?