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    New boss looks like a clone of the old boss

    Posted by: athena911
    Date: 8/31/2007 4:36:41 PM

    I work for a large insurance company. Our manager is moving on to greener pastures within the company. The guy they've selected to replace him is someone we all know, he's moving here for his greener pastures, having also come from a different arena within the company. He is a nice enough guy and we all like him.

    The old boss and I got along VERY well..I did a lot of special project work for him, etc. Until our department expanded a bit and he hired in a young kid that is the son of a long time company employee. When this kid stopped popping his zits, he and the boss became drinking buddies! Instantly, I was the sworn enemy.

    Well, once I found out he was leaving and the new guy was coming in, I thought "This is great, new boss, new opportunity, even/level playing field." WRONG!!! The new boss has only been in transition about three days before he 'out of the blue' questions me about one of the things that my old boss and I were at odds over!

    Here's my question: Do I sit down with the new guy and tell him that we are all hopeful that this is a fresh start for all of us, etc...or more like 'I don't want you to take up the prejudices the old guy had' or just let it all go?

    Reply from: goodboss
    Date: 9/1/2007 10:29:00 AM
    Reply: The new boss may not be a clone of the old boss. It's highly likely that Boss 2 had a sit-down with Boss 1 at some point and asked Boss 1 to tell him (Boss 2) all about the employees he was inheriting. And there's nothing wrong with this! I'd sure do it, if I was inheriting a bunch of employees from someone else, I'd be very interested in that someone else's take on those employees. However (and this is a big however), while I might find that "take" very very interesting, I wouldn't necessarily believe that this other person's "take" should be my "take." I would also be trying to form my own opinion of the employees, and would just be using the previous manager's opinion as a place to start from. It may well be that Boss 1 told Boss 2 about the several issues you and Boss 1 were at odds over, and Boss 2 was questioning you about one of those issues, simply to get your side of the story, before he forms his own opinions about the issues. And I think that's very fair behaviour on his part. I recommend that you stop jumping to conclusions about this Boss 2 that you really don't know very well yet, keep your head down and do as much as you can to impress him, to get him on your side as much as possible so that if/when those "issues" rear their ugly heads again, he will be more open to understanding your point of view.

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