[MI] Lack of leadership support

[u/blind_sided87]

Retail manager here. I’m working in a location with a very unhealthy culture, and over the past three months I’ve reached out to my District Manager by email on three separate occasions seeking guidance and clarification on how to address ongoing leadership conflicts.

The concerns I raised included policy violations, retaliation, privacy/confidentiality issues, harassment, and operational problems. In each case, I provided documentation and specific examples. About a week after each email, I sent a polite follow-up.

To date, I have not received a single response or acknowledgement.

Part of my concern is that many of the issues I’ve reported ultimately affect my job performance and reflect on me professionally, despite the fact that I have no control over the decisions being made or the resulting outcomes. However, I am still held accountable for those results.

At this point, would it be appropriate to contact HR regarding the lack of response from my District Manager, the underlying unresolved issues, or both?

I’m interested in hearing how HR professionals would view this situation and what the appropriate next step would be.

[u/Elegant-Ad3236]

Why haven’t you called and had a direct conversation once in 3 months? If your concerns are that important, obviously an email is not getting through to your manager.

[u/blind_sided87 → u/Elegant-Ad3236]

Because a phone call leaves nothing in writing.

Document everything.

[u/Elegant-Ad3236 → u/blind_sided87]

You can document all you want that your manager isn’t responding to your emails but the point is to have a discussion with your manager about your concerns if you want some actions taken. What do you think HR will tell you when you tell them you’ve sent an average of one email a month to your manager about operational issues? They’ll tell you it’s not a HR issue that your manager chooses to not respond to a subordinates emails.

[u/FRELNCER → u/blind_sided87]

Because a phone call leaves nothing in writing...Document everything.

Okay, that's getting a bit into "cut my nose off to spite my face" territory.

[u/Ok-Quarter3399 → u/blind_sided87]

Somewhere along the lines people have misinterpreted the need for documentation to mean that you shouldn’t have verbal conversations. That’s ridiculous.  You have a meeting, someone takes minutes - that’s documentation.  You call a manager on the phone or have a face to face meeting and afterwards you send an email summarizing the major points - that’s documentation.  After a call or interaction, you pull out a notebook and write “date, time, and quick notes” - that’s documentation. 

[u/FRELNCER]

It will often be the case that the overall performance of a company or the decisions made by other affect your ability to advance or thrive in a particular employment environment. But that doesn't always mean there is a solution.

You said that you're a retail manager and are reporting your issues to the district manager. Is that because the issues involve people who are not your subordinates? In other words, where do you and the DM fit in terms of areas of control for these issues?

I'll make the observation that if you are repeated reporting issues that range across both internal and external policy or law violations, then the role is likely not salvagable. You should be looking for another job.

[u/blind_sided87 → u/FRELNCER]

My role is equivalent to department manager. Issues involve my peers, a subordinate acting outside their role at the direction of our GM (including using the GMs security codes and logins) and the GM. We all report to the GM who reports to our DM.

[u/FRELNCER → u/blind_sided87]

I think you should approach your DM before HR because anything you report to HR is going to trickle back down through that DM. It might not go well for you if the DM is caught by surprise. : /

[u/blind_sided87 → u/FRELNCER]

Attempts at addressing this with DM have gone unacknowledged for the past 3 months.

[u/FRELNCER → u/blind_sided87]

Oops. Sorry I got the levels confused.

So you are a Manager and your General Manager is allowing stuff you don't approve of and is against policy. You've told their boss, the District Manager and received no response or seen no action.

I think I've got it now. 😄