Oops.

Sigh.

The managerial thing has taken a turn for the worse. I was called in for a chat with the new manager late last week and he informed me, quite bluntly, that I was to move desks. He cited his reasons for doing so and, while they're quite logical, I don't agree that they're necessary. There's also the fact that I am the only person moving desk (to make room for a new employee) and that I get along extremely well with everyone who sits beside me. I engage people on a personal level and get people interacting with each other. In my opinion, the team is a better team to work in for my presence.

I have to admit that even though it's only a 10 foot desk move, I took it badly. While I am obviously not happy about moving seats from somewhere that's "fun" (and beside people I genuinely consider as friends like KfW2) to somewhere on the edge of the team beside someone who's hard to talk to, I think part of it is my complete disagreement on how the new manager has behaved since joining our team and also, being the only person having to sacrifice something. That last bit is something that I think is related to a situation I found myself in years ago when a manager in another department essentially bullied/harassed me for months until I eventually reported her. I'm now extremely wary of things like this happening.

So, in my anger, I laid out some truths directly to my new manager. I pretty much told him that the team are concerned about his lack of people skills, that he doesn't appear to be a people manager, instead concentrating on learning our processes and systems rather than the people he's now meant to manage, that his first words to some team members were critical of their actions or generally upsetting the status quo without understanding it first. His words to me? He said that it was not ideal, but he had to learn that stuff. When I mentioned that I was feeling victimised by the move (probably not the right phrase, but the meaning is roughly the same), he was instantly dismissive.

I'm considering apologising to him on Monday, but not for what was said. I stand by all of that fully and it's really rather worrying that someone in charge of fifteen people doesn't have any people skills. However, in my anger, I fear that my tone was entirely inappropriate.

I'm also slightly concerned about why this is such a big deal to me. Is it just a build up of frustrations about CB, pay rises, the laziness of my house mates and general concerns about this new guy as a manager or is there something else involved?