MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
so.. I work for a large multinational company based in the US, in telecoms\IT. For the past 6 years (since I started) we've had a boss in the UK (which is the normal way of doing things) however, due to outsourcing half our staff to a consultancy company, our direct boss has left. Been told today that the replacement will be based in phoenix, despite 90% of the staff being based in the UK. needless to say, no-ones exactly chuffed about it..
anyone else been in the same situation? Its obviously going to be pretty flexible, but the old boss wasn't exactly tight on that.. I'm a little concerned about how things will work from a personal leadership perspective (as in, noticing when I mess up, coaching me through it etc), and wondered if anyone here had experience of similar, and any tips\tricks for getting through it with minimal pain
cheers
Hugh
expect all the staff in the US to get preferential treatment. Is your boss American? Since we were taken over by Americans, the vast majority of board members hired have been canadian or American and the amount of investment in America operations is completely disproportionate to the amount of work we do or earn over there.
It wasn't a major issue when they were prepared to fly us over business class to get work completed but now they've said no to business class (obviously the board members still fly business class backwards and forwards all the time), they can get stuffed if they think I'm sitting in cattle class for 8 hours for the company.
We've not had to adopt any americanism's yet but it's only a matter of time. When I worked for ASDA and they got taken over by Walmart they very quickly tried to introduce group bonding sessions and group HUGS! I'm sure that was fine for the guys working with the dolly birds in the bid team but I was working in the Unix support team at the time where having a wash wasn't a mandatory requirement.
Yes, and it's all going to depend upon the ability of your new boss and how he splits his time. We were left with a lame duck leader who had to refer every decision to the US, I left to set up my own business shortly afterwards because the morale in the company fell to bits.
our chain of command has always been in the states, but never our direct leader before. The wierd thing is there's only one guy in the team in the US - everyone else is here in the UK, so there's not too much preferential treatment that can be had!
all travels been banned at the moment, so I suspect I won't even get to meet him for months
My boss is in the US. He is now the 5th US boss I have had in ~ 8 years.
Really not a lot different from having a boss in the UK.
All 5 have been very different and how it works depends as much on you as him. Initially you will find it harder. Those 'pop by for a quick update / chat' need to be replaced by more formal comms. and learning how they work what they expect can be more difficult with no body language etc to read.
Get familiar with remote working tools (Net Meeting, Vitual Rooms, group tele conferences, video conferencing, etc)
Other than that I think I would struggle to go back! Love the fact I can be more flexible with my work patterns
My boss is in the US. I keep being forgotten about either by him, or by other people in the US because I am in the UK, or by people in the UK because I have a reporting line that is based in the US.
Despite bringing this up _many_ times with him in meetings, it still happens and I am getting annoyed with it. I'm also annoyed at how much meetings are scheduled at times that make it awkward for me to attend. And at how much time the other team members spend kissing ass to make themselves look good.
Since working for him (two years give or take) I have not been promoted or received a pay rise. I have also seen my appraisal grade slip from excellent to average, mainly because of the lack of a decent working relationship between us. I don't trust him to do the right thing by me, and I think he knows that.
I work for a big US telecoms company myself - I've always had managers outside the UK (mine currently lives in Malaysia in fact) - I've never had any problems with it at all. If you're used to your senior managers being American, then you should already know what to expect - I've always found US people easy to deal with as in my experience they can take straight talk/brutal honesty better than British people can - as long as you can handle it in the other direction it's fine. One thing I've had to tell *every* US based manager I've had is that there are things called "time zones" and that I don't tend to work on Central Time...
It very much depends on company culture. I work for a US company, and around 75% of the staff work remotely. The European team is spread out all over the continent and the UK - my previous boss was in Denmark, current one in Germany. As the company culture is based on remote teams and individuals, it works well. We spend a lot of time on chat, teleconference and email interacting with each other and getting stuff done.
A lot of it depends on management style, so it's difficult to say whether things will work out or not for you. My advice is to go into it with a positive attitude, and if it's not working out, take that positive attitude to a new job elsewhere. Apologies if that sounds trite.
Why is it the norm to work for a multi-national company and have your Boss in the UK? Doesn't sound normal to me...sounds more like an expensive problem that isn't really there...
I doubt you'll have any problems once the initial shock of the new manager wears off...it'll be fine...you might get some trips to the US now...