Is it alright if I go directly to my boss and not my manager?
I’m 28F working in an online marketing agency. We have around 24 people at the office and the company is 3 years old.
I’ve been working there since the beginning of this year and since I have no educational background in this field, I have had a lot to learn (which is not uncommon for my field).
At the office I’m in a team of five people. One is my manager, let’s call her Jane, one is the CEO of the company, let’s call him John. Then there are my two colleagues, 31M and 35F. 35F is the newest addition to the team and we talk a lot about our work, ask each other questions and get along really well.
Now the issue is that I don’t really get along with my manager, Jane. She has around two years of experience in the business and while I do respect and admire her skills, I don’t feel that she is a great manager. I rarely get any feedback or acknowledgment which has led to me being insecure about the quality of my work and where I stand at the company.
We have had a fair few people quitting recently to seek out new challenges and some people have been let go as the market is changing. The lack of feedback is one of the reasons they move on.
I chose to go to John, as he is the CEO and also part of my team. I feel more comfortable talking to him and I expressed my issues with the lack of feedback. He was really nice about it and gave me permission to seek him out for feedback and help whenever I need it – without my manager having to be involved.
And now to the part where I might end up being an AH: I spoke to my dad about it and he mentioned that excluding my manager might create some issues. It’s unfair to her and I do see the point in what he says. At the same time I believe that it is my boss’ responsibility to make sure she is doing her best and since he has given me permission to get my needed feedback from him, I don’t think it is my responsibility to include my manager. It is a small company and everyone is quite young which means there is not a lot of experience with these things. I don’t have a lot of experience on workplace etiquette either.