Demotion of Director
I don't know if this particular topic is in the right forum area but I'll post it here anyway since it's a change. A few days ago (while I was out sick with a nasty stomach virus) the Registrar (our Director) got demoted to Associate Registrar. This was a decision made by the higher ups which was based on a consultant's report and a review of our office. The higher ups also feel he's more suited in overseeing a particular area of a unit rather than the whole unit. We now have a new Registrar. Our former Registrar is still working with us and intends to stay to see what happens. He's taking it pretty well and claims he's still getting the same salary. When I questioned to him on how he felt he stated "what am I going to do, I still have a job. I can't run out of here". The new Registrar is still learning the ropes but appears to be nice, understand and wants to help out. This is unbelievable, like a slap to his face.
Also another change is the Associate Registrar who's handling rooms and scheduling is going to be overseeing the front area of the entire center while someone will take her job.
Changes!
Asperger Manager?
This is a very interesting posting.
The key question however is: does the manager in question have Asperger syndrome?
If so, there are a number of further comments that I think would be worth making.
Perhaps you could let us know?
Re: Asperger Manager
No, our former Registrar does not have Asperger's Syndrome. I don't think he has any particular issues, from what I see.
Dismissing a Director
This is a slightly different variation on this posting but I thought it may be relevant/of interest given what I am currently going through and what soemone said to me today.
Do you think that the person in question is being "constructively dismissed"? (for overseas visitors this is what in Britain constitutes deliberate dismissal by, in effect, setting someone up to fail).
The reason I mentioned this is that today I met someone whoworks in the field of advising people and companies about those with Asperger.
What he said was that, when it comes to a downsizing exercise, organisations use the scenario to dismiss those with AS as, because of their eccentricities/idiosyncracies, they are the first to go: the employee is "different" so it is an opportunity to remove them from the equation.
I hadn't really considered this to a high degree. The reason, I am sure, is because of my AS: being inherently fair and never being the sort of person who would deny someone their job simply because of who they are, means that I would never adopt this strategy. However, it obviously happens and as a manager with Asperger I need to try and prevent this.
Not sure that I am totally convinced that I know the answer, but I think that th best (and the only strategy that I have identified to date) is to try and make oneself as indispensable as possible to the organisation.
Easier said than done of course. How the conversation started today was with the person above saying that the person he was advising adopted this stance but that he needed to impress upon him that it "simply didn't work that way!".
Thanks for different spin
Thanks for taking a different spin on this situation at my job. The reasoning for this demotion is still a bit unclear. The person is still working and is taking it pretty well. I don't think it has anything to with downsizing. The college that I work for is part of the City University in which all employees are part of unions and downsizing in these types of places are rare. It could be a hint that the management felt this person was not meeting their "goals" or they wanted to bring someone they knew into the realm. Plus over the years the college has gone through many managerial changes which result in weird changes and modifications in procedures and etc.... For a number of years the overall management in the Registrar's Office has been weak. Lots of key people with history and good knowledge of procedures and jobs have left for other positions or have retired. The replacements of these people were not trained well, could not really do the job well and also left. I could go on and on but I rather not in this topic.