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If you follow me on Twitter, you know that about six months ago, I changed jobs…not to mention fields and careers. It was a big deal for me, and since I had been in my previous company for far longer than seems socially acceptable these days. I had a lot to learn during my job search, being out of the game for a while. Luckily, I have a job-jumper friend (in a good way) who was able to tutor me in the ways of a proper message to a recruiter on LinkedIn and the powers of a skills-based resume.
It’s that same friend that I now go to when I encounter something weird in my new job. Not to brag, but I was the queen bee at my old company, and navigating this new environment has been quite the educational experience. So after a phone call with my new-new boss (you’ll see what I mean in a minute), I sent her this rather rambling text message:
So I feel like I’m being demoted but not demoted. When I started, I was a Director with all of the other senior management, reporting to the President. Then at the end of the year, a few people got promoted to VP or Senior Director, which left me and another lady as the only directors. I was cool with that because obviously I had just started.
Now, they’ve hired a new VP of finance and consolidated all of “admin” (IT, HR, Finance) under him, which I’m also cool with because not everyone can report to the President and I like the new dude.
BUT reporting to this new guy means that I no longer go our weekly leadership meeting or our leadership offsite because only the President’s direct reports are going. Am I crazy for feeling like I’m being demoted?
Her immediate response? “Sounds like you got layered.”
WTF does that mean? The only kind of layers I knew about involve cake (good) and hair (bad). So of course, I took to Google, and the fine folks at the Wall Street Journal informed me that this kind of layering is basically when a new manager is put between you and your original boss. And that despite my initial panic attack of feeling like this is a bad thing, it doesn’t have it be – although I’m not entirely sure I buy that.
According to the WSJ piece (which is from 2005, so I definitely missed the boat on learning about this particular workplace phenomenon), layering can actually be a good thing if you are working in a growing company (which I am) and/or have a boss who has too many direct reports to give each one adequate attention (which I did). It can even give you the opportunity to advance if the person in the new layer between you and your old boss is someone who is knowledgeable and can help you learn (here’s hoping).
So now, 24 hours out from that fateful phone call, I’m left to ask some questions of myself. Am I upset about being “layered” because my ego is damaged and/or that I’ve lost my seat at the big kids’ table as opposed to it actually affecting my career? If my job, title and salary haven’t changed, am I making much ado about nothing? If the answer to both questions is yes, is it possible that it may not be that bad? That being layered could actually be a positive thing? Only time will tell, I guess…but since my initial instinct was to take to LinkedIn immediately (sorry to all of those recruiters I requested a connection from last night), we’ll see if I’m around long enough to figure it out.
Have you ever gotten layered? What did you do about it? Leave me some advice in the comments..
Image via Shutterstock
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Jenna Crowley
Jenna used to be known as 2NOTBrokeGirls, but then one of the girls actually went broke, so she's struck out on her own. Jenna spends her free time saving the world, one sorority girl at a time (usually while wearing yoga pants), questioning why she decided to get a doctorate, documenting her love of all things cheese related, and hosting the new PGP podcast Don't Take It From Us. You can ask her anything you want about football, using your boobs to get what you want, and pizza at @JennaLCrowley on Twitter or via email at JennaLCrowley@gmail.com.
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I got layered because my old boss was chasing employees away. They put someone in between us that had better management skills in the form of being nicer and actually having time to devote to me. I took it very personally in the beginning, but realized it was best for everyone in the end.
Just hope micromanaging doesn’t start happening, that’s a hell I wouldn’t want for anyone
Just recently happened to me a few months ago. I was on an understaffed project which allowed me to have a direct line with my senior manager and get opportunities most in my position wouldn’t have, but the stress of trying to take on too many assignments was a lot. We finally got an assistant manager who I started reporting to. Sucks to lose that top connection, but it has been worth it in the end.
Look I already told you, I deal with the @#$% customers so the engineers don’t have to. I have people skills! I am good at dealing with people, can’t you understand that? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!
I got layered because my boss didn’t like all the new responsibilities that were given to him. So instead of putting more on my team (thank god) he got the company to hire an Associate Director. Now my former boss has less to do again while the new guy doesn’t know jack squat and gets paid more than me. So I guess layering can be bad.
Dont know the size of the company you work at but at the massive company im at, Directors report to VPs. Kinda sounds like the president is trying to optimize the management structure so someone else deals with lower level issues which frees up time for them to do what is more important to them. I wouldn’t take it personally.
I got layered, by my old supervisor’s boss who is now my boss. My old supervisor had no experience with managing someone and would treat me as his scapegoat while putting his work on me then getting mad when I would miss deadlines.
Layering is usually only negative if the new employee inserted above you is less competent than yourself. It sounds like you like/respect him so just think of it as another rung in the corp ladder for you to climb.
I got the opposite of layered at a former job. Was a manager with a direct report, they decided that only directors would have direct reports, no more managers with 1 or 2 employees, so they took my guy and made him report to my boss. On paper. In reality my boss didn’t want to deal with him so he still worked for me for all practical purposes; I got all the work but none of the formal benefits. F that.
I’m in a similar situation. It’s more from our team restructuring, and I’ll get a raise out of it, but they’re still hiring some someone between me and my current boss. (Also of note, I’ve only been here 2 years).
I think it just comes from making our team a little less flat and it puts a really obvious chain of promotion into the job description. I don’t hate it.
Good luck!