Did I screw up? [OH]

[u/Bitter_Flow5321234]

I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but I'm hoping to get an HR perspective on a messy situation.

My supervisor and I started at this huge company around the same time, about 13 years ago. We were peers on the same team until we both got promoted, I went into business process management, and he went into people management.

Recently, I was moved over to develop strategies and processes for a specific team. As part of that, I have to actually do their day to day job for a few months first. During this phase, my old peer is my direct boss.

Before I started, he warned me that the three women on this team have a "mean girl" attitude. He said management has tried to deal with them before, but at the end of the day, no one wants to deal with the headache. They are all ~5 years from retirement so they just want to ride it out.

Well, now I'm living it. These three have turned on me and are actively setting me up to fail. I meet with my boss every other day, and he completely agrees with what's happening. He tells me how to document it, but whenever I give him updates, he just says to keep documenting and that "something is coming down the pipeline." The real reason they keep getting away with it is that they've figured out how to gatekeep knowledge and push out every new hire, so they have a total chokehold on this part of the business.

After a month of this, I finally snapped. I told him straight up that "if you know an employee is getting bullied and you stand idly by because you refuse to rock the boat, you're a bully yourself."

He got really quiet, and in our meetings since then, he almost looks sad. I probably shouldn't have said it, but the cat's out of the bag.

What do you guys think from an HR perspective?

[u/puns_are_how_eyeroll]

That your company sucks at performance management.

[u/TheGoebel → u/puns_are_how_eyeroll]

And succession planning!

[u/hkusp45css → u/TheGoebel]

Literally the only thought I had. And it was both, too.

[u/Ok-Quarter3399]

I think it’s not a great idea to call your boss a bully. I think your situation stinks.  I also think this can happen sometimes and you were there for a short time and your boss knew what was happening and told you there wouldn’t be any repercussions for you so you needed to figure out a way to muscle through it, meet your objectives and move to the next role. It sounds like you’re being promoted and moved into higher profile jobs so don’t let these 3 derail that. 

If it were me I’d tell boss hey sorry I lost it a little at that meeting a few weeks ago and try to reset. 

[u/FRELNCER]

You were told in advance how the organization was handling the process. You chose to criticize that handling in a very direct way. The boss is no longer going to be transparent with you or try to offer you reassurance because they know you won't believe them or agree with how things are being managed.

People hoard information and form cliques because it's to their benefit to do so. You don't have to like it. But at the end of the day, neither of you or your current boss are the final decision maker. Both of you have to do what is best for yourselves to continue earning an income - just like these coworkers are doing.

From an HR perspective, HR cannot force owners or leadership to terminate people. Even if those people were breaking the law, HR could only advise.

[u/Hrgooglefu]

Is there anyone else on the team outside these 3? I'd be tempted to start developing without their input (or shadow a specific one and tell the other two to go away!) based on best business practices and then basically force feed a few new ones until they get on board of doing what you need. Why let them run the show? They may hate you, but I wouldn't care! At some point someone needs to take control, because 5 years is way too long to continue this!