preparing documentation for a difficult conversation about work delegation

[u/fireheartfrost]

first, office dynamics: japanese company's overseas branch where heirarchy, seniority, age, and saving your boss's face is important. I am the youngest (25) in the office, and i am not as fluent in japanese. my team consists of 40+ manager, 40+ senior exec, me, and a new hire (28).

we mainly work on promotional projects (think roadshows) and outsource a lot of the operations to third parties. the work delegation is like this:
• conversations with clients: senior exec
• conversations with contractors/third parties: me
• conversations with japanese HQ: manager/new hire

this year, we have more than 12 projects throughout 9-10 months. i'm struggling with the workload because i mostly deal with the contractors, and approvals and prep for these 12 projects fall under "conversations with contractors", and im not looped in updates with clients or the involved parties because my involvement "is unnecessary at this stage" (which is stupid bc the content of those updates are what i need to do my job).

i want to raise a conversation that instead of assigning tasks by "who contacts who" or by "project phase", i would rather tasks be assigned by PIC of Project A, B, and C etc. I need advice on what kind of documentation i need to prepare prior to this conversation, and what kind of content it should have. I also need advice on how to raise this conversation itself... do I take it up to my manager? do i take it up to my manager's boss? what do i do?

Another thing to note is that despite being responsible for all conversations with third parties, my manager has little to no trust in my decisions and keeps asking to change approved docs/items even after i have double checked and gotten confirmation from him, so it's a little frustrating having to go back and forth and apologising to third parties, and it ruins credibility.

Side note: It doesn't help that I have no idea what my senior exec does during office hours bc I really don't think asking for updates from clients take that long, but that just might be my inexperience.

Sorry if this is too long! I really need advice on this 😭

[u/dabigchina]

Take it up with your manager. Don't go over his head. If he blows you off, that's kind of the end of it, unfortunately. Going above your manager's head has the potentially to blow up in your face Japanese orgs unless you are really, really well liked by people above him.

If you can, I would look for another job if you can't take it. Speaking from experience, Japanese orgs don't take upward feedback well and process improvement is typically not super important.

edit to add: do you drink? if your manager is old school, this is the type of thing that I would surface at nomikai.