March 26th 2008
When You Face Jealous Peers
Jim Welbach is feeling a bit frustrated these days. He has managed to find room in his budget to hire one extra person in his marketing operation, which means that he has been able to promote one of his staffers, Jane Loudin, to the post of Assistant Marketing Director—on a provisional basis. She will now oversee much of the advertising copy and press releases that Welbach formerly supervised—thus freeing him up for larger projects with his boss, the company’s executive VP.
It all sounds reasonable and workable, but like so many plans that look good on an organizational chart, this one has run into a few snags. It seems that the staffers who now write the ad copy and press releases, and who were not offered the job, are not acting in a cooperative fashion with their new supervisor. There are disagreements, arguments about work, the content of the copy, whose ideas get precedence and imagined or not-so-imagined slights, followed by recriminations. Continue Reading »
