Trying to earn respect managing in a new industry

Trying to earn respect managing in a new industry

I need some advice on proving myself in a new role. Long story with the history below.

Bottom line upfront: I’m in a new role in a new industry. I do materials management, which includes a whole slew of things. The job is new to the location. I know quite a bit but not in this industry, though I worked in a similar industry for five years a few years back. Principles are the same everywhere but there are intricacies I don’t know. Due to various circumstances, I came in with a “disadvantage”, and now I’m trying to prove that I’m capable. One particular member of my team tries to make me look incompetent and my new boss already has a negative impression of me, and I don’t know how to prove to him that I know what I am talking about. Everything I do is wrong and it’s really frustrating.

The details:

I started at my job about four months ago as a manager in a new industry. I have experience doing all of the aspects in the role, including managing a team, and I was good at those things, which of course is why I got hired. I come in, the person who wrote the role (new role) and the one who hired me are both gone.

We have an interim plant manager and nobody knows what I’m supposed to do. I’m immediately told I’m at a disadvantage because I have my college degrees and because of the politics of where I came from. The role is a professional role and I am paid well, but it is a very blue collar industry and location and I came in with a bachelors from a prestigious university and an MBA. I’m told take good notes and be mindful of time and only ask questions once. Immediately, I am afraid to get help at this point. One of my team members is very smart and has been somewhat standing in for my role, but is not a manager and does not have the acumen. The team had been without an actual manager for six months or so that that point, so they don’t think they need one. She has made it a point to point out every single thing I do wrong (she likes doing it in group settings and emails especially). I thought maybe she applied for the role but she didn’t. She just likes being in charge. And I was supposed to be training with her. So now I can’t have questions. If I ask something more than once I get “we already went over this” when we discussed it once in my first two weeks in the role. I don’t want to say anything wrong so I’m not discredited. So I’ve been sitting back and learning and spending time trying to figure things out rather than jumping all in.

I get a NEW boss, and I’m excited because he knows some of what this type of role actually does. After less than a month he has to do reviews. Apparently, I’m not “assertive” enough but my team member is. He likes her “leadership”. She’s more rude and bossy and I’ve had numerous conversations with her about it. She’s also good at faking nice. People hate working with her (myself included but she’s really valuable and knows it). I have zero doubt she brings everything up to the new manager because she did it to one of her team members as soon as I started and sent me all of these old emails of everything she did wrong and telling me I need to discipline her. I ignored it and made my own judgements and I’m glad I did because that other person has been valuable to the team and has honestly helped me more than anyone. People who have been working there for a while know how she is and don’t trust half of what she says.

So, new boss, I have a better idea what is going on now, but don’t know every little detail because I can’t. I’m working on it, but I’m also managing three different things - not just the one department - though that’s what everyone focuses on. And each of them manages their own piece of the operation. HOWEVER - I know data and I can talk principles and understand how things should work. So, with how things are, anytime I come up with something or present something I'm immediately questioned. We had a discussion last week and I knew exactly what I was talking about. My boss did not want to listen when I tried to explain it he told me to ask one of the members of my team. They didn’t know what I was talking about because they aren’t the managers - I am.

When someone else was pulling the same data it was not questioned. It has been this way since I started and I don’t know how to prove otherwise. I want to just NOT involve my team so I can prove myself but my boss insists that they know everything and they do not. He doesn’t listen when I try to explain things and has this impression already that I don’t know what I am talking about, and I have no idea how to stop it. Nice enough guy and really smart but won’t let me finish sentences before telling me his thoughts and how it “actually” is. He does not do this to said team member who reports to me.

I wish I could just leave, but I got a $15K relocation sign on bonus and will have to repay it within sixty days if I leave. There aren’t a ton of these types of roles where I live so I would likely need to go remote and I seriously doubt I would get a sign on bonus to pay it back for roles that hundreds (thousands?) of other people are after. So basically, I am stuck a

Oh and we were also just acquired but another company so there’s that. I’m concerned about my job right now.