Our team’s engineering and project managers are based overseas. This year I’ve been acting as the local manager as well as a developer on some projects.<p>The company has recently hired an additional project manager overseas who has already started excluding me from project meetings. Another project manager has been hired to work in the local office and is starting next week.<p>I get the feeling I’m now meant to be sitting in the corner with my headphones on.
> The company has recently hired an additional project manager overseas who has already started excluding me from project meetings.<p>This is a big red flag. There may be innocent reasons (e.g., new PM wants to hold meetings at times convenient to him and his team and feels guilty inviting you to meetings at 2AM your time), but it is more often a prep for pushing old PM out the door.<p>You have two options: change things at your old company, or move. In first option, I would try to get a candid face to face time with one of the senior leadership folks. Ask about their plans. Say that your old project does not need two PMs and ask if he can suggest other PM opportunities. This <i>only</i> works if you are appreciated at your current company, but if you are the company will likely work hard to accommodate your wishes -- good PMs are rare.
It is possible that you are not being intentionally sidelined. This has happened to me, where a company hired a new PM to help us scale, but just took over the parts of my job that I most loved, leaving me with just the drudge work.<p>I was livid. “We have a new guy... who doesn’t understand the product or our customers or our process... and I am supposed to answer to HIM now‽”<p>Some advice I wish I could go back 10 years and give myself:<p>1. “Own what you own” which is a variation of “choose which hill to die on”. If you feel like something is “yours” you will resent people coming in and fucking it up. If you conceptualize something as “theirs” you can feel good doing your best to make it better. Being a humble servant can feel bad, but it feels better than being fired for having angry outbursts (trust me on this one).<p>2. Understand your feelings well enough to talk about them. That might involve talk therapy. Modern CBT is really great.<p>3. Remember that anything you love can break your heart. And that is OK. Better than not loving what you do. Maybe it is time for the relationship to end? Maybe you can salvage it?<p>4. Think and talk in terms of both work/life balance and work-life balance. If having a diverse set of things to do at work is important to you (it is to me, but not everyone) tell the company this. Some people love to be heads down coders in one layer. Other people need to work across more layers. Some people like to do PM or architecture work in addition to coding. Your managers won’t know what you need if you don’t tell them, and you can’t tell them if you don’t understand it yourself. (See #2).<p>Good luck! You are not in this alone!
If you enjoyed being a PM, ask that you want to become one in your company, if you can't, just look for a new job in that role.<p>There are many companies hiring PMs and to be honest, it is hard to find good ones, passionate about their job and that were previously coders or know well about tech, as not many developers enjoy that route(they would rather become tech leads or something else).<p>The grass is greener on your side as you might think.
One of my buddies on the dev team I am on has been going through a very similar situation. He has worked there much longer than myself yet he ends up with most of the drudge work. Instead of working on cool full-stack JS PWAs and SPAs he is stuck putting content on WordPress sites and fixing WP plugins. He has on occasion asked me how I managed to get all the fun stuff despite being so new. My advice to him was as follows:<p>1) Communication is key, a lot of times management don't realize you hold resentment and a simple conversation could really clear things up. Make your wants known, don't expect them to just be presented to you.<p>2) Take the time to shine. Push yourself to impress those in charge. Demonstrating value is always a good way to get more responsibility.<p>3) Try not to take it personally but instead ask yourself are some valid reasons why they have made such a decision. Also try and ask yourself what you could do to help the new hire. It isn't their fault and would probably love the assistance.<p>In the case of my friend, although he is a fantastic worker, he struggles at times to vocalize his contempt. Instead he will brood. Do not do this. People can't read minds and at the end of the day it is managements job to do what they think is best for the company as a whole. Good luck, hope all ends up alright!
Well, how did you end up "acting as the local manager?" Were you formally assigned to a named job role? Or were you a dev who stepped up to take on management duties? It sounds (mainly because of the word "acting" with all its connotations of being temporary and ad-hoc) like the latter. (Already I'm doing guesswork and reading tea leaves, just like you seem to be in your post. Can anybody talk to each other over there, or no?)<p>Anyway, maybe in the eyes of management you were handling two jobs, which maybe they appreciated, but as soon as they were able to rectify this, they helped you out by hiring someone to do the managing so you wouldn't have to. If they had the wrong idea about you (i.e. you prefer managing and now want to keep doing that) then you probably need to express your interest in management and advocate for why/how the company would benefit by your doing it.<p>But yeah in general people have the right to a clear job description that everyone agrees on, and to be able to review various duties as they apply to that, and accept or reject them, and to modify the job description if and when applicable.
How does this work from the other side? are there people discussing they should collectively exclude someone? what are the conversations that are taking place. I have never been on the other side, so would like to see a perspective from there.
Do you <i>want</i> to continue being a manager? Do you want to continue to be a developer? Both? Are you unhappy because you feel rejected or unappreciated? Or do you really miss the work?<p>They could assume that you want to be a developer and not a manager. They may be intentionally sidelining you, <i>and think that they're doing you a favor</i>. The only way you can fix that is with communication.<p>Or, they may currently need you as a developer more than they need you as a manager. If it's temporary, you can choose to ride it out, making it clear to them that you want back into management when possible.<p>TL;DR: You have to talk to them to find out what they're thinking, and why they're doing what they're doing. Don't guess. Ask.