My manager left the company a few weeks ago. Instead of replacing him, the organization was re-structured so that I have 4 contracted project managers. They all micromanage everyone's hours and determine what everyone under them will accomplish that day. They've been scheduling overlapping times ...
"They've been scheduling overlapping times for me and won't accept me saying that I'm busy." Have you tried telling them that your other manager(s) already scheduled that time rather than saying "I'm busy"?
I don't think any of them have firing power. Is there a way you can find out? Is there an HR department you can ask about who would actually be in charge of determining any disciplinary actions, raises, promotions, etc. for you? If these PMs can't fire you then presumably there's someone else who can.
Who did your last manager report to, try them. I'm not clear how you work in a company and really don't know anything about anybody else and where they're getting their instructions from. Ask around.
What kind of company has a secret organizational structure?! Are you sure you're understanding that correctly? Who told you that you now report to these four people?
"I'm not allowed to know who they report to - I don't have permissions to view that level of the org chart, nor would I have permissions to email or schedule a meeting with whoever that would be." That's insane! How does anything get done in that company culture?
The question is missing a critical piece of information: what is the OP's actual job? It makes a huge difference to the answer if they are the janitor responsible for keeping four offices clean and tidy, or the leader of a team that is providing some mission-critical service to the four projects.
@Kat - I really, really wanted to change the OP's post so the first sentence read "I work for SPECTRE and my manager left..." as that's the only organization I could think of where the org chart would be regarded as that sensitive :-)
@MichaelMcFarlane HR is not your friend. HR's job is to protect the interests of the company. Sometimes this can align with the interests of the employee, but often it doesn't, and I'm not sure that this scenario would be one of those times.
@nick012000 Normally I'd agree, but in this case if they just ask to see an org chart, it might help (it might not - but we don't know who forbade OP from seeing the org chart - if it was his four managers, and HR provides him an org chart, he can take this above their heads).
@Zibbobz I would not rely on such a chart. I would go to HR and ask the completely sane and innocent question "Who is my direct supervisor?" I cannot imagine any HR department that would answer with "You have four supervisors."
How are you expected to implement "better time management" if you have managers setting your schedule? If two managers schedule conflicting meetings for you, that's not a problem with your time management?
@Roland, small companies don't always have clean, tidy organizational charts. In a former job, my supervisor reported to all three senior engineers, which made for exciting times when all three of them decided that their project was the one that had top priority for lab time.
@Mark In my experience, even if such a chart doesn't exist, HR knows who is supposed to report to whom. Usually, the person who approves your vacation is supposed to be your line manager.
Discussion on question by Voxtenwatt:…
Discussion on question by Voxtenwatt:…