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professionalism project-management conflict

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May 19, 2025 Score: 73 Rep: 6,797 Quality: Expert Completeness: 70%

Respectfully, you are being unprofessional and egotistical. It's a natural feeling so I do not mean that as an insult, but you need to recognize it. We're missing context of why X is being tasked with team lead but there a dozen possible reasons why a more junior employee might be better suited to lead a specific project(see below). X has been there for at least 2+ years; the fact that they technically rank below you does not necessarily speak to the quality of work they've done or the impressions they have made in the meantime that lead to their project lead assignment.

Your question about if it's fair to report to a more junior employee is not a new one: see "Is It Okay for a Senior Dev to Work Under a Junior Lead Due to Project Deadlines?" for example. You may think it is a different situation because of your prior working relationship, but the fact that you were consulted on X's hiring and at one point they were reporting to you does not change the dynamic you're upset about.

It sounds like this is a great opportunity for X to get project lead experience, and a great opportunity for you to support a more junior employee, help them succeed, and show that you can work and learn under anybody.

Some examples of why X might be a good team lead:

  • prior knowledge of the project topic
  • proposed the project and was rewarded with leading it
  • given team lead as a chance to test their management skills
  • promoted already, waiting for an annual cycle to make it official
  • judged to have certain skills or strengths that make them uniquely ideal for this role
May 20, 2025 Score: 21 Rep: 311 Quality: High Completeness: 20%

You seem to be confusing Reporting Line - which you still have to your manager vs. the temporary line you have for a particular assignment.

You are also confusing your job for your current role on a project.

You are not reporting to your former junior - you are being assigned tasks by them for a limited duration of time - that's a subtle but key difference.

This is very normal in a lot of roles - particularly in Software Development where the Project Manager may be quite junior (or a contractor) compared to the Senior Developers (greybeards) who are writing or testing the code.

No-one gets in a snit about it. They know it's the Project Managers job to keep the project on track and their job to write and deliver code on time.

May 19, 2025 Score: 16 Rep: 8,056 Quality: High Completeness: 20%

I recommend you have a lunch time 1:1 chat with Individual X instead. Ask them their vision of the project they are about to lead in a friendly and curious way. If the conversation goes well, you may come away with an appreciation for Individual X and their role. Perhaps they have a realm of competence and passion that makes them a perfect fit for this project's leadership.

I suggest you do not complain about Individual X's role. Your manager has already decided, and your complaint is thin and irrelevant to the company. Rather, make peace with the situation, because for all you know, Individual X deserves a chance to lead.

May 22, 2025 Score: 7 Rep: 20,317 Quality: High Completeness: 30%

What is the basis for your refusal here?

The only real issues you point out is that you hired this person and (by logical extension) that you've been at the company longer than them.

So are you asserting here that leadership is a measure of employment duration?
Are you asserting that hiring someone should lock you in as outranking them in perpetuity?

A lot could have happened in those years between hiring X and you now being asked to report to them, and you seem to be very light on those details. I currently see no reasonable basis in your question for rejecting to report to this person.

Additionally, I'm also sensing an underlying assertion in your explanation of the problem that someone leading a project therefore makes them the authority over any other contributor to said project.

Leading a project does not always equate to managerial authority. "Reporting to" a person can be on the basis of one without necessarily including the other. The underlying assertion that someone is only allowed to lead a project if they explicitly outrank every other contributor to the project is steeped in hierarchical appeals to authority that are getting outdated in the current day and age.

I fear if I share the reason he may think I am being unprofessional or putting my ego in front of work.

He would think so because that is what you are actually doing.

You are refusing to play ball with your company's goals due to your own personal feelings about who you outrank even when the company clearly indicates otherwise. That is, by its very definition, an act of ego.

May 22, 2025 Score: 3 Rep: 130 Quality: Low Completeness: 10%

There's not much information about your relation to X, and I wonder why that is.

Not being a manager, I can only take the view from an "individual contributor" who has participated in a few hirings. One recommendation which I heard/read several times is "hire somebody who is better than you."

Could it be that you succeeded in that? You could also think "what a nice achievement!"