stephhg's journey

I work at a small nonprofit where I've been for about three years, managing a front desk team of three people, including myself. Our organization has had a high retention rate, largely due to my previous manager who fostered a supportive environment. However, since she left in March for a better opportunity, things have taken a turn for the worse. We briefly had a new manager who was let go for incompetence, which led to two of my team members leaving in quick succession. After this upheaval, the director held a meeting to address our concerns, which included requests for better pay, communication, and organization. Unfortunately, we were told that there was no budget for any of that, and instead of hiring a new manager, they decided to appoint a director for the entire operations team, to whom we would report. The new director has been with us for about a month, and within her first two weeks, she expressed that managing our team was too much for her and started looking for a manager to oversee us. Although I’ve typically been content with my role, I decided to apply for the manager position since I have extensive experience and knowledge of our operations. However, when I expressed my interest, the director dismissed my application, claiming I was unqualified and preferred to hire someone with more experience, even suggesting a team lead position instead. This left me confused, especially since it seemed unnecessary for our small team of three. Later that same day, a suspicious guest visited our office, asking detailed questions about my role and expressing interest in the manager position. It turned out that this guest was familiar with the new director, which made me feel even more uneasy about the situation. I began to realize that the new director might be trying to clean house, especially after our event planner resigned and she had already interviewed someone from her previous workplace. Feeling discouraged and undervalued, I started looking for other job opportunities. I’ve been doing a lot of managerial tasks like scheduling, payroll, and team check-ins, all while being paid part-time. Despite this, the director seems to overlook my contributions and has only been checking in with me about team needs, which is frustrating. I’m now pushing back on taking on additional responsibilities without proper recognition or compensation, as I wait for them to find a manager.