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How to Manage Up When You Have Two Managers
There is a legit reason to worry when no single person oversees your workload
Jessica Powell, the former Google vice president who wrote The Big Disruption and told you how to quit your job, is here to answer your common but tricky work questions. Check back every other week for more management advice with a tech inflection.
My work is split between two managers, and I worry that neither one has full visibility into what I do. How can I make sure this won’t hurt me, especially when it’s time for performance reviews?
Sometimes employees will get split between managers because their core job isn’t enough to fill a work day. One way of looking at this is the company is squeezing out as much work as possible from the human they have employed. (Welcome to capitalism! You are little more than a work unit!)
A more upbeat way to think of it is it can also be a chance for career growth for you, the employee. An additional manager, and a new project or challenge, is a chance to showcase your talents to a wider audience as well as learn from a different leader.
That said, there is a legit reason to worry when your boss comes along to sell you on the benefits of a split manager. How will you be evaluated fairly and holistically when there is no longer just one person tasked with evaluating your work?
To the degree this is in your control, I would strongly advocate for asking that one of your managers has a little more than half of your time. The 51% number is a bit arbitrary, but the point is that you still really want to have one primary manager who oversees the majority of your work and feels they can evaluate your performance on that basis. Otherwise, how will you disabuse them of their notion that you spend most of your time watching YouTube unboxing videos on the job?
You should also try to pin down your managers on the objective. Is this just about getting a specific piece of work done, reporting into an additional manager while you do this? If so, fine, but how long do they expect you will do it? Alternatively, is the assignment about teaching you a new skill and having you work with the person with the relevant expertise? In that case, what does…
