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Listener Q: Is My Role at Risk Under New Management? · Unspoken Career Truths

• 0:00
  Hi everyone, welcome to a little bonus episode of Unspoken Career
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  Truths. I'm Lauren Levec Gilbert.
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  And I'm Cara Wood. And we're here to be the
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  coworkers you can trust. We had a listener write in and
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  tell us what was going on at her workplace.
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  So thank you, Amy. And we are going to talk about
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  your scenario. Lauren is seeing this for the
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  first time. I'm I I kind of.
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  Like let's. Talk like let's tackle this.
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  So I'm gonna just read the scenario and then we'll we'll
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  talk and hopefully we'll give you some good advice.
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  And if folks have additional advice, please write and share
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  and comment so that Amy gets the collective thoughts from the
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  crowd. So I'm a social media manager
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  for a medium sized company and it's a role that I've held for a
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  year and a half. I like my job and have been and
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  have been growing the size of our following.
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  The company that I work for just got acquired and new management
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  brought in an agency for me to work with on social and
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  according to my boss quote UN quote, grow our following even
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  faster. It's very frustrating for me
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  because now I'm training a team that knows nothing about our
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  brand or audience and I feel like maybe they are just
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  preparing for me to get replaced by this agency that I'm
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  training. It's like my work has doubled.
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  I have to plan what they are going to do and give them
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  strategy and then I have to review what they've done.
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  I am still the one looking over all the performance metrics.
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  I still I still like the company and I like the direction, but
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  should I be looking for a new job?
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  Oh, this is a really good one, especially because I feel like
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  this happens more and more, especially with like companies
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  getting acquired and just in the market that we're in now.
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  So here would be my initial reaction.
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  Amy and car I'd love. I can't wait to hear yours.
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  So my initial reaction is try to change your perspective that
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  this could potentially like supercharge the way that you're
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  doing your work and help you shine and do even more in your
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  role. So I would look at it as you now
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  have a team of however many people in the agency to help you
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  grow the following that you've already really kind of started
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  to grow. It's one of those things where
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  the beginning work is a lot, but it will pay out in the end.
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  But I do think that your caution in terms of what does this mean
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  for my role in my future is not, it is valid.
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  I do think it's valid and I think it's always something to
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  be aware of. But that's also why it's great
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  that you are looking at the performance metrics and you're
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  setting the plan and you're determining like what is
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  happening next and how you are showing up as a brand on social.
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  I think what's always healthy in these scenarios to do is to make
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  sure you're also keeping up with your social and your presence,
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  whether it's on LinkedIn or whatever channel it is that you
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  use to make sure the work that you're doing is getting shared
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  just in case. Because if there is an
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  acquisition, there's usually a lot of change.
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  Nobody really knows what's going to happen.
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  Things are shifting, people are figuring things out.
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  So I would say it's a positive cuz it's supercharging, but
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  you're valid in kind of trying to see what happens next for
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  your role. Yeah.
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  And I, I think Lauren, you and I are aligned in our feedback.
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  Like Amy, we see you, we hear you, you are going through
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  change twofold. Like you've got this acquisition
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  that you're going through and the whole company is and then
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  you've got your role has changed.
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  Like you were making cool content and it was like just you
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  doing it and now you've got other people to navigate.
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  But as Lauren pointed out, this is actually a secret promotion.
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  Like they're not paying you more, but they have just up
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  leveled what you can write on your resume and what you're
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  doing. Because you're managing an
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  agency now and you're probably communicating back to your boss
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  in a way that's a little bit higher level 'cause you have a
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  whole strategy to represent instead of just like the work
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  that you've been doing day and day.
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  So think about it as like a secret promotion.
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  That's not to say if you feel like in your gut that you're a
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  little bit more uncomfortable and you wanna start also looking
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  for a job like do it and know you've got this extra bullet
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  point to add to your resume because congratulations, you
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  just got a secret promotion and it's a lot more work and it's
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  new stuff. So we see you that like that.
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  It's frustrating, but this is a cool potential opportunity for
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  you. Yeah.
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  And I think it's always Cara, that's such an excellent point
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  because working with an agency is also a strategy and a
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  learning experience, right? Like agency work versus being on
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  the other side versus being in tech versus being in brand,
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  whatever industry is really important to understand, like
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  how they go through their briefing process, what their
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  metrics are. So also take this as a huge
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  opportunity to see another side or another industry that you
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  maybe have never experienced before.
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  Maybe you hate it, maybe you love it.
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  Like regardless, it's a new context, it's new people, it's a
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  new experience. And Cara's point about adding
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  that bullet to your resume is also super strong coming from a
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  social media perspective, there's probably a brief that
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  you have to write well. Have you learned a better
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  process for briefing? Can you include AI and how that
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  briefing happens? Can you optimize the way you're
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  working internally with all of your cross functional partners?
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  Like there's a lot of things you can learn from this and you can
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  show that you were able to do in any future job.
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  So I just hope that you can look at it as a shift of perspective
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  that to Carr's point, you got a secret promotion.
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  It's a huge learning opportunity and it's a great resume builder.
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  Yeah. And the last thing I'll add is I
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  got this great advice from management consultant John
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  Metzger when we met in an airport.
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  My company was being acquired at the time and he told me start
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  using we and not US versus them. And so as soon as you can, this
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  new company that's come in as your boss like be on their team.
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  Even if you don't 100% feel like you're on their team, start
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  using like the collective and and at least present yourself as
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  if you're fully on their team so that they want you on their
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  team. That's such a great piece of
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  advice because everybody's figuring it out, right?
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  Like there's a change for everyone and there's a lot of
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  moving parts, but you're all in the collective.
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  So if you can approach it that way, I think everybody will feel
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  included. Thanks everyone, and if you have
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  your own scenario that you want us to comment on, you can reach
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  us on our website, unspokencareertruths.com or at
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  unspoken career.truths.com@gmail.com.
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  We'd love to hear what you're going through.
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  And that's a wrap. Thanks for joining us on
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  Unspoken Career Truths. Don't forget to follow us on
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  Spotify and Instagram. And if you like this episode,
• 6:55
  share it with a friend.