O/T Supervisor keeps usurping tasks

Hello, this is mostly a vent, but if anyone has any contructive ideas, I'm willing to hear them! So I've been contracting with the company for five years now in a creative position. It started off very small (five people) and has grown to almost 200 people. I was in department A under a supervisor who was very clear with directions and feedback. Just how I liked it. Give me a task, tell me what you want, I'll do it, if it's not what you had in mind, tell me and I'll change it.

Six or seven months ago, the company went through a reorganization and now I'm in department B with a supervisor who's been with the company for a year (first supervisor was one of the original 5 employees). I'm good at my job. I helped the company get to where it is. But supervisor from Dept B has this bad habit of either not giving me feedback then either outsourcing the task or taking it on himself OR giving me positive feedback then doing the same - either outsource or doing it himself. Now, for some reason, he gets outward support from HIS superior while his superior privately admits he doesn't like what supervisor B has done with the work. Additionally, NO ONE from any department likes working with supervisor B. He has a bad rep, but he's still there for some reason.

So I waste my time on these projects that I think are going to come to fruition with my work contributing then I come to find out that none of my work made it in! I don't know if I should just grit my teeth and continue just to give them work that won't be used or will be butchered by supervisor B and just be thankful I have a pretty flexible wfh job working less than 40 hrs a week.

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Honestly if there is somebody

Honestly if there is somebody higher than supervisor B I would go talk to them about the issues. I work for a "group" that is notorious for hiring people in management positions not based in their ability to manage, but because they have a PH.D or because they have a masters rather than a bachelors. I had a promotion be sat on for over two years because I had a poor manager. After I got his manager involved suddenly promotion, but I can't get back those two years I was screwed over!

Yes, there is supervisor B's

Yes, there is supervisor B's boss, the SVP. But he is very political and tells people what they want to hear. It's worth a try, though.

Maybe

Supervisor B is uncomfortable providing 'negative' or critical feedback. Or possibly uncomfortable with delegation as it is giving up control. Often newer managers want to liked and will sometimes do (or re-do) a task or deliverable themselves since they feel it is 1. easier and 2. doesn't require providing negative feedback to another person.

If you've seen how they 're-do' your work, you can try and anticipate what they might want. Or simply tell them 'I noticed in the past in that you made changes to this yourself. While I don't mind, I feel like I can learn your tastes better if you instead communicated your thoughts to me to allow me to try another version'.

If you still are getting nowhere then you can try and escalate. But sometimes we have to accept less-than-ideal bosses in exchange for other workplace positives (e.g. flexibility and not too many hours).

Caninelover gives excellent

Caninelover gives excellent advice. Some managers, particularly new managers, want so badly to be liked that they actually cause confusion and harm to the employees and company. I hope this manager has the opportunity to do some professional development in how to give constructive feedback.

I also think a conversation with Supervisor B is in order, so they understand that you want to do the work, and do it the way they want it. But, as in all creative projects, what they see and what you see are never going to be exactly the same, and it's a normal process to go through several draft stages with feedback and revisions. Assure Supervisor B that your feelings are never hurt if your ideas get changed, but it does feel bad when work is taken away from you.

You're right that supervisor

You're right that supervisor B is uncomfortable providing negative feedback. And other person with a similar position to mine has told him repeatedly that we would like honest feedback, that we can handle it, etc. And to be honest, the work he's redone is 80% of the time not better than what I or the other employee have done. And even his boss has admitted as such to other members of the team. I'm not sure why that hasn't been addressed with him. But I agree with you that I need to weigh my other workplace positives against the negative of having a bad boss. My biggest thing is (without giving away too much identifying info) that my work that is seen in retail outlets, and what this does is take away from sense of accomplishment and seeing my work out in the world.

It's possible

The SVP is not comfortable giving negative feedback since, as you said, he's political and is a yes man. So he's setting that tone and new manager is probably still feeling this out after one year with no confidence as to what they can and can't exercise agency over. Sometimes dysfunction starts from the top and probably your old boss was there so long they knew how to 'manage up' better than new boss.

Not letting new manager off the hook,and understand your concern about the final product beiing lackluster yet publicly visible. I would keep my original proposals as well as the final product in my portfolio. That way if it ever got to the point where new boss isn't cutting it and is let go, or you decide to leave, you can discuss in your portfolio what your original proposal was, what it ended up as, and although you disagreed (and why) you were still professional and incorporated your clients final vision.

Bad bosses do stink. Sorry for that. I always try to behave more like your old boss, but I know not all managers do.

Thank you, caninelover! I'm

Thank you, caninelover! I'm going to friend request you and send you a pm about one more question, if that's ok.

Sure

Sure, no problem!

I like the idea of asking

I like the idea of asking your supervisor for a post project briefing to understand what you did that worked.. and what you did that didn't work and to understand the reasons for significant changes or overwrites. The reason you can give is that you want to improve the quality and usefulness of your project submissions and you would like to learn what you have submitted that is good.. but also what could be improved in your supervisor's opinion.

With a supervisor reluctant to give negative feedback... setting up this post mortem opportunity may be a way you can get some of your ideas explained and understand why they decided to go a different direction.