Secondment at work

Thomas. PLease.

Thomas. PLease.

Thomas. PLease.

Soldato
Joined
5 Jul 2007
Posts
5,510
Location
London
Has anybody here got much experience with secondments at work?

I recently applied for a permanent position at work (a promotion from my current position), the hiring manager has decided to offer me the job but as a 12 month secondment.

However, my current senior managers are saying they won't let me go on secondment, and are blocking me from doing so.

Where do I stand?
 
I was blocked for three promotion secondments last year. Unfortunately the union and hr told me there was nowt I could do. Be very careful not to rock the boat - use positive language in your conversations with all parties, talk about wanting to stretch yourself beyond your comfort zone etc etc and you might end up woth something internally. You don't want to fall out with your existing management as you could end up working for them for a long time.

Edit - I think I have maybe understated the strength of feeling I had at the time. I was all for progressing with formal grievance procedures, starting a personal work to rule etc etc but I was talked round by some of my more experienced colleagues.
 
Last edited:
From what I understand of it, the current management team have the right to block the secondment. However, I'm not sure on the reasons why they would want to do this, and the reasons they would be allowed to.

Just curious to see what other experiences people have had in similar positions as well.

Big white dog, so you just took it on the chin and tried again? I still have the union and HR available to me, however sounds like they might not be able to help as you say.
 
If the company says no then that's what they say. The only thing you can do is appeal to their sense of kindness/empathy/they like you/it's good for everyone/etc and not anything else!
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
From what I understand of it, the current management team have the right to block the secondment. However, I'm not sure on the reasons why they would want to do this, and the reasons they would be allowed to.

Just curious to see what other experiences people have had in similar positions as well.

Big white dog, so you just took it on the chin and tried again? I still have the union and HR available to me, however sounds like they might not be able to help as you say.
Click to expand...

Well, in essence, if you go on secondment it means the team would need to find someone to replace you....

kd
 
Which they'd have to do even if he was given it perm.

If they won't give you the position permanent then you'll have to back down. Kicking up a stink will only result in you being black marked amongst your department managers.
 
There is not much you can do.

Sounds like one of those situations where you need to find the position you are wanting to be seconded to in another company/public sector body (depending on which you are in) then leave.

And properly leave, don't cave in when they offer to keep you and let you be seconded etc as you can bet once an external job opportunity has passed and your secondment is up you will be back to square one.
 
I did take it on the chin to a certain extent. I applied for everything going, until eventually I got a permanent internal promotion. I am glad I didn't rock the boat too much, because things would now be very awkward.
I don't know what I would have done if they hadn't given me the internal job. If I were you I would leave it this time and hope something else comes along soon...but make it clear to your boss you are looking for something more than your existing responsibilities etc.
 
I've done 3 secondments at my place and managed the affects of losing a member of staff in my team who went on secondment. Secondments at my place can be from 4 months upwards with no maximum, however after 12 months you have no automatic right to your old position back (but a position of the same grade). As such the majority do run from 4 to 12 months.

My last 2 secondments ran back to back and will have meant I have been out of my official position for coming up to 2 years. However my current secondment is managing my team covering maternity so I would have been an idiot to replace my own role.

I find managers don't want to authorise secondments if either they know your area will struggle to backfill the position as a secondment role, or don't want to invest the time an energy in training your replacement which they know will be gone in the future. Plus in 12 months time you may also need to be retrained as things will have moved on/you would have forgotten a percentage of your original role within 12 months
 
It depends on your circumstances really

I worked with a chap many years back that was in telesales and was good at it, but he wanted to move into IT and do development work. He'd managed to do a few things that showed he had the skills, the development lead wanted him but the sales lead blocked it

He had a conversation about it with the development lead and ultimately he wasnt happy to stay in sales, so he took the risk of resigning and informing her of the fact before hand so that she could attempt to jump in and make the case that if they didn't allow him to move he would just be lost

In his position he had no intention of staying as a sales person though and this was before 2007 and a time when he could have found another job (even in sales if he had to) fairly easily, for him the gamble paid off and he then went on to be one of the companies top developers and ended up working primarily improving the bespoke CRM used by the sales team, they were ultimately better off as a result because it improved the way they handled their customers, he included a few niceties like when a customer called in they'd be steered towards their usual agent the system automatically popped their account details before the agent even answered the call, so they could give a personal answer 'Hi Dave, blah blah' like they'd actually recognised the number these were business/corporate customers so it gave a great impression
 
Last edited:
Thomas. PLease. said:
However, my current senior managers are saying they won't let me go on secondment, and are blocking me from doing so.

Where do I stand?
Click to expand...

You ask why they are blocking you from a secondment. Just say 'Can I ask why this is happening and the reasoning behind it please just for my records for future career enhancements".

Make a decision from there on..
 
Appreciate the advice guys. I hadn't actually had the official answer until today, which was to deny me the secondment. I was pretty much expecting this, and glad I kept my cool really. I just asked why this decision had been made and didn't make further comment to my manager.

However, I did go and visit the hiring manager, who was unhappy to let the decision go, and will be talking to my senior manager, and his own to see if there are any other options.

So its yet to be decided, but I'm glad I didn't fly off the handle to begin with, so thanks for that!
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
Appreciate the advice guys. I hadn't actually had the official answer until today, which was to deny me the secondment. I was pretty much expecting this, and glad I kept my cool really. I just asked why this decision had been made and didn't make further comment to my manager.

However, I did go and visit the hiring manager, who was unhappy to let the decision go, and will be talking to my senior manager, and his own to see if there are any other options.

So its yet to be decided, but I'm glad I didn't fly off the handle to begin with, so thanks for that!
Click to expand...

Where I work does a lot of inter-office secondments and it's quite often the case that one manager talks to another to get the permission. Don't get your hopes up but normally where I work they end up letting the secondment happen, albeit somewhat begrudingly.
 
To a degree the hiring manager has brought it on himself by offering it as a secondment. If you're capable if the job they should be offering it to you outright.

Offering a secondment makes the matter a bit more complicated for your current management, which I'm sure you can appreciate.

Personally, if someone on my team wanted to leave (secondment or not), I wouldn't force them to stay. I may want to keep onto them for a period of time to transition someone else in to fill the gap, which for an internal job move I think is a fair request.

Hopefully they can reach some sort of agreement and you can move on :)
 
Wink said:
To a degree the hiring manager has brought it on himself by offering it as a secondment. If you're capable if the job they should be offering it to you outright.

Offering a secondment makes the matter a bit more complicated for your current management, which I'm sure you can appreciate.

Personally, if someone on my team wanted to leave (secondment or not), I wouldn't force them to stay. I may want to keep onto them for a period of time to transition someone else in to fill the gap, which for an internal job move I think is a fair request.

Hopefully they can reach some sort of agreement and you can move on :)
Click to expand...

This is what I would have thought the usual outcome would be. Its opened my eyes to the fact my department and manager don't really have my best interests at heart. If it comes off that they uphold the current decision, I fail to see why they think I'd want to stay in the department anyway!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom