I Thought I’d Landed a Great Job. Then I Started Working With a Department With an Infamous Reputation.

Good Job Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Liubomyr Vorona/Getty Images Plus. Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Good Job is Slate’s advice column on work. Have a workplace problem big or small? Send it to Laura Helmuth and Doree Shafrir here. (It’s anonymous!) Dear Good Job, I recently started at a new company. This is my first “big girl” job with benefits and all that. To make a long story short: The company that originally hired me merged into a much bigger company. All was well, or so I thought. I was thrust into a different position than what I did previously. Great, right? Wrong. It was my old supervisor’s job, and she left only two days before the merger. So now I’m doing her job with extremely limited training. I guess my real problem is a specific department I have to work with. They have been told multiple times to get their acts together to make the workflow smoother. But nothing has changed. Would it be inappropriate to ask for a face-to-face meeting with this department through my new supervisor? —In Paperwork Hell Dear In Paperwork Hell, Congratulations on getting a promotion, whether you wanted it or not. I hope you got a raise and new title? If not, write in again, and we’ll have a different conversation, but let’s get you through this problem first. Ask for a meeting with your new supervisor. If you haven’t yet, tell them about the problems you’re having with the other department. When a work conflict arises between teams with different managers, it’s typically up to those managers to sort it out. Offer to provide solutions for the workflow problems or participate in a cross-departmental meeting, but let your supervisor take the lead. Once you’ve addressed this immediate problem, ask your boss for regular meetings. Tell them you’re new to your position, your predecessor left without passing along proper documentation for how to do this job, and you’d like more support. Your supervisor may be able to mentor you more closely, suggest trainings, or otherwise advocate for you. If they came from the company that absorbed yours in the merger, they should be able to help you understand the culture and expectations of the new owners. There is always some confusion and miscommunication after a merger, so be patient with your new boss, but give them a chance to help you thrive in your new role. —Laura More Advice From Slate My 13-year-old niece “Lacey” suffers from several learning disabilities and was drowning in the public school system. My brother approached our parents and me for help paying to put Lacey in a private school with smaller classes and more individualized learning. It is expensive as all hell, but Lacey has been thriving these last three years. The problem is that our parents are retiring and can’t afford to keep paying their share while my husband and I are looking to buy a vacation home near his family (they live overseas). Never miss new Slate Advice columns Get the latest from Prudie and our columnists in your inbox each weekday, plus special bonus letters on Saturdays. Advice Workplace Jobs