I've been made manager of another employee who has half as many years of experience as me, but who holds the same job title as me. I was informed of this by email, with a one page checklist of...

Paragraph breaks, for the love of god

Does this count as reading a book?

Sounds like you’re qualified to manage this person based on your experience. Just own that role and be their manager. I understand you want/deserve a more senior title - so act the part and start fighting for it.

Maybe you will be promoted soon after? Definitely don’t be concerned about being the same level and implementing new processes. In my role I have to implement processes for those 3-4 levels higher than me as well as 3 lower than me. Great ideas earn respect and it sounds like you have background with this employee that put you in a place of “seniority” already. You got this!

You’re overthinking this - waaaay over thinking it and over explaining to us which means most likely to yourself too. You’re totally right you should be more senior - the situation isn’t the issue - the issue is that you have t fought for all these things that the person you’re now managing is getting. Start with a simple conversation, tell your boss how you feel about it and where you want to get in 6 months and what you want now. Don’t ask, don’t get.

You are WAY too title conscious. Do what they asked you to do and make it clear that you will be doing their reviews and that while you are open to different processes and procedures you expect them to use yours unless they show you a better way. Suck it up and lead buttercup. The title will come if you act the part

One tip though - don’t compare what you’ve got and haven’t got vs these other people when you talk to management. Talk about the processes you’ve implemented and the value they’re adding to the business - the closer you can get to tangible bottom line effects the better - eg. saving hours and so making accounts more profitable, allowing the business to stop employing freelancers by training them up, driving efficiency across accounts. Then talk about how you want to continue adding that value to the business. Think about the business’s goals right now and about your boss’s goals and what’s going to make them look good to their boss - then align your argument with that. Don’t just ask for a title change - ask to be running several people within the department your way within 6 months. And when you do it - take them more ideas for improvements - but ones that won’t create more work or risk for your boss.

I’m actually angry that I read that whole post. Stop being a crybaby, you sound ridiculous.

Re-reading and who cares if promotions are meant to come after another 9 months. The status quo of your role has changed and it sounds like it will continue to. Also if they’re hiring a bunch of people at this level they’ll need someone to head that group up , formally. If it’s not you it’ll be someone else.

"Whomst”

I feel ya OP. It’s much easier to lead when you have a clear mandate.

‘Get over it and start doing it’ is a typical response from someone who is in a position where they need to deal with these sorts of issues day to day in employees. They’ve forgotten what it’s like to have these issues in your mind and still try and do your job.

OP - don’t let it go, but come at it another way. Power and influence comes from building a large group of supporters. And you get that by ensuring you’re the person who is fighting for others pay rises (especially people at your same title level or lower), sending positive feedback about those peers to higher ups, promoting the work they do and making sure you’re there to listen when they have issues. In return, the team are more likely to take on your initiatives positively and defend them. You become valuable and influential beyond your project/team/department. And then you look like a manager/leader and the title will come.

But the best part about this, is that you’re a key support mechanism for a lot of people now, and the prospect of you leaving has a far greater impact in the minds of agency management - if OP leaves, how many others will go with them? And that fear sharpens senior managements thinking when it comes to salary.

As long as you foster mutual respect, provide either direction or support to them when they need it, and communicate candidly, then you should succeed in managing this person. If they display any prolonged resentment, or aren’t willing to work with you — thus creating a toxic environment for you and other team members — then they need to be removed from the team. Sometimes the latter is inevitable, but I’d say it’s a rare occurrence.

You might be over-thinking this.

Get over it and start doing. But, what might help is thinking less about the hierarchy of it all, and more about yourself as the Team Leader, the way a peer might be on a pitch. Helps keep the dynamics palliative and focus on outcomes

Stop whining and lean in. SHOW them you’re senior material now that they’ve given you this trial run. Based on this post, sounds like you have some growing to do :)

... things i'm responsible for. That lists includes the basics, such as onboarding and showing them where things are, answering questions for them, etc, which I've already done to the best of my ability during their freelance period (they are now fulltime, which is why they were given a manager). But it also includes things like setting targets for them to hit, doing their performance review every year, being aware of their workload, overseeing their professional development, etc. The problem is, how do I credibly do this? It's obvious between the two of us that I'm the person who has more experience based not only on length of time in the professional workforce, but also in terms of ability to digest the more technical and detail oriented aspects of the role. However, again, we have the exact same title, and he only started a month after I did. During the few months that we've both been there, I've been the person who has developed all of the streamlining processes that we now use, I've developed all of the templates we use, and I've developed all of the tracking processes that we use to make deliveries to the client more efficient. When he first started as a freelancer I walked him through all of that, but was also honest that I'd only been there a month and didn't know a huge amount at that point, and assumed, since we had the same title and that i was never informed that i would eventually be managing him (or anyone), that I should treat him as an equal who was free to come up with his own way of doing things that worked for him. However, now that i'm his manager and am also loosely overseeing another freelancer (again, with the same title), with yet another freelancer on the way whom I'll be responsible for training, i'm not sure who to credibly manage people who are viewed as being at the same level as me title wise. I feel like if I sit them all down and say "I've developed a new process for how we do xyz that will streamline the process and ensure fewer errors, and I would like us all to be using this" that they're going to look at me like "who do you think you are telling us what to do when we're all at the same level?" Additionally, during my 10 year career, I've never had a manager with with me to develop a growth plan like they want me to do, nor have I ever had a performance review or formal feedback beyond a passing "you're doing awesome, keep up the great work". I feel out of my depth here. I'm glad that recognize that i'm capable of guiding the other team members, and I appreciate the vote of confidence, but i'm also, frankly, angry that they haven't given me a clear title that signifies that i'm now responsible for everyone else with my same title, and they did this after refusing to give me a senior title during hiring negotiations, with part of the reasoning being "you're the only person we'll have with this job description, so even if we made you senior you wouldn't be senior to anyone else anyway", which was true for less than a month before they hired this other person whom i'm now supposed to be managing. I would ask for a title bump, since frankly I've already been doing the work of the higher title, but I've been here three months and reviews/ raises/ promotions aren't scheduled for another 9 months. What do I do? How am I supposed to "manage" people whom i'm not actually above title wise without them feeling like i'm the self appointed tsar of the team?

TL;DR I've been formally made a manager of someone who started a month after me as a freelancer and is now fulltime, but holds the same title. I'm also sort-of managing freelancers with my same title. How am I supposed to "manage" people whom I have easy more experience than, but who have the same title, and are probably (and somewhat reasonably) going to view me as an equal who shouldn't be managing them or telling them how to do things in the first place?

@VP1, sorry about that! I summed it up right below. 🙂

☝🏻yeah but if you’re not given one - and most or the time nobody is - you create one