A situation

Let us assume a scenario where the manager is not aware of the team member’s background and is not assigning appropriate work. This is causing some dissonance.

Facts:

* The manager is new in the team

* The team members are also new

* People have not had the chance to find out about the strengths of each other

* The manager has to get the things done quickly and correctly

The issue revolves around formation of a new team when the team members are not sure about each other and are all the while trying to gauge and judge each other's capability. Ideally, the manager should take time out to learn about his team members. In the real world of looming deadlines and burgeoning costs, the manager may be a little slow in reacting to people issues while trying to douse the fire in other areas of the project. May be the manager has some pre-conceived notions or assumptions in his mind about his team members. May be there is lack of time to plan the project properly. This may be the reason for assigning any type of work to the associate.

There seems to be an obvious lack of communication between both of them. The simple way to go about this is by having an open discussion with the manager and setting proper expectation. It is not only a person as a manager who sets expectations for team members, but the associate also should be setting expectation for his manager. 

My suggestion would be first to keep doing the work whatever is being assigned so that the project does not get impacted. If there is a concern on the skill of the associate, he should discuss it with the manager and give him alternatives such as asking for more time for deliverables or sharing the work with someone who has the knowledge and skills. The team member should clearly tell the manager that he is not enjoying the kind of work that is given but would still be willing to do the same for the sake of the project. This would help the manager gain some confidence on the team member and then the team member should try to project his skills and strengths and his area of liking on which he wants to work. The team member should tell the manager how much he would like to be part of the new project and how he can add value over there. Giving a couple of suggestions and ideas will show the manager the team member’s interest in the project and may be he will think of putting the team member in the project.

I think open communication and expectation setting is the key here.

While at offshore, when the team member is reporting to his own manager, an open discussion is easy. The same may not be possible when reporting to a manager from the client. In this scenario, the team member should take his offshore manager into confidence and tell his pain areas to him and also tell how he plans to approach the client manager. After taking the buy-in from the offshore manager, he should proceed to talk to the client manager.

An individual’s quality of deliverables are important in letting the manager know how dedicated you are to the project. But unless someone tells where his interests are, another person will never know.