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Two years ago my immediate supervisor retired, and myself and another person assumed his duties. This was supposed to go on until a replacement for him was brought in. I was assigned a certain governmental group to have meeting with, and the other person was assigned a couple of different groups. We both had separate duties which were added to by the retirement, including working on our department's budget.
Now our manager made the decision to promote the other person to fill the vacancy, which I thought was the wrong move, due to lack of education by the other person. I also lacked the required education, so it was no surprise that I did not get the promotion. Our manager relieved me of some my duties, including the governmental meetings I had attended, giving those duties to the new supervisor.
Now the other person, my new supervisor, has asked me to keep attending those meetings, until he has had time to make some changes in his part of the department, which would not effect me directly.
I feel that since I was relieved of those duties and had resigned from those boards, asking me to rejoin them "for the time being" is not in my best interest. I feel like it is unethical for him to try to remove some of his duties that he received, along with a $10,000 annual salary increase, while asking me to take over for a time while he make his changes. There was no increase for me in this change.
This is called 'delegation', and it's probably a permanent assignment. Yeah it's not fair but yeah you have to do it, IF you're not too busy to make the meetings. You're just too busy, aren't you.
It happens all the time. It happened to me just last year:
I worked at a non-profit. The previous manager left suddenly and unexpectedly, after a big fight with the board. I was quite curious about the vacant position but my education is far below that of the last manager. When I inquired, they showed me the requirements for the position: we were amazed at the long list of requirements - among them managerial experience of 10 years, PhD and fluency in foreign languages. My only comment was that such candidate is tough to come by and if available, he/she will probably ask for a very high salary (which the organization cannot afford). The answer was that the list was compiled after a long brainstorming process and advice from a consulting firm. Long story short, they couldn't identify a reasonable candidate in the next 4 months, in spite of all efforts. The next news came when my colleague was appointed to the position. However, he has very limited management experience and did not have even a BA... When I asked the secretary (my "insider" complice) she told me that no candidate accepted their offer. The board discarded the job description and the (impossible) list of requirements (in secrecy) and adopted a new one with a lesser title, but similar responsibilities. And, besides, the collegue is cute....
Back to the OP: think about the future. I can see your frustration and insult, and if you don't see yourself with the organization for long, do what you feel like. However, if you want to stay, not helping and/or cooperating with the new manager will damage your position badly. Such is life.
Why is this unethical? He's your supervisor. He has the authority to assign you any job that he seems fit. You on the other hand can take it to leave it. He then in turn has the authority to fire you for insubordination.
If you don't like this arrangement, you can either walk or complain to HR or his supervisor. I bet you that you won't get any sympathy from either one.
I tell you this though, since he's your boss now, you'd better be either sending out your resume fast or starting to follow his orders FAST.
The unethical nature of the original poster's situation can be stemmed in the difference in salary versus job duties. If to be ethical is to be honest and fair, then there is an unfair balance in pay for the supervisor and the original poster, who is taking on duties that are in someone else's job description and is not being paid for the extra work. So, yes, that would be unethical.
As for encouragement, I agree that you must keep a respectful and humble mind under your new supervisor's orders. Even though the lack of pay for more work might be unethical, it probably did not break any company policies, or laws outside the company, for that matter.
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