An Unhappy Interim

One of the great joys of academic administration is the opportunity to live and work in different places and at different institutions. That’s a long way of saying I’ve been on the job market a lot in my career.

So I am used to making the transition to a new campus. While every job and every institution is unique, some features of the transition are remarkably similar -- like the challenges of dealing with an internal candidate who held your job on an interim basis before you were hired.

Interim appointees can be a source of great assistance to a new hire, or a source of great hostility. The ones that I’ve met fall into three broad categories: the happy interim, the angry interim, and the stealth interim. I’d like to describe each and offer some tips on how to work with them.

The Happy Interim Appointee

The most positive possible outcome occurs when the interim appointee has no interest in the regular job. Years ago, I found myself in that lucky position.

I began a new job formerly held by an interim appointee. He privately informed me that he had considered applying for the regular position but had decided against it, in favor of returning to teaching. He wanted a faculty life, complete with only passing interest in the university’s budget, no interest in any personnel review short of his own, and high interest in having a Tuesday-and-Thursday teaching schedule. The happy interim possessed a great institutional memory. He never sought to push his own agenda and, in fact, became a trusted and valued colleague.

The second-best outcome is when the interim appointee did want the permanent job, but takes things in stride when it goes to someone else. I had a very good experience once with an interim appointee who had applied for a permanent job that I ultimately landed. She wasn’t exactly happy with the way things worked out, but she didn’t hold it against me, and we went on to have a wonderful, collegial relationship that ended only when she pursued a new job like the one she had capably held on an interim basis. It was a pleasure to serve as a reference for her, and we continue to be good friends to this day.

The Angry Interim Appointee

I have been on both sides of the job market -- as the applicant and as the one doing the hiring -- so I have some appreciation of the incredible array of variables that determine who winds up with a given position. It’s a complex dance, and even after many hours of careful deliberation, mistakes are made all the time.

When a temporary appointee publicly declares her intent to win the regular position, only to lose it to another applicant, she can become an angry interim, certain that a huge error has been made. Things can get ugly fast, and often do.

From the angry interim’s perspective, there is the initial embarrassment and awkwardness of facing colleagues, and pondering who supported her and who didn’t. Then there is the indignity of working each and every day with the perceived interloper.

One extremely angry interim, who desperately wanted a job I took, privately admitted to me that he had actually become ill on the day I moved into what he felt was his office. When I made any changes in the organization, from minor things like standardizing the display of office hours on faculty doors to more significant matters like restructuring staff responsibilities, this wounded former interim took it as a personal affront to his leadership and decision-making abilities.

Although the angry interim understood, at least on some level, that in taking the job I had not intended to make his life miserable, he continued to act otherwise. In a fit of exasperation, I once told him that surely he understood that I had not taken the job to cause him grief or to harm him in any way. “Yes,” he replied, “but that is exactly what happened, isn’t it?”

The Stealth Interim Appointee

Perhaps the most interesting scenario occurs when your predecessor is an interim appointee who did not “formally” apply for the permanent post. I say formally, because I’m referring to interims who secretly want the regular position but do not apply or publicly announce their interest.

Stealth interims are surprisingly common. They all have their own reasons for not officially throwing their hat into the ring. Some don’t want to have to ask for the job; they want to be approached. More often than not, they fear the possible public humiliation and embarrassment of being passed over.

As a job candidate, it can be tough to accurately assess who is a stealth interim and who is not. Many interim appointees claim not to be interested in the regular job, but the key word here is “claim.” When someone denies interest in a job too vigorously, that’s almost always a sign of stealth.

When they don’t get the nod, some interim administrators move on to other jobs, but often they do not, and therein lurks the greatest danger.

At one college where I was a new administrator, a stealth interim remained who made many friendly overtures during my first weeks on the job and was frequently at my door, ostensibly to discuss some weighty professional concern. Those discussions quickly morphed into what I thought were informal discussions in informal settings, including lunches and social functions. Internal alarms started to sound when the stealth interim questioned me -- only in the most collegial and confidential manner, of course -- about what I thought about certain administrators and certain programs.

Being new to the campus, and not one to publicly comment on people and programs I knew little about, I was hesitant to make any judgments. However, when asked to comment on a controversy involving the provost, who was moving to reduce the number of programs on campus because of budget constraints, I shrugged and said that I hoped the provost would not move to eliminate a good program just to deal with what could be a temporary fiscal exigency.

At the time, I could not imagine expressing a more vanilla-flavored opinion. But a few days later, I got a call from the provost, who suggested that I was too new to the campus to comment on either the alacrity or the wisdom of his decisions. My retort was that I had no earthly idea what he was talking about. He then commented that he had heard a version of my statement from ... yes, my new good colleague and confidant who, according to the provost, desperately wanted the job I had recently won, but had never made formal application. The stealth interim was revealed.

Some time later, I was a finalist for an administrative job being held by an interim appointee who claimed to have no interest whatsoever in the position. He was quite adamant about that (as I said, a very stealthy sign). Ultimately, I was offered the job and took it.

From the very beginning, he seemed to go out of his way to criticize me and challenge my decisions. He frequently expressed interest in my health and emotional status (“Are you OK?” “Are you bearing up under the strain of the job?”) which I soon understood as code language indicative of a possible stealth interim.

If you find yourself in the position of considering a new job formerly held by an interim appointee who plans on staying on, I strongly urge you to meet privately with him or her as quickly as possible. During those important early days of a new job, keep in mind that it might be impossible to determine which type of interim you are dealing with.

Irrespective of the type of interim you are faced with, I recommend that you sincerely thank the person for his or her work and dedication to the organization. Ask your predecessor for advice as issues come up requiring background information that he or she might possess.

Public displays of sincere gratitude are also highly recommended. At faculty meetings and other such venues, thank interim appointees for their work. Do the necessary detective work to comment specifically on some positive contributions they made on the job. Then treat the interim appointee with utmost respect and courteous regard. With luck, this will establish a good working relationship, and any issues the interim has will fade over time.

Even if you are extremely careful and collegial, problems can fester, and in some cases nothing you can do will ease the animus. The angry interim can remain angry for years. Stealth interims can also harbor negative feelings about you (the person who moved into their office), about their colleagues (who may or may not have supported them), and about the organization generally (which should have recognized their worth and value). Over time, most stealth interims show their true colors, but recognizing a stealth for what he is does not make dealing with him any easier.

In landing a new administrative post, you may well take over the position from an interim appointee. For your sake, I hope he or she is a happy one.