What would you expect from a head of finance?

A new head of finance has just been hired and I’ve not enjoyed the experience.

She doesn’t seem to care about us as a team and only does what the CFO tells her. She doesn’t seem to have her own opinions.

We’re a really small team but she insists on having all communication with the CFO come to her first. Any work we produce for the CFO, she takes him into a private meeting to show him then will feedback his comments. But there’s only 5 people in the office so it seems overkill.

When he wants something done, she puts a lot of stress and pressure on us to do it, she doesn’t check with us first whether it’s achievable or not, she just agrees to it on our behalf then applies pressure even though she has no involvement.

She’s not met any of the wider team yet and they are making comments that they find it bizarre. The operations team have made some comments to suggest they’re not a fan as well.

The team seems more disjointed than ever, communication is limited, and she seems very threatened by senior members of the team.

Despite this, CFO says she produces good work but that’s only because she spends her whole day on his reports and has no involvement in the operational side of things. We’re extremely overworked but she adds more to our plate instead of supporting us.

She’s not very technical either. We were operating more efficiently without her and we were working more closely as a team without her.

She’s still in probation, is there a chance the CFO will wake up and smell the coffee? Especially if the wider team and starting to talk about it?