I'm worried I was hired to be a scapegoat
Got hired to manage a project that was already well under way.
Project is for a client who supplies another who supplies another client. I'm in contact with the next client in the chain, but not the two others.
Place is a small shop who never had a PM. Owner told me he has "too much on his plate", but never gave a clear expectation of what is my role in the company.
At first I thought, this is great I got my work cut out for me. Organise the process, assign roles, standardize comms, build a project time-line. Everyone was on board... until I started implementing. Now, I'm mostly ignored.
The kicker: they managed to slip in a required 50% deposit in their contract, but from I gathered, it was never fully communicated to their client and they signed off without realizing or thinking it would be enforced.
Now, the client expected production was underway since February. We got the deposits in May. Our client communicated to theirs that we'd be delivering this week, but I was barred from starting before the start of the month. Not to mention I started a month ago.
I organized a meeting between the two presidents this morning to hash this out. Ours bailed last minute, stating he needed to grab a product that was ready for pickup two weeks ago. Blamed me saying he thought it was a call meeting, even though I send an email and called twice to make sure he understood.
Anyone was in this situation before? Not sure sure if they just wanted a quick cash grab or their organization was never going to be able to deliver and now I was hired just to be thrown under the bus.
TLDR: Project started in February, main client is expecting delivery next week, company did mostly nothing until I was hired last month and barred me from starting until two weeks ago, team is not doing much to help, owner is MIA, delivery won't be possible until mid-June at best. Was I hired to be fired?