Hi All,

I have a situation  that I would appreciate your advice on.  I work for a small engineering company which is managed by four directors.  Two of these are shareholders and it is their father's company - one is the MD (also Sales Director) and the other the Chairman (also IT and Operations Director).  The other two directors are Engineering and Finance and HR Director(FD).  Reporting to the FD is myself (HRBP) and our Finance Controller (FC).

As a company we are striving to move from the parent/child model to a 'manager empowerment' model and the FD regularly refers to his emphatic belief in this.

I work quite closely with the FC for obvious reasons.  I have been with the company for almost three years and in those three years the FC regularly talks about her relationship with the FD.  She has over the years told me about ways in which the FD undermines her authority.  So for example he tells her his opinions about members of her team and makes it clear when she doesn't manage them the way he would or thinks she should.  He also tells her about his approach to managing our US team (which he is currently caretaking whilst the new GM gets up to speed) - he tells her that he is promoting one of the operations assistants into a finance accountant role but if she doesn't get up to speed in the timeframe  that he expects her to, she will be out - and he can do that in the US.  When I talk to him about the way he is approaching that, he tells me that he has fully consulted, has notes and is giving support.  She also tells me that he has been supportive.  

Up until recently, the conversations with the FC have been anecdotal and part of wider 'solving the problems of the company' type chats that she and I have, but in the last month or so, she has talked about managers needing emotional guidance to deal with the way the company treats it's employees.  She has always referred to her relationship with the FD as a marriage and they have marital bust-ups that they always de-brief about and move on afterwards.  She tells me that she likes him as a personal and doesn't think he means to undermine her deliberately, but she's now talking about 'divorce'.  

The FD has told her that his life plan means that he will move on soon but in a conversation with me last week, she said that she is worried he might have changed his mind and might also be considering how he can manoeuvre her out of her role.  She likes him, she is worried about his mental state, but she also needs to protect herself.

The truth is, I have experienced a level of undermining myself from the FD but not to the same extent - he has told me for example that he will attend a meeting to observe the discussion and will 'try and keep my mouth shut'.  He means that he will let others speak rather than telling they are wrong because he has a beef with them, but I also feel he is observing me and testing my abilities too.

So far I have suggested that the FC keeps notes of all conversations with the FD but this doesn't feel enough.  Should I be giving the MD a heads up about my concerns? I feel I should in case things go sour, but in the absence of a formal complaint is this fair?  I'm torn but feel that absorbing information and not acting in some way isn't right