Sometimes heirarchies suck

Like most workplaces, mine has two heirarchies: the official one that involves pay scales and reporting structures and official responsibilities and the much more important one that involves actual jobs and who will actually listen when you tell them what to do. That's the one that matters, and right now, that's the one that sucks.

As of last week, there were officially four of us reporting directly to my manager and one person who reported to the most senior scientist among the four of us. All four of us were, on paper, equal. Only on paper. First of all, the one guy, we'll call him D had a direct report. He had also been at the company the longest and was at the highest level. That made him de facto first chair scientist.

That was last week.

This week, D left for another group. 

The rest of us have been left to scramble for our place, and his job seems to have fallen to me. There were two of us at the same level, me and another woman I'll call C. C has been with the company slightly longer, but I have the more relevant background.

Trouble is, de facto first chair scientist kind of sucks. There's no pay raise and no recognition and everyone comes to you with eight million questions an hour.

All I want is to be left alone...