I'm a supervisor and have an assistant manager and manager above me. My team's morale is abysmal right now because of my manager's leading style. He leads with a bit of intimidation, way too high expectations, and sometimes takes advantage of others. This pisses off the entire team. Even people in other departments and other managers are beginning to hate him. My assistant manager isn't qualified for his position (basically confirmed by store management) and just does whatever our manager tells him.

I was discussing this with another department manager who I'm pretty close with. Basically he said I really should talk to store management about him or my team will always be stuck in a rut.

Here's the thing. My manager thinks me and him are pretty close (I've recently began to dislike him as he's now started taking advantage of me like he has the rest of the team) so if he finds out I went to store management he could make my work life a living hell if he wanted to. He may feel like I back stabbed him.

To top it off I'm going for a promotion sometime in February or March and in our company you need your manager's approval to go for a promotion. If he finds out I went to store management about him he could put my career goals on pause for a while which I obviously don't want.

If I do decide to go to store management they have to keep who I am anonymous if I request them to do so. But I'm afraid it will still get out somehow.

I want to go to store management because he's really starting to take advantage of me and the team really hates him for the same reason but no one wants to be the one to say something. If I knew for a fact that my identity would be kept anonymous I would talk to store management but there's always that possibility it will get out and I could potentially be screwed.

What are your thoughts? Thanks for your input.