Should I ask for a managed move....

[hardworkharriet]

I am a civil servant, Higher Officer Grade. I love my job and I am very good at it. A new manager joined our team 6 months ago and has done everything possible to undermine me. I complained to senior management and my union but do not have enough evidence to bring a successful grievance and senior management are reluctant to step in other than give me another line manager and arrange mediation which hasn’t happened yet.

I rang in sick today because of stress and anxiety about an incident that happened yesterday. I am considering asking for a move to another team -there is a bit of stigma in doing so in my dept.

Has anyone done this and do they regret it?

[Polarbearflavour]

Fellow civil servant here!

Can you apply for internal vacancies instead? There are so many jobs on Civil Service Jobs right now!

Why is there a stigma? There is no point in being in a job that makes you so unhappy. I would go for a managed move and see what happens.

Sadly, poor management and bullying is rife in the Civil Service!

Different situation but I’m looking at doing a managed move as I’m unhappy in my current role and my other half is in the military and I want to move to his new base.

[grubblyplank]

Also a long serving Civil Servant. Your post is so similar to my circumstances-new manager 10 months ago, has it in for me and has sent me off with stress and given me a less than favourable performance management report and marking. Slapped me with a first warning about my attendance so I can’t apply for other jobs. Just miserable at the moment-management above aren’t interested.

I can’t believe that people are still treating other people in this way!

Go for the managed move-get out now before you end up in the same boat as I now find myself. Good luck

[Polarbearflavour]

I wonder if we all work in the same miserable Department!

Banking in the City is a lot nicer to work in than the Civil Service these days! So many nasty people / oddballs around.

[hardworkharriet]

Thanks and so sorry to hear about your circumstances. The current PMR system is a bullies charter. Are either of you in HMRC?
I have applied for other jobs without success - about 15 in the last year, with 4 interviews. Very competitive in my area.

[grubblyplank]

Yes HMRC.

Also applied for jobs with no success but that’s down to lack of support from management and lack of opprtunities due to being remotely managed.

Shocking state of affairs where I am at the moment and highly unlikely to get any better.

[Polarbearflavour]

I’m MoD - but the part I’m in is bespoke trading entity. Worse place I have ever worked and I’ve been around!

Apparently MoD main is better to work at - on a base or military establishment rather than a head office staffed with jumped up civil servants!

[BinRaidingRaccoon]

Polarbear, I think I've just left the same place. It was awful, I'd tried escaping for a few years into other CS departments. The run down infrastructure, the continually fucked toilets....

[Polarbearflavour]

BinRaidingRaccoon - were you at the big HQ site with “neighbourhoods?”

Hope you have escaped to something better!

[BinRaidingRaccoon]

I was indeed - in the mighty NH1 with its failing toilets and leaky roof.
I escaped to be a SAHP as childcare and commute were a massive hassle. I don't miss it.

[Polarbearflavour]

It’s a ridiculous place, loos always out of order and brown water in the taps! As well as the complete lack of people management...I don’t blame you

[Ewanwhosearmy]

Also in NH1. Toilets are no better but we did get our sink fixed. Just took a few months.

[BinRaidingRaccoon]

I think NH4 is the tattiest overall, my old floorplate smelt of toilets all the time. Great when I was pregnant.

Hah, weird and reassuring to think there was a load of disillusioned MNers there. The cliquiness, dull colleagues and impossibility of ever getting anything done really got me down.

[Polarbearflavour]

I completely agree BBR!

I’ve found the internal bulletin board on the intranet and quite a few people think the same.

Apparently MoD main is better. So we shall see if I get a job!

[BinRaidingRaccoon]

Defence Bulletin Board is insane - the book reviews, the weird spats over nothing....
Good luck - I used to be seething at having navigated traffic, childcare issues etc then have fuck all to do while sitting on the toilety floorplate.

[Alm1986]

Ooh can I join this conversation? I just made a post about looking to move to another department. I want to escape NH4 lol.

I've never been so bored in a new job! And being new to the civil service I'm still gobsmacked at the waste of payroll!!

[allthegoodusernameshavegone]

Are you being paid to be off sick?

[Polarbearflavour]

I’m bored as well. I have no idea what my colleagues do all day...go to meetings about meetings? It’s also a place full of grey men in suits building their little empires.

Have you noticed it’s very top heavy? Don’t get me started on contractors...

[BinRaidingRaccoon]

One of my best moments was being sent to meet someone in another team and being told he was about 50 with grey hair. Yeah, that narrows it down...
NH4 is Weapons, right? Spent 3 soul destroying years there.

[Polarbearflavour]

Ha ha BBR! Most people seem to have been there 20 years, they wouldn’t survive in the real world! I’ve worked in the private sector which is also a hell of a lot nicer and better paid.

Staff survey results out soon. Will anything change? Nope!

[BinRaidingRaccoon]

Staff survey time always good for z laugh. The trouble I found was that none of the questions really addressed any of the major staffing issues, meaning I had to shoehorn my bile into the free text boxes.
Surely it's also time to be thinking of excuses to sack off the work Christmas party, remember one horrible year when everyone from our OC ended up in the Lloyds on the Waterfront. Shitfaced middle-aged snogging. Shudder.

[Polarbearflavour]

I enjoyed filling in the survey. Therapeutic.

I refused to organise the team Christmas thing. Sub teams are doing their own thing instead. I’m not going to any of them. I don’t like these people at work, why do I want to spend my free time with them? Urgh.

My new work game is seeing how little I can say in one day. I’ve had days where I don’t speak all day. The record is currently two words, I’m trying to get it down to zero.

[BinRaidingRaccoon]

The one person I bothered staying in touch with often goes days without any talking.
I got lumbered with organising it one year. Thankless.
I resented paying to have a crap meal with people I didn't like. I once left immediately after the food to go shopping. That didn't go down well.

[Polarbearflavour]

I was speaking to some old colleagues at the bank HQ I used to work at.

They think the Civil Service sounds absolutely bonkers! This place is a joke. I would go back to the City happily but DP is being moved around with work military so it’s not on the cards yet.

Everybody knows that I’m moving. None of the managers have said anything to me! They just send emails about how they have a number of posts vacant. You would think two people doing the same job leaving within months of each other, both saying the same things about why they hate the job would be a red flag right?! Wrong. No emotional intelligence here!

[BinRaidingRaccoon]

Sigh. They just don't get it, do they?
How much longer do you have to work there for?

[Polarbearflavour]

Staff survey results are shockingly bad

I have 21 working days left as loads of time off over Christmas. I just find it amazing that nobody can mention me leaving to my face.

My managers are pretty nasty and vindictive - but never to my face.

I’m still applying for other jobs outside of this place. Even though my new team is a different building and role I would rather leave altogether. They don’t have to know that