To think managers don’t give a hoot about their team’s wellbeing

Individual team managers in my department mostly do care but their hands are tied by the powers that be.

The university I work for boasts about itself on mental health wellbeing and supporting staff who may have caring or parental responsibilities but in reality it is just lip service….they don’t give a crap. Not sure how much it helps a staff member with caring responsibilities to attend a seminar about caring, if there is no practical help. How much does it helps a parent if you offer flexi arrangements but knock back every request made to the department by hiding behind “business needs”.

Most managers I have dealt with have been quite prickly individuals tbh. The odd one has been good.
Most seem defensive, unwilling to help, quick to shift blame away from themselves and back onto the staff member. I have seen eye rolls in front of me. I usually hear them pass the buck immediately.

Luckily, I maintain a distance and am left alone to get my work done, then go home.
It's not always a pleasant job for them, but on one or two occasions, I have wanted to ask if they were trying to help me or hurt me.

I've just fallen victim to a bad manager and I handed my notice in last week. Why do they always offer to change things after you get to that point?

She had some sort of breakdown not due to work - due to childcare.
I should not have employed her really she had red flags (self harming) but wanted to give her a chance

I'm a manager and have been for many years. I think I'm nice and empathetic. I see my role as getting the best out of my team and will go to some lengths to make that happen.

I think some mangers care. Others just on paper. Maybe managers piling on them. I do think wellbeing is a platitude.

My employer is always telling us to look after our wellbeing, but at the same time the sick leave policy is really awful. I'm talking people working with broken limbs when they are in a lot of pain, because they don't have enough paid sick leave and can't afford to take unpaid leave.

I always did
Cared if they were poorly
Covered when they were off
Asked if they were ok all the time

Will always do so
But got bitten in the arse once with psycho team member that threw her laptop into a pond

Same here, my manager is a workaholic, colleague off with stress yet it’s all still being piled on us and feels never ending.

I think it depends on the workplace. My previous workplace had a wonderful ethos around well-being - practically it looked like senior management understanding being told 'no' when they inserted unrealistic targets.

If you have a senior management that expects the impossible, this gets pressed onto middle management and they become 'shit managers' because it's the only way to stay in their role/pressure people to get the jobs done. No matter how good the manager, if they're being expected to manage an unrealistic workload they either wont stay in the role, or will have to adapt their management style.

I care. I really care but equally the work needs done and the organisation will go under if we don't deliver. I'm doing my best to find time efficiencies to help, I'm also taking tasks on myself where I can but I'm working weekends and evenings to keep up with my own workload so can only do so much.

My team are stressed and I hate that but what can I do when I've done everything I can. We can't afford more staffing like most organisations can't these days.

Last place I worked, response to people feeling stressed was that it was fine for the leadership team to work overtime, but it was making more junior staff feel that managers were "too busy"
response was to always make time to do everything, not deflect & say you were too busy; working tons of unpaid overtime was fine, but always put a time delay on team and email replies so that it wasn't stressful for recipients.

presuming that the recipients weren't a touch suspicious on receiving half a dozen emails on the dot of 9am.😂

I’m sorry this has been your experience. I am a manager in a relatively new role. I completely changed the service model and service delivery to ensure my team had agency and could express their views on their caseloads. Before this they had felt disempowered and voiceless. Change is possible!