Anyone else fed up of the whole work culture in the UK?

I’ve been much happier in my role since I accepted that I was thanked on the 5th of every month when they dropped my salary into my bank account every month without fail. They uphold their part of the contract implicitly and me mine. If they didn’t pay me, I would not go to work- simple. It’s transactional. Why do I want anybody to kiss my backside for something I’m paid to do?

Im in the NHS tho, my expectations are low😂

Its sad that it takes a lot of luck to find a decent, supportive employer and team, and even that can change quickly. We spend so much time at work, when its made more miserable for no beneficial reason its frustrating.

Our bosses must have been told that we all need more praise.

I was surprised to get an email from my manager saying something like "I just wanted to say I've checked your work and you're doing a really good job thanks. Keep up the good work, it's appreciated."

On speaking around, we all got exactly the same message.

We've since all had the same message at various intervals.

It doesn't seem very sincere if they're cutting and pasting the same message to everyone repeatedly!

No OP this doesn’t sound good at all. At your ‘wellbeing checks’ I’d start saying how cold you are in the office! As a bare minimum they need to put the heating on or get staff wlectric heaters. Might help them reconsider 3 compulsory office days.

I work in the NHS, someone with 30 years service recently got given a teabag as a thank you. Encased in a little generic thank you printed card. We couldn’t help but all laugh as that just sums it up. Most of us are replaceable but so is your workplace xx

Sounds like my old (hideous) job in Early Help, working alongside social workers and basically managing quite awful family scenarios that were literally beyond early help and should have been on SW caseloads... but were thrown at EH because there weren't enough SW. The constantly box ticking and office rules.. I made myself v unpopular with my management by vocalising some of my thoughts on this stuff. But the families liked me. I couldn't get out fast enough tho. Only job I've ever wanted to run from. But I did not.. stuck it out until I got another (much better) position far away from local government

Sadly the same everywhere and like many of you, being in the workforce for almost 40 years you become rightly cynical!

A new leader starts, changes everything, so we have to, then another, rather than just allowing us to get on with the job we know and successful at.

For me, teaching, oh the number of times we have a new focus/buzz word, which we've actually been incorporating into our lessons for years, but you have to change the wording and prove it's being used. You go home to modify terms used in shemes of work, having printed out the lesson plans for inspection for the year, what a waste of time, effort and paper!

my previous role was excellent, freedom to achieve your targets, as long as you played ball you could have pit stop cafes, full english breakfasts etc, bit of shopping when completed your rounds, yes weather was tricky at times but overall best role i had, then of course upper management had ideas and by by team

'Wellbeing days' another total piss take.

I worked in a place where staff were allowed a certain number of 'Wellbeing days' to be used on days they felt overwhelmed or anxious or for whatever reason they felt they couldn't work. They could phone in and say they were taking a 'Wellbeing Day.'

These were wildly abused as one the days people were expected in they take one and then say things like, 'Although I didn't come in, it wasn't a wellbeing day because I ended up working from home after all.' Then ten days later they'd do the say thing.

Generally, the most dysfunctional places I've worked in, are where senior management are rarely there because they are WFH and then the piss taking filters down.

You sound like you work in the same place as I do - Civil Servant. None of my team are even in the same country. They're all spread out over the UK. So I empathise completely.

Get another job if you are dissatisfied with your current position.

I think we work in the same department. It is exactly like that!!

Yanbu. I agree with PP, as it is now hard to get rid of the piss takers, we all suffer and end up taking their unfinished work/covering excessive sickness or given the harder stuff while they claim something or other to escape working hard.

The 'wellbeing' thing is a joke, the employee surveys which are a waste of time. God I can't wait for retirement!

I work in healthcare and I'm reminding myself that my job pays for my mortgage.

I find the physical layout of offices in the UK generally unpleasant. Too many people in one room, banks of desks that make both privacy and enough quiet to get on with stuff difficult. Space allocated to workers seems to get more minimal as time goes on.

I've been to offices overseas for the last couple of companies I've worked for and the environment has been much more pleasant. Small groups of people working in a room, more spacious, desks grouped in twos rather than long lines, more breakout areas, decent canteens with good food.

Yep, I recognise everything you describe OP, plus putting our targets up massively and when we ask how on earth we’re supposed to achieve them being told it won’t be a problem as they put their hands over their ears and say lalalala - but there’s no point changing jobs because you know anywhere will be the same.

I do office contract work during the day (I also work events in the evenings) and I've worked in some very dysfunctional places. It seems like they are now bringing in temps to cover people who WFH so that at least someone is in the office. In one place I worked, the director had relocated to Italy and was only coming into the office once every two weeks for a 4 consecutive days. As a result this had filtered down so that the Dept head, managers, etc were also rarely there. When they were, there was lots of accusations of people 'taking the piss,' not being contactable when WFH, etc. Clearly, 'the rot' had filtered down from the top. Attitude was very poor.

I think WFH has ruined work places. Before Covid, office work was great fun with good camaraderie and everyone going to the pub after work for laugh/socials.

These days younger staff don't socialise / suffer 'social anxiety' / prefer to WFH / etc.

I'm 59 and I'm glad I'll be retiring soon. Not all, but some of the organisations I have recently worked at have been almost Kafkaesque, with corridors full of empty offices and little to no cohesion.

I've always loved working and office work was so much fun in the 90s/2000s etc.

The work I do in the evenings working Art Events is completely the opposite.

Yes i agree work culture is awful. Im in the nhs and you can truly see why its on its knees. Managers upon managers galore but what are they doing because we certainly never see them and only hear from them when they want to criticise something or when something has gone wrong. The conscientious people are working alongside intensely lazy and careless ones. There is no performance management. No practical help. Laissez faire approaches for years alternating with spells of micromanagement.
Constant pretence of being focussed on mental wellbeing. Never has wellbeing been so neglected. Being overloaded with work and if you are found to be working through your lunch or staying late you will be in trouble.

You know you're in trouble when an nhs trust has a proclaimed aspirational value of integrity....... And you really do not want to know how theyve understood what that means......... Its a definition you might give to a 6 year old......

Hahaha do you work on my team??? Sounds just like my place. Only my hours keep me there as I can work round the kids, otherwise I'd of been out of the place a good few years ago. I've found it's much worse post-covid and now flexible working is just another stick to beat us with.

You make some good points but I think a lot of people have forgotten or never experienced the workplaces of old. Huge gender pay gaps, some roles inaccessible for women, no flexibility at all - 5 days in the workplace - five and a half days pw in my parents generation. Staff reports that the staff themselves never saw, Suzy is really quite intelligent and could do X but fits in well with the girls in Y team…Inappropriate language, inappropriate behaviour etc.

Yes, it’s a pain when the FM team can’t get the heating right. Yes, annual mandatory training - especially when whatever is flavour of the year topic is added - is a pain, but just get it done. Finally, join a union and / or professional body, you never know when you might need them.

I think there’s a lot of truth here. Even just 10 years ago I think work felt much more rewarding for a lot of people, plus they had realistic prospects of being able to retire.

Which is rubbish. We will be working until 70, the office boomers can ram it.

Op - does your employer have a funny acronym? I recommend transferring to the .other ship if you can

Some places are definitely like this I agree - I've worked in a few! But they're not all like that, I love my job now, partly due to the work and partly due to the culture. Much better work/life balance and being treated like a valued person really makes a difference.

But I'm curious why you've made this into a UK thing?

Civil service? I’ve just got out. The final straw was when a director got a bonus of my years salary. Talk about piss taking!!

If it’s actually below the legal minimum temperature then I’d work from home and say I wasn’t coming in until the heating was fixed

"Find another job"

If only it was as easy as that 🙄