Am I being put on competency?

[PithyMauveZebra]

I’ve been working at a school for a while. Less than a year. The department is very very fractured. Not only that but I’m a strong personality and have snapped a couple of times at work because of the pressure.

I have had my manager tell me that one of the senior leaders is now stepping in for a few weeks to provide some support to me in the department and when I spoke to him, he talked about his experience and how he struggled as a hod when he did it years ago, working with fractured or tricky teams much like mine and so on and so fourth. I’ve found I’ve had a tricky relationship with my manager too.

I have spoken to a friend and now she’s saying be weary of competency. They might be going down that route. But I said surely they would have to mention that I need support or have targets given in my appraisal. Or can they start things like this? I’m a bit worried as to what’s going on?

This wasn’t the place I saw myself growing. It’s sadly a bit toxic. Also yes that’s fine but my managers approach would and does create defensiveness in anyone. It’s very hard to manage something when you’re micromanaged down to the way you print.

I used to be a teacher OP. We had a young teacher who was struggling (on many levels) and the first thing that SLT put in place was support. This was before any official C&C measures were implemented, the idea being that often, with support, C&C will be avoided. I very much doubt they want to go down that route for a temp position, so I think they’re trying to keep the train on the rails as it were with a colleague supporting you. I’m pretty sure that if it were anything official you would have had to have something in writing.

On another note, my DH has been a manager for years (and a v good one if the feedback is to be believed) and is now very senior. He tries to work as collaboratively as possible and is extremely mindful of the workload of his direct reports. So if, for example, his boss decides that certain changes need to be made, DH will have a conversation with the team who need to make the changes, will ask if they can immediately see any issues with that and will also look at their workload as a whole to see if they have capacity and if not what he is going to deprioritise from their current workload. He has taken on many ‘fractured teams’ in his time and turns them around by listening, caring about the individuals, sticking up for them when needed but expecting work to be done well. He also doesn’t pass his stresses and pressures down the line. He’s been in a position where his manager has been a micromanager but you still can’t push that onto your team and have to find ways to make it possible for them. Having been a teacher, I think it’s highly likely that your team are already under huge pressure, barely coping with what they already have to do and now are being asked by you to make other changes. I know it’s hard when you have been asked to implement these changes, but as a manager, you have to make sure that you’re not just downloading things onto your team but that you listen to their responses and make sure they have the time and space to make the changes.