Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Who was BU? Manager or Colleague - Time And Pay

214 replies

Notss · 22/05/2019 14:08

Hi all,

I’d welcome thoughts on an issue that happened in the office last week; as I can see both sides and wanted others thoughts:

We’ve just gotten a new manager. Before he joined, the unwritten policy was that as long as you didn’t take the P you could leave the occasional half hour early for appointments, childcare whatever as long as your work wasn’t behind and you would made it up at some point when it was needed.

The new manger however isn’t keen on this; last week a colleague asked if she could leave half an hour early for an appointment. The manger asked her to email him with a written request. She was then allowed to leave half an hour early but was docked half an hours pay. (We’re salaried)

Yesterday, we were in a staff meeting lead by this manager. It got to got to the end of our directed hours; and we were about two thirds through the agenda. My colleague stood up, said see you tomorrow and walked out. She said this morning it was in response to being docked pay — if that’s the way the manger wants to play it, she isn’t working a second beyond her contract hours.

What are people’s thoughts?
Thanks!

OP posts:
VampireSlayer19 · 23/05/2019 19:45

Your colleague rules and your manager is petty and silly! As long as work down and not taking the piss it’s worth managers being flexible.

I will always work harder for a manager who is flexible.

In fact mine completely supported my fertility treatment even tho I was in probation and I didn’t even tell them it was that, just medical treatment. I intend to stay working for him as long as possible and work my socks off for him when required as I know he is decent and fair.

winniestone37 · 23/05/2019 20:00

Obviously I'm with your colleague!! The manager sounds angry and inflexible.

AnotherWickedWitch · 23/05/2019 20:53

I'm with your colleague too. Well done

GeeksCanBeMumsToo · 23/05/2019 21:08

Boss is a dick. Good on her. In my experience it’s only going to get worse from here, so I’d start looking for new opportunities if I were you! You might want to check your contract too, as I don’t think what he’s done equates to “salaried” pay unless stipulation in the contract to work x hours per day. It’s usually weekly set hours and thus your colleague could have made up the 30 mins at another time that week?

Hushhush89 · 23/05/2019 22:43

I agree with your colleague. When I use to do bar work I remember when the park manager wanted a meeting with us. It was my day off, first thing he said 'if your not working today your not being paid for this meeting' so I got up and walked out. If they don't want to pay up for their workers working overtime they can't expect them to stay....

rebbonk · 23/05/2019 23:19

Your new manager obviously couldn't manage a good sh*t

pinkstripeycat · 24/05/2019 06:51

How can all these English folk have never heard the word gotten? I am English and I have heard it.

gamerwidow · 24/05/2019 06:59

How can all these English folk have never heard the word gotten? I am English and I have heard it
They’ve all heard it they’re just being grammar arses.

Dollywilde · 24/05/2019 07:18

This happened to me in my last job. It was a busy time (we had a giant pitch on) and I’d done two 50 hour weeks on the trot. The following Monday I arrived at the office at 9.05 because my train was late and my manager gave me a bollocking in front of the rest of the team, including people I was a mentor for. I found a new job and left.

Am now in said new job. I come in early and stay late. I’m coming in early to help a colleague this morning. Will be at my desk 7.45 and will be leaving at 4.30. I haven’t actually cleared this with my line manager yet but I know it won’t be a problem, because she’s not a dick. Smile

Oh so yeah I’m 100% team colleague!

Acis · 24/05/2019 07:30

I think some managers make a fuss about timekeeping because it's something that's easy for them to control and where they can throw their weight around easily; it gives them the illusion of management and means they avoid making more difficult decisions. I had a manager once who would have phases of obsessing about this, usually when he'd read some bollocks in a management magazine or similar. I remember the phase when he decided to obsess about the time people spent at the beginning of the day taking coats off, having a pee, making tea, having a quick chat etc, and said we must all be at our desks ready to start work at 9.00 on the dot. All that happened was that the tea-making etc got postponed for half an hour, and people started getting ready to leave at 4.50 p.m. because they insisted that they leave at 5.00 on the dot.

Scotland32 · 24/05/2019 10:52

Well done to your colleague. Makes me sad though that this new boss thinks that his rules are the recipe for a harmonious and productive workplace. He sounds clueless. The people who work for my business have enormous flexibility and it means they deliver and we can hire the best people!
The manager is a fool.
Please give your colleague a pat on the back from me!!

Mummyontherocks · 24/05/2019 15:55

If I were you I would start looking for a new job straight away, or be prepared to be a doormat. The manager was well out of line and will continue to behave in that way.

Original poster
Notss · 24/05/2019 18:37

Well just to update you all:

The manager has now done the same to a colleague that asked to leave at 4 rather than half past. Three people have resigned (including the original colleague) and I think I’m going to start looking for a new job.

Thanks fo mr all your input

OP posts:
Original poster
Notss · 24/05/2019 18:38

That bottom line should say:

“Thanks for all your input”

Clearly got fat fingers!

OP posts:
StealthPolarBear · 24/05/2019 18:38

Whoa! Have they all got new jobs?

InACheeseAndPickle · 24/05/2019 18:40

Thanks for the update OP. I will never understand why a new manager would come in to (what is presumably) a functioning team and change the ethos in a way which is bound to massively piss everyone off. How can they justify it to their superiors when people are less productive or straight up quit?

AlexaShutUp · 24/05/2019 18:47

I think she was wrong to walk out of the meeting without saying anything, but the manager was an idiot in the first place to dock her pay. As a manager, I have always found that flexibility works both ways, and it's stupidly petty to start fussing over half an hour's pay. Very short-sighted, he clearly doesn't understand the value of good will in an employment relationship.

CloudyForest · 24/05/2019 18:50

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Dippypippy1980 · 24/05/2019 18:58

I have managed teams for twenty years - I have always been flexible with people, on the understanding they will be flexible with me.

This was a really poor management strategy - he has burned any good Will he would have had from his new team over half an hour.

He sounds like an arse, and a bad manager.

InACheeseAndPickle · 24/05/2019 19:12

@CloudyForest

Your post makes literally no logical sense. Either your paid to work 9-5 under strict hours or you're not. You can't say "why should you be paid when you leave a little early" and then say"you have an obligation to work for free for the good of the company". Completely inane!

You have no obligation to your company to work longer than your allocated hours. You may do so out of good will - however if the same sense of good will is not extended to you when you ask for some flexibility then it's very unlikely you'll be prepared to.

CripsSandwiches · 24/05/2019 19:15

@CloudyForest

Your post is so logically inconsistent I'm surprised you wrote it out without being embarrassed.

You say I don't know why anyone would expect to paid to not work.

Then in your next sentence: you have a duty to your company and to your managers to produce the best output possible for your company. If that means staying late, so be it.

let me turn that round for you. You don't expect to pay anyone when they're not at work - why on earth do you expect someone to be at work when they're not being paid!

This is logical absurdity in the extreme. I'm surprised at how many awful managers manage to survive (although often they don't for very long).

ScreamingValenta · 24/05/2019 19:16

I'd have sacked her on the spot

I was going to say that, if your staff have been with you more than two years, you could find yourself in trouble if you 'sack them on the spot' like that. But I can't imagine many staff stay for two years in an environment which is so one-sided.

Dippypippy1980 · 24/05/2019 19:21

Cloudy forest - your work environment sounds dreadful. Would you really have sacked a member of your team for leaving a staff meeting?

You and I have very different leadership styles - my team would and have worked through the night and over many weekends for me. In exchange I do my best to make sure they can make the events outside of work hat are important to them. We all have lives outside of work, and we all have appointments. If the manager felt strongly he should have asked her to make up the time - an easy ask apparently as he has poor meting management skills!!

AlexaAmbidextra · 24/05/2019 20:43

CloudyForest. Your DH doesn’t run a private school by any chance does he? Hmm

Travis1 · 24/05/2019 23:18

@alexa - great minds, I was about to ask the same 😂😂