New manager keeps disturbing me with irrelevant things every time I’m on my phone :/

[Ghostpost]

I was employed before her, and have been here a couple of months. We’re in a research type environement and everything is really laid back with phones, work hours, days off etc. Everyone knows work gets done, deadlines are met so everyone is happy that the place is so flexible around family life.

She’s been here 3 days and has mentioned twice if I have enough work to keep me busy (😒).. I’m an adult and I know what I need to do. And although it would be really easy to take the piss here, I have been working incredibly hard to make a difference to our department.

I’ve noticed today she keeps coming and disturbing me every time I’m on my phone reading twitter or whatever. She’s making me feel like a school child not being allowed on my phone. She’s looked over at me a few times already whilst I’m typing this.

If I wasn’t working she would have a point to make, but I refuse to be micromanaged like this, as I’m not a child. It’s making me uncomfortable.

You should all go into academic research.

Lol, I can imagine all the academic researches reading this thread thinking oh no our cover is blown. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I can see how a shift in culture can be frustrating. You will probably find the new manager settles in after a while and comes round to the more relaxed atmosphere. I think she has your card marked though, you are giving her a perception that you are unproductive. Whether that is correct or not is irrelevant, you need to change her perception of you if you want to get on. But I also wonder if you were taking that culture just a bit too far from some of the things you've said and also if she isn't pulling up others. She also must come from a similar background so it can't be like this across your industry.

Back in the day, most firms didn't allow private phone calls.
This is the equivalent.

You're paid to work x hours per day. If you finish your work in x-y hours, find something else to do.

You never know, your manager may have been brought in to make savings. And there's one right there!

Stealing from employer lol

Imagine that - a manager who makes it her business to manage. The cheek of her! Get off your phone and get on with some work - she’s obviously clocked that you don’t have enough to do and as for your refusal to be micromanaged - not your choice - it’s obviously what you need. Disturbing you on Twitter! 🤣

FFS this idea that you should 'find something else to do' if you have completed your allocated tasks is ridiculous. There are plenty of jobs where you have to spend a certain amount of time waiting around - for another department to send over the stuff for you to do your bit, for a client to arrive/phone/email you. That doesn't mean you should scurry round dusting the office or rearranging the filing cabinet when neither of those things are your responsibility.

The fetishisation of 'work for work's sake' is one of the things that is profoundly wrong with contemporary culture. If your job involves looking after children or sick people then obviously you need to be engaged all the time; similarly so if you are constructing something. But nearly all the average cubicle-mouse Assistant Facilitator Line Manager jobs either don't need doing at all, or could be done in about a third of the time allocated to them. Many of them only exist (wasting resources and time) because of this obsession with people doing work ie obeying an employer rather than doing what they want.

I'm shocked this is even a question. You're not being micromanaged you're being expected to work whilst at work. You have absolutely no rights to use a personal phone or social media during working hours.

Suck it up and act like a grown up

She also must come from a similar background so it can't be like this across your industry.

No she hasn’t. She’s never worked in this environment before and this is her first managerial job.

Task switching every 10-15 minutes is not a good work strategy. Aim for 20 minutes minimum.

OP, challenge yourself to really notice how long you go between picking up your phone. Set a timer. I think you’ll find you’re a bit addicted.

Okay, I’ll tune myself today and check in here every time I look at my phone. 👀

Lol, I can imagine all the academic researches reading this thread thinking oh no our cover is blown

I can imagine the academic researcher I know saying “oh yeah, we have one of these in our lab too. The rest of us pick up the slack”

Make it your challenge to go longer and longer not using the phone, and she will be wrong footed as she can't complain.

Some of the comments on this thread are absolutely hilarious.

I think some of you need to realise that different workplaces are different! They have different cultures, different rules, different humans working in them.

Shock horror! Not everywhere is the same.

I don't suppose the OP is downing tools and saying 'sorry I finish at 5' when there's a deadline to be met

We can't actually know of course, but experience teaches it's unlikely from the sort of mentality which applauds "f**k off, I'LL decide whether to use my phone"

Interesting too to see alleged, hitherto unmentioned weekend work pulled out of the hat when most of a thread doesn't go an OP's way ... as if that's not a well worn path on here, raising an eyebrow among those of us who've employed hundreds and heard it all before

Well first look of the day...went an hour. 🤣

And I’m using my phone whilst she’s gone for her 2nd tea break since 9am 😒

Start asking her if she thinks the tea breaks are appropriate.

Whatever floats your boat but it doesn’t sound like a very fulfilling job.

Second look. 1 hour since last time. Maybe might have exaggerated the every 15 mins 🤔. I actually joined her on her THIRD tea break at 11.

No she hasn’t. She’s never worked in this environment before and this is her first managerial job.

There's your answer. She's used to the kind of workplace that many of the outraged people in this thread are used to. She'll soon figure out that the culture is different and she'll have to adapt or move on.

It's good that some industries are moving away from the idea that employees are paid to sit at a desk for x-number of hours and onto the idea that they're paid to get a certain job done. More industries should follow but, as you see from this thread, the turkeys are resistant to banning Christmas.

My old boss and business owner was an extreme micromanager. If you even touched your phone she would tell you to stop. However, all that happened is that as soon as she left the room for fag breaks/meetings we would all down tools and look at our phones or do personal stuff. The culture was pathetic.

@ReanimatedSGB

FFS this idea that you should 'find something else to do' if you have completed your allocated tasks is ridiculous. There are plenty of jobs where you have to spend a certain amount of time waiting around - for another department to send over the stuff for you to do your bit, for a client to arrive/phone/email you. That doesn't mean you should scurry round dusting the office or rearranging the filing cabinet when neither of those things are your responsibility.

The fetishisation of 'work for work's sake' is one of the things that is profoundly wrong with contemporary culture. If your job involves looking after children or sick people then obviously you need to be engaged all the time; similarly so if you are constructing something. But nearly all the average cubicle-mouse Assistant Facilitator Line Manager jobs either don't need doing at all, or could be done in about a third of the time allocated to them. Many of them only exist (wasting resources and time) because of this obsession with people doing work ie obeying an employer rather than doing what they want.

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

The idea that those of us rightly pointing out the op's piss taking must only have worked in one industry, one workplace! There's no such thing as a "job for life" and hasn't been for decades!

Personally

Lunch break! Have had a busy morning, afternoon looks a bleak.