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.

tell her you're busy and if she's got nothing better to do, perhaps she could fetch you a cup of tea. That'll go down well.

OP, you don't think you've been unreasonable. Fair enough. But your new manager does appear ( on the little you have written) to think you are.
Sadly, in that case, if I were you I'd start getting my CV in order and start looking around for another job.

Or jobs.

Because with your attitude you have I think it's unlikely you'll be able a retain a position for long

@jacques - I agree. However, assuming this new manager started on say Monday this week I imagine that these conversations are coming next week.

As someone upthread said (though with a different viewpoint) this is a real person with a real life - and the NM, much to the agreement of the majority of people on this post is giving clear signals that she’s not happy with what the op is doing.

Op is in a precarious position due to the amount of time she’s worked in her role, and seems fairly unaware of rhis. The only good advice here is to put that phone away a bit.

I understand this work culture you're on about OP, it's nice to have balance.

However, it sounds like everyone's shifted a bit too far in that direction at your place. It then becomes a low-expectations underperforming work environment. It sounds like you in particular are perceived as spending too much time on your phone (whether you agree with that or not). I'd do something about those perceptions.

Count yourself lucky. I worked for a man who saw fit to monitor my toilet breaks. He was a bully in many ways, and I made sure to tell HR all about that on my way out.

You want to check your emails in the evenings, you want to make up those data sheets that everyone forgot about..you’re willing to stay awake until 12/1am making posters or what not for conferences and meetings.

I personally prefer to work hard during the day so that I don't have to do those things in the evening!

Exchange a few minutes chat with colleagues? Share snacks around or talk about last nights must see tv? Do you not check the news/weather/read or send texts to your family and friends

Well yes, but before work time starts, at mid morning break, at lunch time, after work finished and occasionally during the mid afternoon break.

During the rest of the time - a quick hello. No drinks or snacks at other times here and no phones allowed outside of break times.

Surely if you spend 2-3 minutes at a time, every 15 min or so that's a huge chunk of time. Yes you might get the work done but imagine how much more could be done without that time. It must be a very inefficient business that can afford to have employees wasting over an hour of their day playing on phones.

I’ve had jobs where people have stood over my shoulder making sure I get things done

Ah right. So this isn't the first time you've had a manager unhappy with your output?

It amazes me how naive some people are about adults in the workplace. Yes in an ideal world everyone is responsible and nobody takes the piss. But it's not real life! There are absolutely plenty of piss taker adults out there who don't know when to stop themselves. Yet if a manager tries to deal with it then it's the manager in the wrong no piss taker is ever going to admit to being one and will just accuse the manager of being a micro manager.

Anyway what are you going to do about it OP? You keep defending yourself but that doesn't resolve your current situation?

"Pathetic backward mindsets"

But you are the one working in what sounds like some sort of a lowly face in the crowd ,repetitive task, glued to a screen position in the company. You might have made a few useful suggestions and increased your output whatever that means, but they haven't offered you promotion have they, is that what stings?

Making posters!!!! Not exactly top management tasking is it.

I think you would be better branching off on your own, if poster making is a career path these days, since you are clearly not cut out for employee status. Maybe your high flying brother could offer you suggestions.

You remind me of an employee re-deployed to a friend's team
"Hello new person, I'm longsfriend, the team manager"
" Right" looks around for a Man to speak to and hands coat to longsfriend without another word. One week. Watch yourself OP.

you’re willing to stay awake until 12/1am making posters or what not for conferences and meetings.

Umm, if you actually worked in work hours you wouldn't need to do this.

I had a guy once complain about his work load. I told him if he spent less time talking and more time working he'd easily get it done. He used to disappear for substantial whacks of time for a chat.

When you’re given responsibility and trust, you’re output increases dramatically

Ah yes, I was waiting for that one - the old "I'd give so much more if I could just have such-and-such". And to be fair it works with some mindsets, though not with those whose real subtext is "I want to justify doing as little as possible"

As those of us who've been employers know, the skill comes in spotting the difference, and I'd say that the mulish petulance in so many posts appears to place OP very firmly in the second group

As those of us who've been employers know, the skill comes in spotting the difference, and I'd say that the mulish petulance in so many posts appears to place OP very firmly in the second group

^^ this

My daughter is a manager and has a new assistant whom she asked not to use his phone during working hours, not least because the positions they sit in causes his screen to reflect directly in her eyes when he's on it. Her own phone is always in her bag and doesn't come out until she is on her way home or in lunch hour. If there is an emergency I need to inform her of I will skype and pray that she notices on screen but strictly only in emergencies. I think it is quite reasonable for your manager to ask this of you.

When I started my business one of the best pieces of advice I was given was “be careful who’s advice you listen to”. Op look at the advice given to you hear and read the subtext of who’s giving it to you.

I agree with most of the posts here, her appointment was probably to improve the outcomes of research. It seems to me that your abusing the flexibility, which could be to the detriment of other employees. Employees are expected to either finish a job and move to another, add finishing touches, or improvements to an existing job, or go home and not get paid. I wouldn't employ you under any circumstances.

You want to check your emails in the evenings, you want to make up those data sheets that everyone forgot about..you’re willing to stay awake until 12/1am making posters or what not for conferences and meetings.

I missed this bit before. Oh dear, you're doing this all wrong. As if it's commendable to be up at all hours doing menial admin because you haven't got it done during the day when you were supposed to. "But look how dedicated I am, sacrificing my sleep in gratitude to a boss who lets me twat about on mumsnet during my working time. Go me, the grown-up!" 😂

If you were smart, you'd want to be seen to work well and productively during the day so that your boss doesn't put upon you into your evenings and you get to have a life!!

you want to make up those data sheets that everyone forgot about

Everyone forgot about those data sheets because they're too busy checking their phones every 15 minutes. But hey, that's the environment here isn't it, and this new manager will get used to our under-performing culture here. 😂

She's just setting her standards but she does sound like she's on your back a bit. For now, check your phone at breaks and lunch only except for emergencies. It'll be better for your focus anyway. Be very positive and get on with your work. Check in with her and show her what you're doing, also ask her questions. You need to develop a working relationship that's about the work and whether you're on your phone or not and rightly or wrongly she's already marked you out. so show her you're capable, good at your job and not a phone addict. If she continues to be on your back in a critical way, the it might be a different question. I think it'll settle in time and you can be more flexible again but at the moment it's not worth going head to head with her on it. Reagrding managers though - are you in a union? If not, it's always best to join one. If she does turn out to be the manager from hell you can ask for support from them, but unions don't take backdated issues so best join sooner than later.

'.. about the work and NOT whether you're on your phone or not' that should say.

Lots of posts on here about 'mid-morning break', 'lunch hour', 'tea break' etc.

These don't exist in many modern work places now. There's no point banging on about 'just wait until your tea break' or 'put your phone in your locker' when that's entirely irrelevant to the kind of job OP is in.

I work in academia, get in at 7.30am, have lunch at my desk (if at all) most days, generally leave by 6pm. But some days I'll work from home, or leave at 4pm, or even take a couple of hours out in the middle of the day to have lunch with colleagues or get errands done (rarely, but it's feasible). I am required to maintain a work-related twitter profile, and much of my communication with colleagues is done via whatsapp as on any given day we might be in the office, teaching on another site, at an offsite meeting, at a conference, or working at home.

The work gets done because we trust each other and treat each other as adults. Deadlines don't get missed, work is done to a high quality. We get on well and support one another and understand that we aren't drones who clock in and clock out, but no one takes the piss because the culture means we are all invested in getting good results.

I do think that breaking off to check your phone 'every 10-15 mins' is OTT and some of the OPs posts have been a little, ahem, stubborn. I'm not sure I would necessarily value her as a colleague.

But equally many of the posts here demonstrate a really depressing mindset around work and what constitutes productivity and reasonable expectations. I would hate to work with or for many of the posters on this thread and feel extremely lucky that I have the job I do.

I’m so glad I don’t work where most of you do. Sounds like hell.

Oh, and I worked for many years in the NHS and I wouldn't have dreamt of checking my phone whilst on shift except discreetly in the break room (breaks didn't always happen either, and that is NOT A GOOD THING). But that was a completely different type of job and those standards and expectations would not be relevant to what I am doing now.

As for the 'how would you like it if the checkout operator checked twitter while swiping your shopping?' type posts...give me strength. I can't honestly believe people post this stuff sometimes.

I manage people in my ‘very flexible’ environment and one thing I always look at is why colleagues work late or log on over weekends. That is not a good work/life balance and my view is always

1. they are not productive enough at work.
2. there is too much work and not enough capacity.

I work very hard in the hours at work that as a manager I don’t need to work evenings ever! And most certainly not weekends. I would not want my team to either. Evenings and weekends are time to themselves! I still have time to enjoy at least one weekly lunch away from my desk and have lunches with colleagues or my husband.

I have worked for someone who literally sat over me OP I was bullied in my last job to the extent I collapsed and made the best decision ever to leave. You are not being bullied you are being observed. Grow up.

I'm not surprised by this at all, but believe that YABU in the extreme - along with many other people. I found myself in a job where I had too much time on my hands and was on the internet a lot of the time, having been promised a promotion and being put into a 'holding' position. I hated it, spent the whole time feeling bad that I had no work to do. I told my manager that I needed more. I did things out of boredom that others then took credit for, and found it utterly ridiculous.

You are paid to work, and anything else is a privilege, not a right. If goals are met so easily in such a lax environment, then the goalposts need moving. What's the betting that if people were on a bonus scheme of some sort, the level of time spent on personal stuff would drop rapidly? Music is one thing, most people are more than capable of working with something in the background, and it lifts the spirits. If you are working 'very hard' then take 'proper' breaks, makes whatever email checks you 'need' to make, make/take calls in a break room. Other than that, unless someone has children, or someone potentially in an emergency situation, phones should be switched off.

The trouble with a 'relaxed' work environment is that someone always take the piss. Maybe the new manager is under instruction to start weeding out those people. There are many people struggling to find work, and others who are taking it for granted. Either put on your big girl knickers and get on with your work, or find another 'job'.

I'm glad that most people agree that the OP has a terrible attitude.

I guess that's why some of us with a good attitude have progressed up the ladder to now run a profitable business of our own or secured a senior position.

Both of these outcomes mean you have much better income and are trusted to get on with your work without anyone micromanaging you.

If you're shit hot at your job people don't try to manage you out because you're providing a level of output that is worth paying for.

You sound really young and inexperienced in the workplace so maybe in time you will mature and understand how the path to success isn't available by people with a bad attitude.

Good luck!