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.

I'd love to know what line of work some of you are in.

Quite a few posts on this thread make me think that David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs should be required reading in schools

If you can do your work in 75% of the time you are paid for, then your hours should be reduced!

Most of these replies suggest people who are not in professional jobs with high autonomy. This has been the norm in every working environment I have been in. You are trusted to do the work, when and where and how is up to you. My last job had no set hours, just 'whatever it takes to get the job done'. Of course in practice high autonomy usually means high expectations (personal and institutional), long hours and hard work. I work for myself now, I Mumsnet and faff on the internet for a break but I still work hard and get a lot done.

As an eg, the other day I spent half the morning having coffee with friends but also worked until 1am. I also worked this morning. Professional autonomy means exactly that!

Doesn’t sound like the OP is in a post with professional autonomy, though, if the manager has already noticed she’s in her phone too much.

I think it would be really helpful if OP gave more details about her role, type of organisation and contract (eg is it a 37.5 hrs contract). Maybe those of us in underfunded public sector roles in health and education who, shock horror, neither go on our phone during working hours because there is no time NOR during our breaks (because we don’t have them, as we are dealing with kids or patients) will never understand a creative, media type of environment where a lot of time is spent well, thinking about stuff and creating things?

I’m not being arsey, I think public sector workloads in some places are DIRE and stressful as fuck for not much money (but job satisfaction is good overall, despite also needing to work at home in the evenings to keep up after doing a full day’s work), so I’m not saying that being overloaded with stuff to do is the ideal. I just think people used to those sort of workloads may not understand that there may be other sectors where it doesn’t work like that.

Having said that, I used to work in a law firm where long lunches were acceptable, and start times were flexible, but by god you were expected to work hard while there, and there was free alcohol in the fridge on a Friday to make up for staying late while everyone else was off at the pub or home with their families!

I’ve worked in other places were there were set morning, lunch and afternoon breaks, on a rota and this was stuck to rigidly. No-one worked through their breaks. So plenty of time for phone use then.

In some roles it’s difficult to set specific targets so hard to quantify what people are producing.

So, OP, could you give us more details without outing yourself?

I do think seniority is an issue tbh. If you're genuinely adding value to a business, to their bottom line profits, then you can expect to be valued and to progress. Showcasing this when junior will set you on a path to six figures, a poor attitude won't. I've done it so these aren't just empty words.

If you do the bare minimum and have an immature attitude then you may well keep your job (or not) but you won't get to a position where you no longer have to worry about being micro managed, because you'll be the manager.

The job market now is such that being petulant if you are pulled up for being on your phone multiple times an hour means you won't progress or be seen as an asset to the company.

To be honest as a business owner and employer, your comment that people sound like Victorian slaves is laughable and won't get you anywhere.

But if you're happy making posters at midnight and acting like an entitled teenager then you do you.

I'd love to know what line of work some of you are in

Specialist HCP recruitment - retired from running my own company now, but involved in consultancy for others in the field

Dont trouble OP for detail , she's been there a couple of months, still on probation? This time next year she won't remember any of it.

The OP has already said she's in a 'research-type' environment. That could be public or private sector, of course, but if it's in a university (particularly with limited or no teaching responsibilities) it's likely to be very flexible.

I don't think she needs to out herself - surely i's enough that many of us do recognise the kind of set-up where work gets done when, how and where one likes as long as goals and deadlines are met. In any case, no one except her manager will be able to say whether she is, in fact, fulfilling her contractual obligations.

That doesn't change the fact that the OP comes across as a bit of a PITA regardless - sorry OP

Showcasing this when junior will set you on a path to six figures

Maybe some people couldn't give a fuck about earning a 6-figure salary at any point in their career, because they understand there is more to life than the figures on your payslip?

Oh I recognise the type of workplace OP is at too but I also recognise that employees with her attitude aren't the ones who progress.

Or the ones who are retained in when there is redundancy / streamlining.

If you're shit hot at your job and trusted then nobody is looking over your shoulder. If they are then having such an entitled attitude is not going to help employees like OP.

Nobody owes you a living. Good staff contribute to the business by being responsible and enthusiastic and get this back in spades with flexible working and trust.

You have to do more than the absolute bare minimum to get more benefits than the bare minimum. It works both ways.

@MaudBaileysGreenTurban

A PP used this as an example:

My boss earns six figures a year. Yet he'll only be in the office one day or maybe two a week, and not a set day of the week at that. He takes prospective clients to long lunches. He loves cricket, and if he's at home and you phone him when there's a Test match on, you'll hear Sky in the background. On the few days he might be in the office when there's a Test on, he'll be checking the score online every five minutes. And nobody gives a damn because he's shit hot at what he does. There are no spies making sure he clocks in - he gets the job done in his own way and he's worth what he's paid. Once some of you get out of your present jobs you'll realise it's only minimum wage drones who operate in the presenteeism culture, jobs requiring brains give you space.

So I was offering my opinion, that to earn those six figures and be able to manage his own time effectively and be trusted by the business, he is worth the six figures he earns.

Some posters are not motivated by money and that's completely fair but using people on six figure salaries as proof people don't need to work hard is ridiculous.

He won't have gotten that job by performing at the minimum level required and being on his phone multiple times an hour.

I mentioned it because it was used as "proof" people should be left to their own devices at work. I'm perfectly happy for my brilliant staff to have that autonomy but I expect them to have a positive attitude and not be arsey if someone thinks they're on their phone too much at work.

They're paying for your time, if you use it well they wouldn't have a problem and if you aren't using it well then you'll be micro managed or let go.

Nobody owes you a living. Good staff contribute to the business by being responsible and enthusiastic and get this back in spades with flexible working and trust.

Well, I agree. I'm not defending the OP's attitude. It's more the utter disbelief on the part of so many posters that monitored, managed, nose-to-the-grindstone from morning until evening with set hours and scheduled breaks in between isn't the norm for many of us.

I think previous management probably let you away with murder because they were leaving and happy to pawn you off on a new manager. You are not being "micro-managed", you're expecting to be paid for pricking around on your phone. If I saw you on Twitter during work hours I'd give you more work too. Being flexible around family time is completely different to being paid to sit on your arse looking at memes. YABU, also a major CF

Ha - frog soup! The example you give is very poor - I don't get the impression that OP works extra hours to make up her time at all.

And how condescending - I work in a professional office and we have a high degree of autonomy but if I were OP, I'd be worried about my job!

No sustainable outfit can "carry" people who are paid full time and work 3/4 of it. Unless they are paying less than the going rate of course!

The OP has already said she's in a 'research-type' environment. That could be public or private sector, of course, but if it's in a university (particularly with limited or no teaching responsibilities) it's likely to be very flexible.

Maybe I'm revealing the limitations of my own experience here, but the whole manager, everyone in one office, set-up doesn't sound like any university research group I've ever encountered in my own work, or known anyone else in other disciplines work in. Several of the things she says don't sound quite right for her to be either a research assistant or a postdoc. Academics have a tremendous amount of freedom, but that's normally partially because they don't work in this kind of office environment she describes.

When I was an academic researcher I actually used to go to the library to do tasks I really didn't fancy because the sheer shame of other people seeing my procrastination on my laptop screen was motivating! In an academic set-up where everyone has their own office it's certainly possible to spend the day doing personal stuff/on Twitter/playing solitaire but I don't think that means it's exactly acceptable - most people would be embarrassed if someone else came into their office and found them doing that, and would make an excuse (maybe not about the twitter, as that's so widely used as a professional tool)

Unfortunately lots of the research/academic depts I'm familiar with have moved to the dreaded open-plan office set-up (or even worse, the hell that is hot-desking) so it would be possible, I think.

I'm hanging on to my tiny two-person office (with an office-mate who is hardly ever there) for dear life

Maybe she just has a better work ethic than you. People do this where I work, It does not go unnoticed. I've learnt to ignore it, not my problem if others want to slack, I'd rather put in a good days work which is what I'm being paid to do. Social media is for out of work hours or lunchtime. I would just say let your conscience be your guide.

Unfortunately lots of the research/academic depts I'm familiar with have moved to the dreaded open-plan office set-up (or even worse, the hell that is hot-desking) so it would be possible, I think.

But who would be the manager in this scenario? The HoD? The PI? Didn't OP also mention a CEO at some point (can't face reading the whole thread to find out!)? Again, maybe I'm just really ignorant due to my own limited experiences (I worked in humanities and all three of the research groups I worked in were tiny) so happy to be corrected here.

@Ghostpost if you’re using your phone for WhatsApp, I'll give you a sneaky tip: WhatsApp has a desktop application now!

Download it here: www.whatsapp.com/download

Instructions here: faq.whatsapp.com/en/web/26000010

Go forth and message in secrecy!

I'm hanging on to my tiny two-person office (with an office-mate who is hardly ever there) for dear life grin

I've actually recently (really recently) moved into university professional services and to my surprise I don't actually mind the open-plan office - I assumed it would be a big downside of the job as 'open plan office' was always such a dirty phrase when I was a researcher! But a) I obviously do a different kind of work now and b) I was always a coffee shop worker anyway when I could be. I can see how hopeless they are for some people, and some types of research.

You have no idea whether OP works extra time. If she's a researcher she almost certainly does. Research and esp writing are pretty brain intensive and when I'm writing I need v regular breaks (with interspersed bursts of flow when 5 hours pass in an instant). Slightly esoteric work patterns are a necessary part of the creative process not an optional extra.

I also work in an academic setting and a lot of it sounded very familiar for me, except for the bit about a manager. I don't know of anyone who has a manager like this.

I use Twitter at work too. I think many some other posters are imagining the OP surfing around social sites on Twitter. Twitter is a networking tool and I use it to promote my work and read about others. Tweeting is 100% about work.