To think this is not an acceptable managerial style

[UseMyName]

Telling your team the following -

They are adults and that shouldn’t have to chase them up.

That if they have system errors they will have to work from the office (currently all WFH)

For the team not to read their emails and they will tell them of there is anything they should know.

I don’t know if it’s just me and the pandemic stress or not.

1 - absolutely. Unless you don't know whats expected of you at work?

2 - fair enough. If you cannot work from home due to system error / wifi / software issue but you CAN complete your work in the (let's say) office, and your work place is COVID secure, then absolutely. Why would this even be an issue??

3 - I'm not exactly sure what you are trying to say there.

I’m surprised that everyone so far is ok with being told you are an adult - I find this very patronising.
If the behaviour warranted the rebuke... 🤷🏻‍♀️ People working effectively shouldn't need constant monitoring/chasing up.

1. Wouldn't be my style to say this but it seems someone or some people in your team are dragging their heals / being lazy / simply not delivering. If you're given a task, you should do it and deliver it by the deadline given. If you can't, you have a conversation as soon as you know there is an issue.

1. Depends what you mean by system errors?

1. Again depends on context.

Need a bit more context. I wonder if it is one or two team members that are not performing. In which case telling the whole team instead of having individual conversations is poor management and cowardly.

1- absolutely fine
2- sounds like some of the WFHs are using the "no internet today" excuse to take the piss
3- sounds strange

They are adults and that shouldn’t have to chase them up.

A bit condescending but not totally unreasonable.

That if they have system errors they will have to work from the office (currently all WFH)

This should really be based on safety rather than performance. But once it’s safe to return to offices it’s ok if WFH is a perk based on performance. Or, put another way, if WFH causes errors to be made which don’t happen in the office, then it’s ok to insist on office based working.

For the team not to read their emails and they will tell them of there is anything they should know.

Really weird and unreasonable. There’s no way they could know what might be in someone’s inbox and in need of attention. Bizarre attitude, suggests they’re hiding something or want a totally unreasonable level of control.

@MissMarks

Manager here. Sometimes staff continuously take the piss. Sometimes being nice doesn’t work and you have to be brutal, play them at their own game.

Erm really? That’s what HR and formal investigations/grievances are for. You can’t just go around being ‘brutal’. Where do you work?

Why is this company sending emails if they don’t want anyone reading them?
Are you having network issues?
Are you getting your work done?
Is there someone that isn’t but they don’t have the capacity to deal with that individual(s) directly?

I agree about the you're all adults comment. And odd that people are being told off for reading work emails. At work. The second one I can understand if people are using IT issues at home for not completing their work. I find it hard to relate though as my manager would never say those kinds of things, he let's people get away with all sorts because he is desperate to be liked.

1. Sounds like a fed up manager. You'd be amazed how chaotic some people are and how much they expect work and work management to resolve personal life issues. I've previously had staff who had 'crises' on a weekly basis, stuff that was nothing but ordinary, day to day issues for most people, but which they seemed to lack the ability to cope with. When the 30 something employee is bleating over nothing (again), using it as an excuse to not get on and, worse, entirely expecting me to act like their parent and solve whatever drama for them like they're a helpless teenager, the temptation to respond with, 'for God's sake, you're an adult!' is very strong. I didn't, but they might have preferred that - you'll notice I say 'had.'

1. Depends on the set up and the cause of the issue, but it seems reasonable that, if people are saying they can't access stuff from home and so aren't completing tasks, then working from the office is the obvious solution. Unless you were all employed specifically to work from home (and as long as your office is covid-secure), its a completely reasonable response.

1. Prioritisation sounds like it's lacking, so the manager is trying to put a line in the sand.

All in, OP I suspect you have one or more teammates who are really not performing to snuff and are causing disruption.

On 3 and reading emails - we decided against slack after reading countless reviews saying - sure it improved communications to begin with but they it became a massive time waster - if your busy sometimes you need to turn off notifications and get some work done - so your manager doesn't have to chase you over and over again!
If the communications are not about work but taking place during work hours and their team are behaving like kids and shirking I can completely understand the request to get off email.
OP it's possible your manager is over controlling but it's also very possible your team aren't very productive and need to pull their socks up and do some work - maybe you have an idea which - but we don't.

I told one of my team to not read emails the other day. She'd had a prolonged absence and I didn't want her to a, get involved in issues which had been started and ended whilst she was off, b, get stressed when stuff had gone wobbly which we'd then fixed, c, sometimes she'd been dropped off the chain to help keep her email traffic down so wouldn't have the full picture and d, frankly we didn't want her to waste time. Instead she had a catch up session with each manager she works for to get her back up to speed quickly and in a manageable way for her.

And whilst telling staff they are grown ups isn't what I'd do, I very very often feel it with my poor performers. Luckily I only have one or two of those not a whole team.

I find it telling that you have placed them out of context (not suggesting you put outing details but these are very stabd alone statements )

Depending on situation these could all be fine or unreasonable. If people are doing their jobs reasonably then yes 1 is unnecessary but I would absolutely bet that its been said as a result of people not behaving like adults. I've seen the most amazing ridiculousness from what appear to be grown adults (including one person refusing to answer a phone because she didn't know how to...not a complicated switchboard phone...just a normal bog standard phone).

1. Again depends if people are taking the proverbial. Depends if this is a blanket statement or something that is applied to the one or two who invariably take the wotsit.

1. Depends because this does seem unreasonable. Until I remember the learner who complained that her managers were saying this and were being mean. It transpired it was basically her taking three hours to read every pointless email sent company wide every day to avoid actually doing any real work.

The fact that this has been posted in such a way makes me wonder of this is a manager who has had enough.

Its quite funny someone saying it should be dealt with HR , everywhere I have worked would have HR looking confused and pointing out that they employed Managers to deal with this sort of thing and what was the point of them if they didn't...you know...actually manage.

1 or 2 perfectly reasonable.

3 I don't really understand to be honest! Sounds odd