Deeply offended by manager?

[avenueaspirr]

She’s my new manager but we’ve both been in the business roughly the same amount of time (5 years) and we do know each other.

Our first meeting she asked why my productivity had slipped - I advised of the reasons (new systems that don’t work basically and we physically run out of work so I do admin tasks that don’t count towards recordable productivity)

Then before I knew it a week later she’d booked me in to screen share with a colleague to literally sit there and watch them work. I was so offended for the following reasons.

• I gave legitimate reasons and I wasn’t questioned further
• I’ve been doing this job for 5 years so the fact she wants me to watch someone else do it was insulting
• That she discussed my performance with another colleague who is the same level as me

Good luck with the job hunt OP. Fwiw I would do the shadowing and maybe the colleague will have the very same issues as you with the system failures and you can smugly report this back to the manager.

I'm not sure. These things don't bother me. I do appreciate being critique and like it when someone shows me how I can do better. I always ask my junior colleague for advice even though I've been working in my field for a while and she's relatively new.

@avenueaspirr

It seems odd that the manager has not told the OP about the work-shadowing exercise, and yet the OP knows all about it.

Eh? She told me as she booked the overview. How else would I have known?

I said I would not be attending.

In that case, I would be instructing you to attend, and if you didn't you would be in the disciplinary process. Whatever you think about this, you are underperforming and your manager has tried to address this with you. Your attitude is that she must accept your explanation and that's it. She hasn't, and now you are both underperforming and refusing to obey a reasonable instruction which relates giving you support to improve your performance. You have nothing to learn, in your opinion, but others are performing just fine. If there isn't enough work for people, and if there are constant system errors getting in the way, then your colleague you are shadowing will have the same issues and you will be able to say "see, I told you so". Instead you have handed them a disciplinary argument on a plate. Are you trying to get sacked? Because looking for another job and interviews will go even worse with a disciplinary record on your references. Surely if you hate your job as much as you say, and if you simply want to get another job, the way to go would be to suck it up, play the game, and move on the first chance you get. Your current strategy comes across as "get myself sacked, and blot my reference", all over spending a day shadowing a colleague.

OP I really feel for you. I think looking for another job seems like the best thing.

What I would say is that often threads like this don’t end well because people read your teeny tiny post and make lots of assumptions or fill in the gaps. You’ve got to be there really to understand the intricacies.

Your manager has handled it poorly and maybe she should have asked you to screen share with her so she can see the error messages herself. Is it possible she has questioned others about their productivity but you just aren’t aware?

Your replies to others posters so far are showing what undesirable attitudes you hold. Maybe this has been picked up by your team

I disagree with the above and I think YANBU OP

Try not to get too disheartened OP.

It sounds to me like your manager is paying lip service and trying to impress her boss rather than resolving the issue at hand, namely the ongoing IT problems.

If she had genuine issues with your productivity, this would be transparent and fully documented with a clear plan of action to follow. All she appears to be doing though, is suggesting you watch someone else work for an hour.

Seems rather a bizarre ‘solution’ to me! It’s almost on a par with those crap managers who hold meeting with the entire team to raise an issue for ‘discussion’ such as taking too long a lunch break or similar, instead of speaking to the only person that actually does this. Thus demonstrating that the manager is weak and ineffective. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Definitely time to move on.

Off topic - but what kid of jobs are we creating where a significant part of the job is clocking a single button to upload data? That is surely a candidate for automation?

There's a gap here OP and it would lead to more helpful replies if you could fill it:

Your productivity has 'slipped' according to your manager, but according to you, there isn't enough work so you have to do 'admin' tasks that don't count.

What are your colleagues doing here that makes them more productive?

What did your manager say when you said 'there often isn't any work in the tray for me to do'?

If the team is running out of work, are there two many people on the team?

Does she expect you to be doing something other than 'admin'?

too

If fightingwithfire is literally taking out of their arse they should join a circus.

How can I do work if non exists?
Well what are your colleagues doing ?
I understand your frustration, but its not the fault of your employer that you haven't been able to find a different job.
From their perspective you are there to do what you've been paid for and if you're not pulling you're weight, you need to be managed, its a business.

The idea of being judged on productivity makes me shudder, it sounds so clinical, you aren't a robot, I'd change career!

Hi OP,

Now that you have said you work from home it sounds like the issues that you are having may be down to your internet at home.

I manage a large team who have been home working since Covid. There are a few people that have terrible issues with certain processes timing out and throwing up errors. This is due to the internet at their home. Unfortunately in some cases it has not been possible to improve this asdue to their location they can't get a faster more reliable broadband connection.

In these cases we have had to bring them back to the office on a part time basis to enable them to do work that is sensitive to the slow broadband connection. They are able to do some work at home so it is usually split 60/40 for Office / home working. Is this something that you could ask your IT department to look into. They should be able to determine if it is your connection causing the issue fairly easily and should be able to do so remotely in most cases.

@DynamoKev

Off topic - but what kid of jobs are we creating where a significant part of the job is clocking a single button to upload data? That is surely a candidate for automation?

What a stupid and embarrassing thing to say. Who is “we” exactly? Are you the gate keeping of job creation and guardian of processes? I’m literally cringing at your response.

@DynamoKev

Off topic - but what kid of jobs are we creating where a significant part of the job is clocking a single button to upload data? That is surely a candidate for automation?

What in the world are you on about?

Let me put this in very simple terms. A pilot can’t access the cockpit because the door is routinely jammed. It then causes take off delays.
So some bright spark comes along and says why do we need access to the cockpit as that is surely a candidate for automation!!!!?!????!?!!!!!!!!!

Just because the first task of your job might be so basic a monkey could do it doesn’t mean that once it’s done it’s doesn’t actually lead on to more complex work.

Not comparing myself to a pilot but the “significance” of my job is not pushing the same button for 8 hours a day.

But hey you clearly believe you are superior and want to put people out of work so how about you send me a DM and I’ll give you the contact number of the director of the global company I work for and you can speak to them and tell them about your bright spark idea.

"The global company I work for" that you were slagging off an hour ago. Get down off your high horse, Jesus Christ. Why do people come asking for advice then get so bloody shirty about it?

@girlmom21

"The global company I work for" that you were slagging off an hour ago. Get down off your high horse, Jesus Christ. Why do people come asking for advice then get so bloody shirty about it?

Global company is a fact or should I lie and say it’s a family run company of 4 people? How does me stating a fact equate that as me saying the company is wonderful? I also never slagged off the company. I slagged off the actions of a manager. And what high horse? What have I said that equates me to being on a high horse? McDonalds is global. I also never asked for advice.

I commented back to a user who even herself stated a completely off topic comment that was irrelevant to any part of this.

What a stupid and embarrassing thing to say. I’m literally cringing at your response.
Thanks for your input, very helpful. Be careful with that literal cringing now.

@DynamoKev

What a stupid and embarrassing thing to say. I’m literally cringing at your response. Thanks for your input, very helpful. Be careful with that literal cringing now.

About as helpful as your input.

But hey you clearly believe you are superior and want to put people out of work so how about you send me a DM and I’ll give you the contact number of the director of the global company I work for and you can speak to them and tell them about your bright spark idea.

Ok well I had already posted saying YANBU.

That response makes me wonder.

About as helpful as your input.
Indeed, I hope your literal cringing wasn’t too painful.

@avenueaspirr you used the 'global company' bit to make yourself feel better because you were feeling demoralised by the comment. It's irrelevant whether it's factually correct. You used it to make yourself feel better.

You've had a crappy retort to everyone who's suggested that maybe you're actually the problem. Your attitude towards all of those people, and towards your manager, says that you definitely are the problem.

I said it earlier and I'll say it again - ask your manager how your productivity stacks up against your colleagues. She'll be able to produce facts and figures. It's highly unlikely she's just out to make you look/feel bad.

You say a monkey could press the button to access the data but you're the one who seems to be having problems with it. It sounds like your colleagues are coping.

Stop playing the victim/aggressor.

When the work dries up what do the other team members do? Do they get also on with stuff that doesn't count towards the team stats? I ask because I completely overlooked something I could have been getting on with during slack times at my workplace. And is there any chance that your productivity has dropped a little through being disenchanted with the role - you mention you're looking for another job - and I've found that's happened with me in the past.

I clicked on this thread expecting personal remarks, misnaming, etc. Not a manager doing management. YABU.

Coming back into this, as I thought there is more to the situation.

From what I gather, OP, you and coworkers share a pot of work, when you say you run out it’s probably true. It’s also probably true that your coworkers production rates are higher than yours. I also believe that you are fighting an error msg, one that your coworkers have figured out how to avoid or clear faster than you.

The biggest thing is that you are not happy in this job, and from your own words you haven’t been happy for awhile. This will have an impact on your performance. Now I’m going to slightly change my previous advice….

Presuming you need the income, I’d let go of the anger and embarrassment for your current job, make peace with the fact that you are stuck there for the time being and just get on with what you need to do to be successful. At the same time redirect your energy into finding a new job that you will be happy in.

Good luck, I hope you find something soon.