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Original poster

To think my boss is pathetic?

80 replies

Boringboss · 16/11/2022 17:36

Been with my company for 4 years - in her team since May. She’s been here for 16 years.

She’s not horrible but a complete micro manager and if she’s ‘annoyed’ with you then she’ll just ignore you for days (work remotely).

I think she micro manages and keeps information to herself to make herself indispensable and irreplaceable to the company BUT my bug bear is about annual leave.

She boasts that she never uses her full allowance and hasn’t taken a holiday in 4 years because she is too ‘loyal’. On the other hand, I use my full allowance each year but others on the team seem to follow her lead and I have had a few snide comments about my recent holiday (one week OOO).

IMO life is too short to be ‘loyal’ to a company you don’t own and would sack you tomorrow if it benefited them.

OP posts:
adomizo · 16/11/2022 18:55

Yes had a manager like this. Complete moron. Had no life outside of work and was very ineffective. Guarantee she's lacking in confidence and covering it up. Problem is it does permeate through the team...I would be looking elsewhere if she's never going to move.

CruCru · 16/11/2022 18:57

At my old company, they got really annoyed if you didn't use all your leave. We could carry 5 days across to the next year but if everyone did this it appeared as a massive liability in the balance sheet.

xJ0y · 16/11/2022 18:57

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 16/11/2022 18:23

IMO life is too short to be ‘loyal’ to a company you don’t own and would sack you tomorrow if it benefited them

100%. I have been there, working weekends and working late, only to be made redundant after 12 years.

I agree, my last job, I gave 100% and they still found fault. I tool mobility to another location nearer my house and I can't believe how relaxed it is compared with my last place. When I told them I was leaving they all but shrugged. It made me laugh (inwardly) that they thought they coukd get the same level of out put from a random employee slotted in to replace me. But I guess it better they didn't pressure me to stay 😐

ASimpleLampoon · 16/11/2022 19:00

I had a manager like this. When he was suposed to be on holiday with his family he would reply to routine emails which could have been left until his return. If i was his wife his phone and laptop would have been in the bloody pool or better still left at home.

His family needed him to switch off and be present with them for two weeks. We needed him to bugger off and let us get on with it.

No one is so important they cant take a two week break.

FinallyHere · 16/11/2022 19:03

Check your organisation's policy on leave. Not taking leave is very much frowned on anywhere I have worked for both health and fraud prevention.

Start looking for another role ideally inside the organisation if she is a one off or outside if this really is the culture.

No sensible organisation would accept the business risks associated with your manager's approach.

MakingNBaking · 16/11/2022 19:06

I would be very worried if my team weren't using their full leave allowance. In fact, I send out reminders every 3 months and every New Years Day to remind them 'use it or lose it' as company policy won't let you carry forward unused.
It's counter productive to encourage staff to forego their leave.
And mean.

RandomUsernameHere · 16/11/2022 19:08

I've literally never heard of anyone not using all their annual leave, she sounds crazy!

Boxofsockss · 16/11/2022 19:16

God, I’m sure if she died tomorrow the company would replace her in a heart beat as thats what companies do. Life goes on so why people put work first is beyond me. Totally with you, I’d be taking all my annual leave and seeing if I can have others too 😂 they need to get a life.

Mydogisanaughtyboy · 16/11/2022 19:23

I work with a fellow manager like this - she makes a huge drama about her team taking holidays but used to take none herself. We were told this year we must take our allowance so she's booked it all off but still logs on and works - making sure everyone knows what a martyr she is. Pathetic....

Original poster
Boringboss · 16/11/2022 19:25

I don’t think she’s up to anything - our jobs are NOT that important so not sure what she could be doing that would be fraud.

But basically she’s created a team that can’t function if she’s not there because she doesn’t share information - she is really busy but equally nothing bad would happen if she was away. My previous boss would nag us to take all our holiday so it’s a team culture rather than a company one.

OP posts:
Sparklesocks · 16/11/2022 19:28

Your company wouldn’t hesitate to make you redundant if they had to, everyone is replaceable in the long run so not taking your annual leave out of ‘loyalty’ is very foolish. You are entitled to that time off and it’s important to recharge and refresh away from work so your boss is only hurting herself.

Notimeforaname · 16/11/2022 19:36

Ah they're all as thick as two short planks. The fools 😂

Blowyourowntrumpet · 16/11/2022 19:42

Anyone who doesn't take their full annual leave entitlement is either an idiot or has nothing in their life apart from work.

Zanatdy · 16/11/2022 19:44

Agree more fool them. I don’t know anyone in my company who doesn’t use all their AL. I lead a team of around 150 and absolutely take my leave and always remind my managers to remind staff mid year that they need to be using their leave (as we often get that big rush in February when the leave year ends and everyone wants to be off at once)

LoobyDop · 16/11/2022 19:45

Agree with everyone saying people who don’t take AL often have something to hide. I’ve worked places that insist you take two consecutive weeks every year for that reason.

TicTacFrenzy · 16/11/2022 19:59

We had an emailmrecently.saying that people had accrued too much leave and if it wasnt taken by the deadline the managers would be held personally responsible for not adequately looking g after their teams mental health and well being!

FriedDuck · 16/11/2022 20:14

This is an interesting one. I’m a senior manager and tbh I find that employees who take their full annual leave allocation are not the keenest to work hard.

We like to see the annual leave allowance as a maximum threshold rather than a target- ie there may be exceptional circumstances where a particular employee needs to take the full amount, but otherwise it would be frowned upon.

We run with quite lean teams and would find it really difficult in terms of resource allocation if people were off for many weeks of the year.

AnApparitionQuipped · 16/11/2022 20:23

FriedDuck · 16/11/2022 20:14

This is an interesting one. I’m a senior manager and tbh I find that employees who take their full annual leave allocation are not the keenest to work hard.

We like to see the annual leave allowance as a maximum threshold rather than a target- ie there may be exceptional circumstances where a particular employee needs to take the full amount, but otherwise it would be frowned upon.

We run with quite lean teams and would find it really difficult in terms of resource allocation if people were off for many weeks of the year.

I'm glad I don't work where you work.

Blowyourowntrumpet · 16/11/2022 20:38

FriedDuck · 16/11/2022 20:14

This is an interesting one. I’m a senior manager and tbh I find that employees who take their full annual leave allocation are not the keenest to work hard.

We like to see the annual leave allowance as a maximum threshold rather than a target- ie there may be exceptional circumstances where a particular employee needs to take the full amount, but otherwise it would be frowned upon.

We run with quite lean teams and would find it really difficult in terms of resource allocation if people were off for many weeks of the year.

It's an entitlement though. We do have the opportunity to get paid for any annual leave which we don't take. Do you have something similar?

Original poster
Boringboss · 16/11/2022 20:45

@FriedDuck That is awful - the culture of your team must be miserable and people burn out or leave.

5 weeks off spread over a year isn’t going to make or break the success of your team / firm.

OP posts:
edwinbear · 16/11/2022 20:46

@FriedDuck are you Elon Musk?

Original poster
Boringboss · 16/11/2022 20:46

@FriedDuck also perhaps if your staff weren’t burning out they’d be more productive and you could afford to run on less ‘lean teams’ and staff accordingly.

OP posts:
BayCityTrollers · 16/11/2022 20:46

I’m a manager and encourage staff to use all their annual leave! It’s part of their pay reward, why the hell would they not use it!

I am of the opinion regular use of annual leave reduces sickness absence and helps staff manage work stress. I would hate to work in an industry where taking annual leave was frowned upon!

donttellmehesalive · 16/11/2022 20:46

So your complaints are :

She micromanages
She ignores you if she's annoyed with you
She doesn't take leave

I don't know why she doesn't take her leave. The only person I know who did that didn't have much of a life outside work and preferred to be paid for it. Her choice really and without knowing the entails I wouldn't call it pathetic.

Does she micromanage because members of her team make mistakes? I've always thought that people who complained about being micromanaged were just closely supervised because they were a bit rubbish.

I would also avoid someone who was intensely annoying me. I would be professional and not ignore them if our paths crossed but I wouldn't seek them out, chat socially etc.

donttellmehesalive · 16/11/2022 20:48

What we're the snide comments about your holiday?

It's really hard to tell whether she's genuinely unreasonable or you are a bit of a gossipy moaner.