to be irritated by this work email?

[BoldChild]

Note: This is a large international company, and I am a very tiny fish in a very large pond, but I’ll still paraphrase to avoid any major identifiers

An email went around our (fully remote) company today by new management and went a little something like this:

”Hello, everyone. As this year has been hard on our business, we have decided to implement the following rule: If you are behind in target, you will have to report to your local office and attend the office for a minimum of 4 days. This is so your manager can oversee your daily work and ensure you are doing your job. Your manager will track every phone call and email, and how many clients/customers you reach out to. You will continue to report to the office until your numbers to pick up.

Failure to meet targets will result in an immediate requirement to report to the office. This is non-optional, and everyone must comply. We will not accept any excuses.”

NOW… I am totally on board with the whole “if you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing, there’s an issue there” but the nature of the email really just irks me.

It reminds me of being back in school, with a teacher threatening to sit beside you to make sure you’ve done your maths instead of talking to your friends. Like if employees do not show up the office, they’ll call our parents.

Am I being unreasonable to feel this is very condescending? And unfair to those who may be struggling due to reasons that aren’t their fault (mental health, illness, personal issues, etc)? These people will be called out in front of their entire team and marched into the offices against their will, and it just seems totally unfair to do to someone instead of handling any issues privately.

I’m honestly considering handing in my notice

There is no way I could work in that kind of environment.

Whereas no-one slacked off and fucked around when everyone was in the office of course. Model workers, the lot of them.

God spare you what exactly?

Improving performance by turning attendance in the office into a punishment - go figure and putting staff under the microscope.

Management are idiots.

It's piss poor management because slackers will find a way to slack wherever they are. And right now, many sales teams will be struggling as businesses and individuals make cutbacks.

So the deadwood will always have been there - and they didn't give a fuck until it hit the bottom line. Which means the better employees will likely have been under rewarded for their contribution, and the low performers under managed.

They should have cared about performance much earlier than until a slump. And they'll lose the good staff as well as the bad by addressing it like this.

Why are you defending people who are slacking off when they wfh? No one has the right to wfh, especially if you're not working

I can see it too. My old assistant was rubbish at wfh. He literally didn’t do anything. So as soon as we could after the first lockdown he was asked to come to the office and one of the team was always in with him to keep an eye out and make sure he was doing what he was meant to be doing.

Agree the email is bad, but I'm guessing it was sent out for a good reason. I've met a few people who were born to WFH but not many.

You MUST COMPLY. OR DIE.

twats

As I’ve said, I can see why the managers are going this route and I know myself people are taking the piss WFH.

We get financial compensation for hitting targets. Those who don’t, don’t get anything extra. We already have performance based pay, and performance based perks (hotel trips, vouchers, etc)

I do appreciate that the company has to make money. However in 2020, 2021 and 2022, we were over target and a bunch of us (myself included) were told we would not be given increases to our salaries (despite being told we would twice) because the company couldn’t afford it. So even when the company is over target, they still can’t afford to compensate us.

I also appreciate thinking commercially. Better performance equals better results equals more money equals more business equals even more money. I get that. But when our performance has been top quality and we aren’t seeing the results of that in our own pockets, I and my colleagues have every right to stop thinking commercially and start thinking about our own financial security

I can’t count how many people on MN that think it’s their right to wfh with no childcare in place.. I’m on the employers side on this. If you are underperforming you need to go to the office to get coaching.

And unfair to those who may be struggling due to reasons that aren’t their fault (mental health, illness, personal issues, etc)?

How on earth is this their problem? If you can’t do your job you need to find a job you can do.

I agree. I think people who have jobs that can be done from home have got too used to it. Nothing wrong about being brought back into the office.
But I agree the 'support' being offered seems heavy handed. Maybe too many employees are taking the piss? I've read quite a few threads where people are looking after DC whilst WFH.

I'd feel a bit irritated but if I knew I wasn't a slacker I wouldn't take it personally. Having in the past worked with some really lazy people i would just assume the company had had enough !

T

It would be similar to a sales environment. Very competitive. I’d say about 90% of the company are genuine hard workers, and there’s a definite 10% of people who just couldn’t be arsed and think delegating is an excellent skill to perfect, so I totally agree in the underlying issue being dealt with

I just think it was a very odd way to go about addressing it

This has likely been devised and written for a handful or even single person who is increasingly doing less and less.

It's shite that you get told off for it but it's easier for them to do it this way

Must admit that my first thought was whether your company have decided that they need to cut headcount (and want to save on redundancy payouts). Those who are not performing and don’t want to go into the office will leave.

It may be that this also annoys some people who are doing well and they leave too. I expect that management think that they will lose far more underperformers than outperformers.

This sounds like a company that has managers that aren't addressing performance issues, so they're implementing a policy so they can say 'senior management said you have to do this', rather than having honest conversations with employees that are underperforming and using a capability or disciplinary policy to remove or improve those employees.

They're threatening all of you instead.

I bet they haven't even offered any retraining or support to those underperforming.

Sounds more like a "their" problem than a " you" problem.

It states that I have the option to work remotely, hybrid or on-site. This was a renewed contract that came into effect in 2021

This is how I would see it too.

Sounds like tactics from somewhere I used to work, rather than address the individuals that were caught wrongdoing they brought in ridiculous micromanaging tactics on everyone in order to control the few that were taking the piss.
I think you’re right to leave Op

Also having worked with some incredibly lazy people (in a work environment) in the past I can just imagine how some people take the piss when they are at home.

The managers aren’t on board with this either. They all WFH too, so this would disrupt them more than anyone

I have been told twice that they can’t afford to raise my salary, despite it being due for a pay rise for the last 2 years