New boss slagging off old boss

[nicegirl73]

Just wondering what your thoughts are on this.
our new manager is constantly saying how bad the previous manager was to the point that it’s getting tiresome now.

would you agree that talking badly about your predecessor is as bad as talking badly about your ex.
it just shows his insecurities imo.

this is somewhat lighthearted. I just wonder what people think about this.

Depends if the old one really was rubbish or not.

Depends but I’d only accept hearing it once or twice then I’d be over it, very immature and I do think that to carry on and on about someone else comes across as very insecure.

Repeating something like a cracked record even if true does become boring.

I think it depends on the circumstances of the complaining

I once took over an old team where the previous manager was shit. The team loved her, but she had promised all sorts of things and never done the paperwork for them. It meant often I had to do a lot of repairing her mistakes including re doing processes eg people's flexible working. It was important to say why I was re looking at someone's flexible working when it's been "agreed for 2 years" and that I wasn't just a massive fan of paper/ nosey. I tried to honor it all but people need to understand why they had to resubmit forms etc

Equally sometimes I didn't want to be the person responsible for her bad decisions. Eg "it's been agreed we can do x" "unfortunately the budget request never went through so there's no budget for that"

I think sometimes it's important to be honest if you inherit a shit show

Maybe he knew the old boss personally and they had some kind of 'beef'/rivalry? Also it could be that the old boss did leave a certain amount of chaos in his wake and he resents the extra work it's causing him?
It sounds like the sort of chat that will die down pretty soon. How much do people talk about an ex colleague, months after their departure? It will lose its perceived relevance to him. If he does it in front of you just roll your eyes and ignore the comments.

Thanks all, I came here prepared to be told I eas overreacting but it seems most of you would find this annoying too.

Your boss sounds unprofessional. Yes I'd find it annoying and be inclined to not 'feed' the conversation.

And I'm long enough in the tooth now to end up saying "oh just let it go now, what's done is done".

This is what I feel I might end up saying if he carries on.