What is the smartest way of dealing with a new manager at work who nitpicks despite not really understanding my job?

[AngelaBeverage]

This is so frustrating.

At my workplace there are several smallish teams (4 - 8 people) and in each team one person is the team leader. This person also does the same job as the rest of us but is paid more for doing more administration, going to the management meetings and feeding back whatever management wants this week, and generally being the point of call for anything that doesn't fall in the standard role remit. I would say that 80% of the team leader's role is just to do her job like the rest of us. 20% extra stuff on top.

In my team, we are all qualified professionals who have been doing this job for quite a long time. We work collaboratively at times, and there is a decent amount of respect for each other's expertise and professionalism. I like my collegues and often learn from them.

Also worth saying that although one person is the team leader, other people in the team might be the authority on a particular aspect of the job. I have a contracted part of my job which makes me the lead on one aspect of our work for the whole staff, and management defer to me on this particular thing because I have experience and qualifications in this field. The same is true for my collegues in other areas.

For reasons best known to themselves, management have appointed a new team leader in our team who has never actually done our job before. She has been extremely heavy handed in her first two weeks, definitely trying to make the point that she's The Boss. She assigns us admin tasks, which is unusual. She says things like "and when I say that's due on Monday, I mean before 8am Monday, not at some point when you feel like it." She has not made the slightest effort to get to know any of us, and she is certainly not coming from any perspective of respect for any of us being able to do our jobs.

We are not a team in need of 'fixing'. In fact, we're doing well and have been leading the way this year. She has come from a background in managing a small business. I think she thinks we're staff. Which, I suppose we are, but it's really getting everyone's back up to be spoken to constantly like teenagers trying to cut corners in their part-time job. We all work hard and take pride in our work.

I have a large piece of work coming out in a couple of weeks and she asked told me she would like a sample so she could check I was on the right track. This is unheard of. (She has never actually done the thing I'm doing, whereas I have done it many times before). I asked her what she wanted to check for, and she told me that she checked my collegue too and found they were overusing pronouns in their writing. WTF?? Anyway, I gritted my teeth and sent her a page of my work and she's sent it back covered in highlighters, and apparently I overuse pronouns too. (I'm actually going to quote her feedback: "You have used two many pronouns. Can you join some sentences together so you use less?" I promise I'm not making this up.)

I can't complain to management (very complicated situation). I'm stuck with her for the rest of the year. How do I manage this without being rude or bursting a blood vessel in my temple?

Please, please, does anyone have any calm and measured advice on how best to deal with this situation?

Perhaps respond in ways that help her learn about your set up. She's trying to get to grips with things by controlling things that possibly dont matter. Why not just point out that thanks for the suggestions, things like this get picked up in editing and ask is the content and technical detail OK? Her pointing out deadline is morning not at the end of the day is fine, clumsy but fine. Just give her a chance. It is inconsistent managers who are really hard to work with or those purposeful manipulative. Hopefully she will settle down.

You're right. She's just trying to show who is boss. The very grown up thing to do would be to say, 'noted' and just get on with it.

But the temptation to point out 'two' and 'less' would be strong.

I'd have a meeting with colleagues and see if they feel the same. Then have a meeting with them and her bringing up all these points honestly.. Feedback is a two way street.

I'd say she is terrified and hasn't enough experience to do the job, either the core job or managing people.

Could you not run your work through chatgpt and tell it to reduce the amount of pronouns. Ask it to count them before and then after too?

I'd tell her that's what you've done as well...

Unless you wrote something like this:
She told him that they saw her with us, but he insisted it was them, not themselves, who we believed had found it for me.

In which case yes I agree too many pronouns.

If I were told to hand something in by 8am on a Monday, I would respond with ‘so that would be end of working day on Friday then’.

She’s your boss. There’s a reason she’s been brought in. You may not been performing as well as you think. Or you maybe stale (as a team). She is of course stamping her authority and this will be painful because it’s a change. You either have to roll with it and give her time or look for a different job.

You could also ask if they are getting rid of the editing process as that is when any unnecessary over use of pronouns etc would be reviewed and corrections made.

Use AI to fulfil her edit requests.
You really need to learn the art of managing upwards too. She wants detail, she wants to review. Give her detail, ask for lots of feedback. Let her know you’re wanting to ensure the work is delivered to the standard she requires as the new boss.
She will quickly become overwhelmed and get bored. I suspect she doesn’t have enough work on & is trying to create the role into what she thinks it should be. You’ve landed yourself a micromanager, not a leader. And honestly, I micromanage the fuck out of them back. Once you’ve sent your drafts for review, follow up. Have you had chance to review this yet? Any comments?
Have a tracker and clearly record what’s with the boss for review, and if that delays you, note that down.

I have a similar work situation, although it's a colleague who feels herself superior rather than a TL..

I ask her for help on stuff I don't need help with. And I ask her to verify stuff that I'm bored with lol.

I ask questions I could find my own answers too but I do it to play up to her superiority complex and pretend I'm inferior and then I use the space to do what I want.

Oh and I innocently out her mistakes in group meetings, so I might show her work, with a mistake in, as I great example of something else. (Our job has multiple facets so one bit can be fab while the text poor)..
When others (including our boss) complain about her style, I fully support her saying how she us do well meaning and has the job in mind wuth all her complaints and of course we can forgive her bolshy emails.

This is perhaps easier for me as I've no ambition to move on and I'm hopeful she will soon.
In summary I get my kicks from subtly taking the p-- without being bolshy.
Maybe I've given you some ideas how to move forward, but either way don't let her get to you.

I agree with speaking to colleagues to see if they are receiving the same unreasonable treatment.

Speak also to your trade union if you belong to one.

We have a similar writing policy, short clear sentences aimed at the reading age of the average 11 year old.

i would ask her when this policy was changed and why hasn’t the company been informed.

Have you actually asked her to point out exactly which pronouns in your work should “go” and which sentences should be combined? I think that’s where I’d start with dealing with her.

I do wonder if maybe she’s been appointed as team leader because the managers actually do think the team’s work needs fewer pronouns and fewer sentences.

Have been in the exact same position. She will eventually realise she doesn't have time for this sort of thing and stop. In the meantime, don't react and don't rise to it. She will just double down to demonstrate she's in charge and could involve more senior management etc. Just change a couple of things to show her you're complying and carry on. In the meantime, make friends with other people in the company, including more senior people and be sure she sees you chatting with them etc. Plus show an interest in her life and try to establish a rapport to the extent possible. People like this are so insecure they're dangerous. So horrible to have to do this when you just want to get on with your job, but things will improve in time.

Be extremely careful doing this, many companies now (rightly) have privacy and security policies forbidding sharing company information/content on public AI websites like Chatgpt. That would lose me my job (I work in comms).

OP: definitely push the style guide compliance angle if your company has one. I am in charge of my company’s policy, and I’d send a message/arrange a meeting with any managers attempting to override it in favour of their own personal writing preferences. I’d have your back!

"You have used two many pronouns. Can you join some sentences together so you use less?" I promise I'm not making this up.)

That's ridiculous. I would have to make it clear I was taking no grammar lessons from someone who doesn't understand basic rules around the use of "to/too/two" and "less/fewer".

But she also used ‘less’ where she meant ‘fewer’ so you may be being a little too generous in your assumption.

I'd go back to her and say you really want to get it as right as possible first time through, so you don't want to waste her time reviewing. Would she mind editing these couple of pages using track changes so you can make sure you're on the right track for the report.

I couldn't care less about the components of sentences, as long as they make sense and flow. Recently I did have to give the feedback "expert is not a verb". I never thought I would write something like that but expert was used as a verb throughout an entire document, which is clearly incorrect. An example would be "experts advice", which should be "provides expert advice".

I’ve had recent experience in a very similar situation of a colleague who has previously struggled to write coherent sentences (despite having a PhD) and who is now using AI to generate feedback on work and to improve her own emails etc. It stands out a mile that she’s doing this because she uses terms she doesn’t even understand but annoyingly, it’s been enough to persuade management she’s doing a good job.

I’m really struggling with the unfairness of it!

Agreed - I’m in a very similar situation and I think taking it to management runs the risk of looking petty. It’s also directly challenging their decision making, which is risky. However, I’m really struggling with what to do other than stand up against the nitpicking in the most (fake) positive way I can muster.

That ain't a typo. She's thick and trying to overcompensate. Beat her at her own game and be very nice, hopefully she'll back off in time. Feel for you.

Oh you poor thing, this would drive me utterly mental. I agree the two best approaches are either a) the “token change and mostly ignore her” approach or b) the “become her keenest pupil” approach. Get her to sit down with you and go through the document line by line and show you how she’d like it changed. Get her to write a new style guide which should keep her really busy 😂

I am genuinely struggling to understand what all this chat about too many pronouns means.

Sorry meant to add - what I wouldn’t do is assume that just because you’ve been doing things a certain way for ages that means you should never have to change how you do things.

It’s such a common thing that I see all the time at work, and often that way has become inefficient or outdated or doesn’t work as well for the rest of the team/organisation. Someone who wants to keep things the same just for the sake of it starts to look like a stick in the mud if they’re not careful.

What's the business?

In things like child protection, social work, police, you have to use names much more than he/she or mum/dad/grandma etc in reports. It's so that it's very clear who you're talking about. A common supervision conversation is "Alice, Alice, who the fuck is Alice", for those into 90s music. It explains why saying "Alice said that...." isn't helpful in reports of complex family situations, just like "he said she isnt going to...." or "Grandma was present" and so on.

How do your colleagues feel? Maybe if you all complain...

I'd ask for a copy of the company guidelines about acceptable pronoun use, and when she can't provide one just ignore. The 'joining sentences together' thing sounds actively wrong, as shorter sentences are easier to read and tend to fall within the 'clear English' policy that most people use.

It's clearly happening because she can't have an opinion on the technical aspects of your work so is giving an opinion on the only thing she can, which is subjective.

You could mention to management informally. You could ask whoever subs for her when she is off to mention at the management meetings

You could have a team meeting with her where you all ask for clarification on communication guidelines etc