To ask if it's normal for team leaders to treat you like you're children?

[Papadopoulos78]

We're a team ranging in age from around 21-53, in an entry level admin role (which doesn't mean easy!)

We get emails from our team leader about how Senior Civil Servant Mr X is coming in the office so that we need to "behave"!!

A colleague got bollocked for swapping seats with another teammate even though they both agreed to it?

Constant floorwalks checking we aren't looking at our phones, obviously it's normal to not be on it whilst you're speaking with a customer but sometimes we can go 30 minutes without a phone call, there's only so much email and intranet you can read.

Being told that 'Senior management are watching you to check you're on best behaviour and acting professionally at all times"

There's an unconscious bias about us Admin Officers that because we're on a low wage we must be thick and irresponsible, and don't know how to act at work?
Of course there is the occasional colleague who messes about but 95% of us are professional.

Senior leaders would not be getting such emails from their management.
I am looking for another job anyway but I just find this quite irritating and patronising.

Civil Service isn't really all that, depending on what department you're in!

Might be nice in some sort of digital or policy role with full flexibility on your work, days and hours and on 60k, not so much if you're an AO call centre lackey in DWP with no flexibility!

Yes sounds like where I work, we are watched on the cameras to make sure we are working and not on our phones, it like being back at school!

Cameras! That's terrible, is it a call centre environment?

No it’s shop work, but there’s cameras in the warehouse.

I've never had an experience like that. I'd be looking for another job if I did, it sounds suffocating.

Thank goodness my experience as an AO was the complete opposite. My co-workers and I were treated like adults and acted like children! Mind you, no one had a cellphone and the internet was in its youth, so we had to make do with photocopying pages from Dr Seuss books and colouring them in....I actually really enjoyed my time in the Civil Service for the most part. Except for the time I was acting EO for about a year before not getting the official promotion. That sucked.

I was going to say retail too! We had 'bricks in a jar' for rewards in one place, a full jar and you got a reward, chocolate for example at the end of the week. It didn't last long!!

I hate the rise of cameras everywhere.

I also am watched all the time on cameras at work.

I got an email the other day from my boss saying "i saw you left a door open for five minutes on the cctv".

I also am treated like a child. I think a lot of bosses abuse their power and treat the people below them like shit because they like the power.

Bosses and line managers need to checked and regulated more.

I think ive only ever had one manager that treated me like i was human

We also get cringey 'motivational' go team! Style messages. I know we're just a number really and it's about making themselves look good to HEOs.. bonuses being dangled on a stick too.

The problem imo is that team leaders are just people who got the job because they either have been there longer than others (not necessarily a good thing) or they were good at the job they were promoted from (again not a reason to put them into a role they don’t have the skills to do).

Many years ago I had a middle manager like this, I think she was aware she was out of her depth. People very openly laughed and mimicked her.

I’d last about 10 minutes before I told them to stick their job up their arse

Imagine being on your best behaviour at all times - I’d last a few hours until I’d get pissed off or say something stupid

Definitely normal where I used to work. Lots of CCTV cameras and supervisory/lower management staff who weren't trained to supervise and manage people.

Yes that's it..management who have been promoted from call centre agents but who aren't actually fit to be managers.

“Senior leaders would not be getting such emails from their management.”

They probably are. Culture comes from the top.

My old job was like this but it extended to everyone who wasn’t senior management; there was a constant insinuation that we were incompetent and would fuck up or skive off if not under total control at all times.

We had to submit worksheets at the end of every day detailing everything we had done in minute detail with exact timings. There was a sign in sheet and a spreadsheet to be completed every day where you input your arrival time, lunch, etc which were then pored over with a fine tooth comb. Team leaders were stopped from authorising annual leave and it came under the remit of SM. Multiple ‘walk arounds’ of the office each day. Relentless seating changes for maximum surveillance. Wfh was rescinded for everyone except SM.

It was the single worse place I’ve ever worked, and I maintain the reasons were a mixture of a profound lack of confidence in their own leadership and pure malice.

Sorry to hear others have had that.
Yes it's having every minute of your day controlled, we have to also fill in a sheet detailing every minute of the day and not being a minute out of line.

The language used towards you isn't professional, no. However I think its perfectly reasonable to expect you not to be on your phones during your work shifts. Also there may be reasons for the allocated seats. I think its good to remember that as a team member you're not going to have the holistic view of the team that managers have. You won't know if there's had to be a phone ban because otherwise people take advantage, or if there's a good reason for Sandra not to be seated next to Joanne and messing with the seating plan causes issues.

I knew you were going to say DWP. Not all departments are the same although I've had a manager like yours who wanted to know every single little thing I did and then complained when I told her.

Many years ago I had a middle manager like this, I think she was aware she was out of her depth. People very openly laughed and mimicked her.

So she was subjected to workplace bullying.

If people want to be treated like adults in the workplace, perhaps they should behave like adults.

It was treating like with like.
Even in a classroom there has to be mutual respect. Mutual.

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Sounds about right. Call centres simultaneously treat you as if you were 12 whilst piling the pressure on for no extra money. They listen in/watch what you're doing all the time. They insult your intelligence every minute of every day. I walked out of my call centre job after 9 years - I was a basket case.
Get out & get another job asap. Call centres are the worst thing to happen - they are bad for customers & bad for employees.

Call centres are hell on eartg.

I rememeber when i was in a call centre we were allowed eight minutes off calls in the whole day. If we went over it, it would be pointed out to the whole team that we were over our time allowance.

It was a big building. I pointed out to our leader that it took five minutes to walk to the bathroom and five minutes to walk back.

They didnt care.

When I was teaching, the Head brought a bucket of sweets in one Friday morning for the morning meeting.

As we helped ourselves tota lolly, she asked, "Do we want sweets every Friday? Yes?" whilst grinning and nodding. She was met with almost complete silence.

Just because people work with children doesn't mean they want to be spoken to like children.

At age 40, i have been shouted at for leaving a door open at work.