To find blanket 'telling off' annoying?

[Camelcarpet]

I am finding that the below is increasingly happening, so want to know if iabu...

At work, issues that relate to a singular person have required addressing. Rather than addressing these issues with the individual(s) concerned, management have taken the opportunity to address these issues at team meetings... So every one of us are gently reminded of expectations. I find that this tends to stir up dissatisfaction within the work team, because it gets some spiky peoples backs up (when it actually had nothing to do with them), subsequently drags the morale down, and actually - more often than not - leads to the person who feedback is being aimed at completely missing the point and modifying their practice.

Aibu to think that managers just need to learn to offer 1:1 feedback and not shy away from it?

For extra info - I work in one department, but whole-staff-team meetings are held with staff across all departments.
I just can't deal with the drama that comes from these ambiguous 'please make sure you're all doing xyz because there should be no reason for anyone to be ABC...' ?!?

Or it could be seen as a sensible process to ensure prompt time keeping by all existing and future employees…

By introducing a system it means they gather evidence that can be used making disciplinary action easier/ clear cut

by doing it for all they avoid counter claims of targeted / discriminatory action

Yes, it’s always incompetent managers who do this and they don’t deserve their salary!

Manage people properly or leave the job to those of us who can do it.

I remember this happening in our church and unlike a workplace issue, it was actually quite funny.
A small (but determined) number of people (with a lot of time on their hands) decided to lobby the Bishop to get our lovely curate promoted as they wanted her to be made permanent. The priest in charge gave everyone a nice but firm whole church bollocking about 'the correct ways to express opinions'. As I knew I hadn't been involved I could sit back and enjoy it hahaha

She was made permanent. She is now in charge.

How had they been expressing opinions?

Yes completely agree. We were sent a group email once at work, saying how we needed to make sure we turn up to work on time, have the correct uniform etc.

i could think of one or two individuals in a team of 20 people that this would have applied to, everyone else always arrives on time if not before, and no problems with uniform.

i was enraged. To top it off, the email was send a couple of days before Christmas. Happy bloody Christmas.

The age old story, in my work place they'd write a policy around each issue.

Well I didn't get to read the content of their emails and letters but they had been bombarding the city's Bishop with correspondence, rather than having a quiet chat with the church wardens or PCC. It's so funny really, knowing who it was doing it. These militant old ladies hahaha

I agree. I would find it demotivating and think what's the point of doing a good job if you are always being told off.

It depends - are you sure that they aren't also speaking individually to the culprit too, whilst also reminding people about company policy?

The worst is reminding everyone how important it is to be on time to team meetings before the latecomers have arrived.

The upshot is she's raising a decent human being who refuses to be a doormat.

She is raising a child who doesn’t listen to authority and thinks himself better than others and thinks that he gets final say

Blanket approaches are a sign of weak, ineffective management. We had this and it resulted in a collective grievance against the manager for failing to act and thinking the "team' would compensate for an issue, which we rebelled against!

Yeah, we used to get this too in my last job. Bloody annoying.

Apparently once we get to a certain number of behaviour points he will have ‘serious consequences ’ . I said to them really? Consequences for refusing a punishment for things he didn’t do ? Please put that in writing to me as I’d like to speak to a solicitor. Haven’t heard anything yet.

He generally extremely well behaved and does all his homework etc . He once had a detention for a ‘uniform violation’ (jacket on with just a shirt and tie no jumper underneath as per the rules) which he accepted and went to. I agree with him though that when others in his classes are being disruptive and rude or other bad behaviour why should he have a detention. On one occasion he was off sick when something had happened and they give 24 hr notice for after school detention - they still told him he HAD to stay and he walked home. It’s ridiculous they basically can’t discipline the kids who need it so they take the cowards way and try to punish the whole class clearly hoping peer pressure will then make the guilty ones conform if their classmates resent them .

YANBU. It's poor management. It once happened at my workplace when we were lectured over 'inappropriate clothing' in the summer heat as there had been a complaint. It was obvious who it was about and I thought it was awful that they had chosen to bring it up in front of everyone rather than just have a quiet word with the woman concerned.

I also hated it in school assemblies! I was generally very well-behaved but I used to skip them in secondary school as I couldn't bear having to sit there and be shouted at over things I had never done in my life. Very unpleasant and uncomfortable to experience.

It depends on the issue. If it is only related to an individual's work (like performance or a direct complaint/feedback about stakeholder management), it would be addressed 1-1.

If it is a minor issue related to ways of working or company culture, it would often be addressed in teams setting. Same if it's process related, and this process is used by many employees.

It's often a better approach and more effective approach not to single out 1 individual, otherwise all you get is "but X does it too, and Y does this and Z does that"... It's never ending.

Good managers would always follow up with their direct reports though, for instance by sending a follow-up email highlighting the issues raised.

Or if I know the issue is specifically with someone from my team, I would remind them of the issues raised during our next 1:1, and ask if they had any concerns to make sure they got the message.

We’ve had this too…..
awhile back a team member, during a planned big project, put in for a weeks holiday at very short notice. Typical useless managers knee jerk reaction, rather then just saying to them that unfortunately it couldn’t be authorised - decided to then put a memo round saying that everyone had to give at least 2 weeks notice for any holiday (for whatever duration)!
totally over the top, some people have trades coming in for emergencies and need maybe a day or half to sort out. But no, rather than have the guts to just tell someone NO, like a responsible manager does….they just decided to penalise everyone.

I worked retail and once had some higher up bod tell me that everyone should be on time and in proper uniform and could I tell everyone else, i wasn't a manager. I said no and they should tell the scruffy latecomers themselves. Didn't go down well and after that when they had "important visitors" they would keep me out of the way.
You hear it on here sometimes when a group has organised something and one person hasn't paid, the advice is to put out a general reminder so as not to embarrass the person who hasn't paid, they should be embarrassed if they've been asked more than once.

This is an example of poor and cowardly management practice. It is similar to the "whole class" punishments in schools that some posters have mentioned. I never stayed for detention in secondary school. When one teacher held me up for it I told her that I had to be home promptly to let my younger sister in. Otherwise I got a walopping from my father. I was more scared of him than I was of teachers who were not allowed to hit me.

Tell me you're at Westminster, without telling me you're at Westminster. 😁

Seriously though I'm with you, it's appalling management. You're not children. You address the issue with the individual, not pussyfooting by tarring everyone with it.

My manager will do this. It is so important you all complete your training. Timesheets must be completed on time. Yes, I know. I do those things you have fortnightly one to ones, raise it with those involved.

Manager was recently off and the person she left in charge sent a teams message to the whole team implying we all had training to complete by the Friday. It was ambiguous at best. What he meant were some people had not done it. I replied to question was there something new as mine was showing as up to date.