Anyone else fed up of the whole work culture in the UK?

[Dietstartsnextweek34]

Just a number in a large chain, I fully know I'm replaceable. Paid a low ish wage, we all got a £50 bonus recently which was something but generally it's a patronising 'thank you for everything you do!' Email from senior management on triple our salary and a pat on the back.

Compulsory monthly 'wellbeing' check ins with line managers who pretend they care just so they can tick boxes. Same line manager sends out emails telling us all off like children for trivial things like swapping office days, because we cannot be trusted.

3 days a week compulsory in the office where we don't actually speak to anyone in the office, on Teams all day to people who are mostly at home.

I know I'm very fortunate to even have a job let alone to have sick pay and a good pension. But I'm also fed up having to sit in the office in a coat every time because it's freezing, every single minute of our day having to be recorded because of a very small few who take the piss, and so on. Another 30+ years of this.. I know I sound ungrateful, but being able to pay my bills and have a roof over my head should be a minimum?

I'm aware self employed comes with its own limitations, and I am willing to work hard, I'm just fed up with the whole performative office culture. Anyone else just a bit done with it all?

Yes i agree work culture is awful. Im in the nhs and you can truly see why its on its knees. Managers upon managers galore but what are they doing because we certainly never see them and only hear from them when they want to criticise something or when something has gone wrong. The conscientious people are working alongside intensely lazy and careless ones. There is no performance management. No practical help. Laissez faire approaches for years alternating with spells of micromanagement.
Constant pretence of being focussed on mental wellbeing. Never has wellbeing been so neglected. Being overloaded with work and if you are found to be working through your lunch or staying late you will be in trouble.

You know you're in trouble when an nhs trust has a proclaimed aspirational value of integrity....... And you really do not want to know how theyve understood what that means......... Its a definition you might give to a 6 year old......

I do office contract work during the day (I also work events in the evenings) and I've worked in some very dysfunctional places. It seems like they are now bringing in temps to cover people who WFH so that at least someone is in the office. In one place I worked, the director had relocated to Italy and was only coming into the office once every two weeks for a 4 consecutive days. As a result this had filtered down so that the Dept head, managers, etc were also rarely there. When they were, there was lots of accusations of people 'taking the piss,' not being contactable when WFH, etc. Clearly, 'the rot' had filtered down from the top. Attitude was very poor.

I think WFH has ruined work places. Before Covid, office work was great fun with good camaraderie and everyone going to the pub after work for laugh/socials.

These days younger staff don't socialise / suffer 'social anxiety' / prefer to WFH / etc.

I'm 59 and I'm glad I'll be retiring soon. Not all, but some of the organisations I have recently worked at have been almost Kafkaesque, with corridors full of empty offices and little to no cohesion.

I've always loved working and office work was so much fun in the 90s/2000s etc.

The work I do in the evenings working Art Events is completely the opposite.

Yep, I recognise everything you describe OP, plus putting our targets up massively and when we ask how on earth we’re supposed to achieve them being told it won’t be a problem as they put their hands over their ears and say lalalala - but there’s no point changing jobs because you know anywhere will be the same.

I find the physical layout of offices in the UK generally unpleasant. Too many people in one room, banks of desks that make both privacy and enough quiet to get on with stuff difficult. Space allocated to workers seems to get more minimal as time goes on.

I've been to offices overseas for the last couple of companies I've worked for and the environment has been much more pleasant. Small groups of people working in a room, more spacious, desks grouped in twos rather than long lines, more breakout areas, decent canteens with good food.

I work in healthcare and I'm reminding myself that my job pays for my mortgage.

Yanbu. I agree with PP, as it is now hard to get rid of the piss takers, we all suffer and end up taking their unfinished work/covering excessive sickness or given the harder stuff while they claim something or other to escape working hard.

The 'wellbeing' thing is a joke, the employee surveys which are a waste of time. God I can't wait for retirement!

I think we work in the same department. It is exactly like that!!

Get another job if you are dissatisfied with your current position.

You sound like you work in the same place as I do - Civil Servant. None of my team are even in the same country. They're all spread out over the UK. So I empathise completely.

'Wellbeing days' another total piss take.

I worked in a place where staff were allowed a certain number of 'Wellbeing days' to be used on days they felt overwhelmed or anxious or for whatever reason they felt they couldn't work. They could phone in and say they were taking a 'Wellbeing Day.'

These were wildly abused as one the days people were expected in they take one and then say things like, 'Although I didn't come in, it wasn't a wellbeing day because I ended up working from home after all.' Then ten days later they'd do the say thing.

Generally, the most dysfunctional places I've worked in, are where senior management are rarely there because they are WFH and then the piss taking filters down.

my previous role was excellent, freedom to achieve your targets, as long as you played ball you could have pit stop cafes, full english breakfasts etc, bit of shopping when completed your rounds, yes weather was tricky at times but overall best role i had, then of course upper management had ideas and by by team

Sadly the same everywhere and like many of you, being in the workforce for almost 40 years you become rightly cynical!

A new leader starts, changes everything, so we have to, then another, rather than just allowing us to get on with the job we know and successful at.

For me, teaching, oh the number of times we have a new focus/buzz word, which we've actually been incorporating into our lessons for years, but you have to change the wording and prove it's being used. You go home to modify terms used in shemes of work, having printed out the lesson plans for inspection for the year, what a waste of time, effort and paper!

Sounds like my old (hideous) job in Early Help, working alongside social workers and basically managing quite awful family scenarios that were literally beyond early help and should have been on SW caseloads... but were thrown at EH because there weren't enough SW. The constantly box ticking and office rules.. I made myself v unpopular with my management by vocalising some of my thoughts on this stuff. But the families liked me. I couldn't get out fast enough tho. Only job I've ever wanted to run from. But I did not.. stuck it out until I got another (much better) position far away from local government

No OP this doesn’t sound good at all. At your ‘wellbeing checks’ I’d start saying how cold you are in the office! As a bare minimum they need to put the heating on or get staff wlectric heaters. Might help them reconsider 3 compulsory office days.

I work in the NHS, someone with 30 years service recently got given a teabag as a thank you. Encased in a little generic thank you printed card. We couldn’t help but all laugh as that just sums it up. Most of us are replaceable but so is your workplace xx

Our bosses must have been told that we all need more praise.

I was surprised to get an email from my manager saying something like "I just wanted to say I've checked your work and you're doing a really good job thanks. Keep up the good work, it's appreciated."

On speaking around, we all got exactly the same message.

We've since all had the same message at various intervals.

It doesn't seem very sincere if they're cutting and pasting the same message to everyone repeatedly!

Its sad that it takes a lot of luck to find a decent, supportive employer and team, and even that can change quickly. We spend so much time at work, when its made more miserable for no beneficial reason its frustrating.

I’ve been much happier in my role since I accepted that I was thanked on the 5th of every month when they dropped my salary into my bank account every month without fail. They uphold their part of the contract implicitly and me mine. If they didn’t pay me, I would not go to work- simple. It’s transactional. Why do I want anybody to kiss my backside for something I’m paid to do?

Im in the NHS tho, my expectations are low😂

I manage business change and hear people saying they are fed up with change, restructuring, job changes etc.

what they seem to be oblivious to is the need for businesses to evolve. It would be far worse if they stayed the same and became unprofitable, or in the case of public sector, continue to be wasteful and expensive to the public purse.

unfortunately change causes disruption, lack of certainty and risk to people's livelihoods. The alternative is inefficiency, duplication of effort, people doing work that is no longer a priority to the business.

If management didn't mention well being, didn't show any effort to recognise workplace stress they would be called uncaring and irresponsible. Of course there is a degree of corporate bollox going on, HR advising managers that they need to recognise MH. That's part of their duty of care under Health and Safety at Work Act obligations.

we all have the ultimate choice to work where we do. If it doesn't meet our needs then it's time to take action to locate something more suitable. Also build modern skills to become more useful in today's workplace because some automation will necessarily take place to remove mundane tasks, leaving the more complex aspects for people to own eg decision-making, interpreting data etc. gets skilled up, or get left behind!

Re the cold: purchase an electric fan heater (get it PAT tested before taking it in or they may refuse it) and just plug it in and stay warm. I have thyroid issues and am always cold. No way could I work if cold.

Yeah it's desperate. You want me to be happy? Pay me more. That's literally the only aspect of my happiness that you have any control over. Anything else you purport to do towards it is a waste of both our time.

I suppose you have to tell yourself this in order to justify the job that you do, but organisational change is always about so called making efficiencies, which is always code for redundancies and reducing costs. I have been through several restructures and there are sometimes some positives change but usually it cuts staff and centralises processes, only for it to be changed back months/years later as it didn’t work.

Consider the alternative. While they're thanking you, you have a job, and they're happy with the work you deliver.

isnt that better than them checking your work and finding fault in everything you do?

There was a recent thread on here, where the OPs manager was using AI to pick holes in the OPs work, trying to show how crap she was at her job. That's a toxic environment. I'd say your manager was trying to do their best to be fair and reasonable to all their direct reports whose work was acceptable.

I'm not telling myself anything. I'm quite able to see the benefits of continuous improvement and yes shared services is a very efficient way to reduce the amount of duplication across public sector.

I'd love to know why you, as a tax payer, would want public sector to be bloated inefficient and wasteful of your tax money. Wouldn't you rather the money saved went towards improved NHS provision, better schools and other public services?

Likewise if you are in a business, would you want them to carry on regardless of inefficiencies despite knowing there are better ways of working? They don't make redundancies for the fun of it, they do it because the business needs to cut its cloth according to is profits, that where your salary comes from.

If you don't like your office culture, move job.Get some more qualifications. Earn a promotion.

I work in an office where no-one checks on us (we're grown ups capable of looking after ourselves).
No bonuses, but they pay for our Christmas party. No-one records us though (wtf?)
We can't swap days off, we have a leave system that we stick to. Generally we like what we do, have a good team and our office is usually warm and a comfortable working environment although without frills.

You do what you need to pay the mortgage and put food on the table. Nothing wrong with that. No one owes you a living.

I'm in a customer facing operations role working in welfare

Is this why you need to be in the office for 3 days a week? Why are you on Teams calls all day to people WFH when you’re in a customer facing position? I would have thought this would mean you see or speak to clients regularly throughout it the day?

It sounds like you struggle with authority and hierarchy, and that you’re fed up with your role.

How old are you and how much experience do you have?