Why is new boss being such a knob?

[Buggeroffboss]

Our old boss took ill suddenly in December last year and died shortly after. They been the boss for 20+ years, so appreciate we were all very used to them.

Following their illness I became interim boss. In April I was offered the role permanently but declined as it would mean returning to full time work. I'm bitterly regretting not taking it due to new boss!

We're a remote team, have been since many years before COVID. New boss clearly hates remote working. We do have an office, but it seats 10 people and us open to the whole business (approx 300 people) not just our department (40 people). New boss wants everyone in the office 2 days a week. HR have told him to go whistle - we are all on remote contracts and live across the whole of the UK, including channel Islands and 2 in France!

New boss is now insisting we schedule any "coffee breaks" (you know, where you brew up between meetings) and that under no circumstances are we to appear on screen with tea/ coffee if it isn't adjacent to our scheduled break. In addition he's put an embargo on lunch time errands, such as laundry, popping to the post office or collecting the car from the garage. All time is to be accounted for.

As you can imagine, morale has gone down the pan. We're a high performing department, there is 0 issues with productivity. Our work is largely invisible most of the time, lots of thinking time and idea generation which makes monitoring our day to day workloads difficult, but we always exceed our targets at quarter and year ends - so people are clearly working. In the 6 weeks he's been in there's been a noticeable change in how people are working, fewer people on early or late, most just working to their hours.

AIBU to think he's being a bit of a dick and just needs to chill the fuck out?

Unless you recruit within your current workforce who are all familiar with the way of working, I think you will struggle with any new manager coming in. It would be very difficult for a new person to be comfortable with this amount of liberties and trust required when you don't know anyone who you are supposedly managing. I think BB and anyone else in the recruitment process would have to make it abundantly clear that this is the current culture which is encouraged and allowed. If I was being interviewed for this and informed that everyone wfh and is allowed to work how they wish I would seriously wonder why you are looking at recruiting externally rather than promoting from within. Surely, you have at least one (ft) person who would be willing and able to step up and then recruit for their position instead.

@Buggeroffboss is there anyone you can job-share with? Hell, I'll come and job-share with you - it sounds like a fantastic company, and you sound like a fabulous employee and manager.

Tbh what OP is describing aligns with the policies and expectations of my last 5 companies. I'd expect any incoming manager to read the company handbook and check any big changes with their manager before following through with a new way of work.

I'm a manager too - outside of a call centre, I've never seen this level of petty micromanagement. In fact there is so much research backing the benefits of flexibility and allowing your workforce to take regular breaks, it sounds like this guy has never bothered to learn how to effectively manage people!

Sounds to me like HR might have his measure. Raise with them all these silly rules to test if the company is directing him or if it's him.

I personally think it's him. He needs to be given a job to do take his eye off meddling, better still, the company need to recognise they've made a bad hire and get rid of him.

Yes, my last 2 companies were very similar and do is DHs. I am aware others are not so flexible but it doesn't seem exactly rare to me, but maybe it's because we know people in similar industries.

This is part of the reason I accepted my bosses offer to move from interim to permanent manager for my team.

I really had no desire to go back to managing people, but I looked at the rest of the team and just knew I would do a better job of it than most of them (which my boss strongly agreed with). I also had no desire to take the risk of potentially ruin the last few years before I retire with a new manager with little knowledge and something to prove.

I keep reminding myself of these reasons whenever the myriad management related job irritations get to me

I also took the FT job as 4 days a week. It ia definitely hard to do in 4 days and I sometimes do extra hours but the flexibility of being entitled to that day off suits me. I am ok with working around 4.5 days a week most weeks.on average but being paid 4. It certainly suits my employer too. I still get a good salary

You all to start drinking your water out of tea cups and mugs...that will drive him mad altogether.

He’s on ACAS ground. Speak to HR before he takes your company down.

I would be drinking a cup of coffee in every meeting. But I’d fuck with him a bit and sometimes put squash in it or juice in the mug. Then when he kicks off, ask him if you need to use a different cup to drink or do you need to schedule drink breaks.

You need to draw attention to him being stupid.

Sorry, I'm not in any way endorsing current manager. I agree that level of micromanaging is petty and he sounds like he is on a totally different planet. I just thought about the next manager to come in and it would be very challenging to find someone who will fit right in. Flexibility is not uncommon but OPs description of their current culture is very permissive. There is nothing wrong with that, if it works well and you know you have a great team you can trust but no external person would have that knowledge or trust and with everyone mainly wfh, and not to set hours either it would be very challenging for a newcomer who is employed to manage.

I can't see the issue - the manager's focus should be on maintaining results and good performance rather than obsessing over "bums on seats". The system in place is clearly working and doesn't need to be made more restrictive. If results show that performance is slipping, that's the time to start looking at whether the level of flexiibility needs to be adjusted.

He’s a micromanager and that’s impacting morale,

Either insecurity or a bit of a control freak, or both.

As long as errands can be fitted into your lunch break, he can’t dictate what you do, if they’re not running into work time.

I’ve never heard of not being able to make a hot drink to have while you are working or to have during a meeting and you need to ask him for the company policy on that.

It’s good to take micro breaks away from the screen anyway and gives thinking time as well, not to be constantly glued to it.

It’s unfortunate you had a great boss before and now you don’t, great bosses seem to be few and far between these days IMO.

You are well established and it might be good to try and have a quiet word with someone (his boss?) about how heavy handed he’s being and how it’s impacting team morale.

He is a knob that's why. I mean I WFH lunch break is used for errands etc but if say I have an appointment or car issues I can make time up. We actually log hours for work we do I guess it helps show what we're doing. Is there an assistant manager you can talk with? Or HR I mean all that's going to happen is people will become unhappy and leave. He cannot make you go into the office it's clearly no feasible to do based on what your saying. Drinks toilet etc should be as and when it's utterly ridiculous and illegal what he is asking no breaks your on screens so I think you could go down the route of occupational health HSE route no screen breaks or not enough is illegal see below.

www.hse.gov.uk/msd/dse/work-routine.htm

If it were me I would put my complaint in writing to HR and ask others to do the same. Speak to acas about it also.and add in the HSE information file a grievance if they don't do anything to help you. Or just file a grievance I would. Minor things like drinks on screens during meeting I can understand noise distraction on screen clients etc but the other stuff well sounds like you need to get him out!

He’s mostly like a control freak and micromanager because he blagged his way into the job at interview and is way out of his depth. He has no idea how to work as part of a team.

There are so many of these people out there.

surely even if its paid its YOUR lunch break, eg a break from work?

Re references: there is no such thing as a 'good' or 'bad' reference, only a factual one. An employer can of course be selective about the facts they include: strictly speaking it is OK to state that the employee 'resigned during an ongoing grievance process against them/was terminated for gross misconduct' etc, if there is documentary evidence supporting this.

I think that it wouldn't be appropriate to refer to 'excessive amounts of sick leave' as 'excessive' implies a value judgement, though they could state that they took eg 'x days of sick leave during their employment'.

Most employers don't include this info though: partly because they don't want to be sued but also because they don't necessarily want to jeopardise the ex-employee's future. I don't think anyone should rely on references to give an accurate picture; I think that the OP's employer needs to look at their recruitment & selection processes to ensure they are sufficiently rigorous and they avoid appointing someone so manifestly unsuited to the role the next time round.

We just use references to confirm the person actually worked at the company they claim and the role they claim.

We have so many fobs on CVs we take them with a pinch of salt. But if they claim they have a degree in relevant subject, or particular qualifications we do ask they provide the evidence... Which isn't always forthcoming ha ha

I seem to be the exception to the rule in that I don't lie on my CV, or in interviews, or even grossly exaggerate like many seem to do. I have the view that there isn't much point in getting a job you're not really up to, as that just ends up as yet another failed role on your CV when they decide not to keep you on or you end up hating every second you're there..

Plus I'm too old & worn out these days to want a job that stretches me to my maximum capabilities and beyond. Took me ages to persuade the (rather ambitious, young) big boss that when she promoted another less experienced staff member over me I had no resentment whatsoever, and had actually said to the other team members I'd turn it down if offered, and that the person she had promoted was actually more suitable for the role.

So is he saying no one is allowed to rise from their chair apart from lunch breaks and official tea breaks? Do you have to ask his permission to go to the loo?? That is very unhealthy and I am sure HR and your occupational health team would be very unhappy with him enforcing unhealthy work practices.

Unless he’s monitoring you 24/7 with cameras à la 1984, how on earth can he police anyone running an errand on their lunch break or going to grab a coffee between meetings? Are you in meetings all day every day with him so he can see people drinking cups of coffee or something? I don’t get it. Also what on earth is he going to do about someone choosing to make a coffee between meetings really? I don’t think he can sack a remote worker for getting a drink… All sounds really nuts.

Does he himself get any work done as he seems to spend most of his time checking up on others?

My job is super flexible - I am contracted to work 140 hours over 4 weeks (this is because occasional evening/weekend working is required). Start times, finish times, breaks are entirely at my discretion. As long as I get the work done, nobody cares.

I do fill in a monthly timesheet but I doubt it's ever particularly scrutinised.

I've never been micromanaged and would take very badly to it, as would my colleagues!

OP, your WFH job sounds very similar to mine. We’re a team of very experienced professionals and are expected to manage our own time. We do log all our hours, but no one cares when those hours occurred. It’s expected that we make ourselves available if needed for a meeting in normal office hours, and to keep our diaries up to date, and it goes without saying that we are expected to meet our deadlines and deliver high quality work.

My bosses boss goes to the gym two mornings a week and blocks out their diary to do so. I’ve never gone quite that far, but running lunchtime errands and hanging out the laundry between tasks is completely normal. In fact our annual workstation H&S training tells us that regular breaks from the computer are very important to prevent problems (muscles, eyes, RSI etc) and one of the examples is to get up and make a drink and do some stretches while you’re waiting for the kettle to boil.

Your new boss sounds like he has all the confidence of a mediocre man - taking a job managing a team of 40 people WFH and not realising that remote means 100% WFH. And not understanding contracted T&C? Totally unsuited for the role.

Sounds like he doesn’t have health issues, migraines and he isn’t in his perimenopause. I’ll drink what I want when I want. I know when I need caffeine. I know when I need hydrating. I know if I need a bit of sugar.