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?

I disagree with this. I have been involved with cases in which it is thanks to HR's support of junior employees that they have been able to progress complaints about senior personnel. All behind the scenes of course due to confidentiality.

The OP is not a junior employee so your comment is not relevant here.

I would agree they “are not your friend” because that is not their function. They are also not your parent or teacher and are generally only an authority figure at all in the sense that they are there to enforce policy and support everyone so that the business can run smoothly. They do get a bad wrap because people misunderstand their purpose.

The power has probably gone to their head, and micromanaging is normal for new managers in particular. Sadly, I have found this quite a lot in different industries. This will also give off the, "Do Not Approach Me" vibe.

I wish you and your colleagues the best of luck with this one, OP.

The OP is a manager, not a junior employee.

In any case, it appears that the OP has been asked by an even bigger boss to collate the numerous grievances against the arsehole (just in case calling him a knob offends the poor sap upthread who didn't like sexist words).

Maybe not at your company but at mine they’re brilliant. No way would they just tell the Op to gather evidence and then submit a grievance if a senior manager of 15 years standing came to them with serious concerns and said that the morale is plummeting - they wouldn’t just say gather evidence and submit a grievance. Much more proactive.

And Hr then shunts the Op off with a “gather evidence and submit a grievance”

Following a serious complaint from a senior manager with 15 years at the company about a probation employee who’s been there 6 weeks and has already caused the morale to sink to the gutter

Aww. Diddums. Women have spent thousands of years being treated like a sub-species, so if the poor little men can't cope with a minor insult from a woman, they need to have a serious word with themselves.

What HR should be doing is advising the big boss that he needs to proactively address this matter before it escalates further. Perhaps they have, and he has disregarded it. Or perhaps they haven't, because they know that the organisational culture is one that doesn't easily tolerate challenges to senior management. So instead they have to try to work around the leadership failure by telling the employees to submit complaints.

That is a good observation

any decent company be aware that morale is plummeting acts swiftly

And this is what is all about you lose all fellowship working at home

We work at building fellowship remotely because we are strewn about the globe. But I agree with you, being in person is so nice.

I have had three instances when HR has been really great and in my corner. Two times when I was pregnant.

The third instance was when my MP tried to get me sacked (for taking him on over local constituency issues), and the big boss seemed to think he had a point until HR stepped in and explained that this was a malicious report and nothing would be done.

Don't get me wrong, there have been a few occasions when they have not been great but they are not always on the company's side.

....and all try to make tea at the same time 😆

Would it be a silly question to ask if you and your colleagues are in a union? If no, then you can invite a union to come in and speak you about introducing a union in your office. I mean you don’t actually have to go thru with it, but just the idea that the staff are considered collectively bargaining is enough for either this man to chill, or batter his boss to either speak to him or send him on his way.

Employers are not paying for your lunch breaks and even if they have instructed the boss to ask employees to account for their time, they still aren’t entitled to oversight of what they do in lunch breaks.

He feels threatened by you, as you were offered the job first. Also some managers don't like remote working as it doesn't justify their role. As the team are already working to target, there isn't much need for him apart from being good at pissing everybody off. He sounds insecure

There is a direct correlation between bosses feeling threatened /insecure and being knobs. Also known new or newly promoted managers go in all guns blazing to show the team they mean business, usually backfires. Being a good manager in my opinion is about harnessing people's goodwill to go the extra mile. I would have jumped through a ring of fire for the best boss i ever had. These ones do the polar opposite.

Exactly. This has been my experience with previous new higher up bosses, you can’t just or the higher ups are loathe to, get rid of them asap. They’re given chances to settle in, implement new changes, prob old boy network kicks in and before you know if they’ve irritated a few people. If they irritate the higher ups too much, too soon though, then they’re gone quite quickly.

I have seen a new boss come in who was an absolute twat and just annoyed an established big team, leading to many complaints and some formal grievances. I know this as I was involved in investigating them and the way this person could 'kiss up kick down' was astounding. The person above her, very senior was of the view that she was just managing effectively an out of control team who'd been allowed to run riot. This is sadly not uncommon. The new boss clung on for over a year, and she was temporary to begin with and only left cos she was covering mat leave. The higher ups just did not want to realise that she was the problem and there was a certain closing of ranks as the less senior people (who included middle managers) couldn't be seen to somehow win or get one over on the hierarchy.

Hopefully it won't be like this for the OP but I have seen this closing of ranks thing more than once in my time.

To respond to a few of you:

I think people are forgetting this is real life and not a TV show. After I get off my calls with big boss, I'm not privy to the next scene in big bosses office where he's talking to HR or to new boss and telling him to pack it in. I can't read the email exchanges. I can only know what big boss says to me and what HR say to me. I know big boss really well so have every confidence that he's dealing with it well.

My DH says he is, he prefers to work in the office.

Yes I know a few people that prefer the structure of going out to work and being in an office - 1 of them goes in to the office daily though they have hybrid working and one of my colleagues rents a we work type space so he has somewhere to go.

My husband can work at home 3 days if he likes - it’s rare he works at home more than 1 day a week tbh

he likes it in there better

I could work at home but don’t bother either mostly as it suits me to go in as I’m quite social and like the office and I go the gym at lunch with other people who work there

I am probably more productive at home as I tend to work there if I need to focus on something or I have payroll or soemthing like that coming up as find iy hard to focus on tasks like this in the office

also at the office I absolutely only work 8.30-4.30 to be back to pick up kids

at home I can easily work 8.10-near 6 those days tbh as I drop at brekkie club and home so early I just get stuck in - no commute and don’t pick up til 6 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

So he's gone!

Poof. Off. No goodbye, just "new boss has left the company by mutual agreement"...

Phew. Glad it's over.