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?

He can’t dictate what you do in your presumably unpaid lunch hour!

Sounds like a complete dick.

The employee is required to work diligently and faithfully and devoted his/her full time and attention the duties of his/ her role during his/her working hours"
Core hours are set as 10-12 daily, unless department operational requirements are different as set out in X" (x doesn't apply to my job role/ operational department).
"The employee will from time to time be expected to work outside of the core hours. Where reasonably practicable, advanced notice will of this will be provided"+*
+"It may on occasion be necessary for the employee to work in excess of 48 hours in a seven day period"*

where does this indicate that taking a 3 hour lunch break without informing your manager is within the contract?

How can he tell you you can't run errands in your lunch-hour? If you were in the office you'd be allowed out at lunchtime. If he is calling you immediately after your lunch hour, schedule something else in your diary, even if it's quiet work for you.

And I wouldn't have have anyone telling me, a grown adult, when I can and can't have a cup of tea, either. You're an adult employee not a school pupil. Has he come from a school by any chance OP?

You need to get together and write and sign a letter that tells him you are very unhappy with his management style or nominate three of the 40 to soeak with him to warn him before you have a vote of no confidence. Yiur team will lose goodwill and good staff if they dont take action.

You are the second most senior person in this team and was the acting head until he was appointed.. and you don’t know the company policy??

This. Last week I was on a call in the afternoon and as my DH was WFH he brought me a cup of tea. Do you have to turn the computer round to show your tea-maker?

This is the mug I use for my naughty cuppa when on Teams. It might work for OP and her team when making the illicit cup of tea.

Years ago I made friends with a lady on my train to work who worked for a government department. Her boss worked in a different office so she had to tell her when she'd arrived and when she was planning to leave!

So it's not just WFH people who get this insane micromanagement, either.

If you were in the office you would be having random cups of tea when you felt like it, and going where you wanted at lunch.

What if you have an Ember mug? What if you have a travel mug or thermos flask? Kettle on your desk?

I'd line up bottles & glasses of booze in full view - he hasn't banned alcohol .
And try to get colleagues to do the same.

RTFT

I would put a drink in a vase and pop in some artificial flowers. Then when he starts a meeting, remove said flowers from the vase and drink from that.
When he complains say there's no rules about drinking from a vase.

He can’t dictate your lunch break. That is your time to do what you wish, whether that is to go for a walk/run, go to Mass or have a smoke in the garden. I’d take it up with HR. Are any of you unionised? It is against the law to dictate how people take their breaks and they do not have to be taken on work premises. Check your contracts, too and work to rule. They will find you are not nearly as productive as a team as you once were.

😆
I have from the outset
catch up

How can he know if you’ve refilled a mug from a flask? Or used a thermal mug that’s kept it hot since your last permitted tea break?
I fail to see how on earth he can mandate what you do during unpaid breaks including laundry or errands. Or force people out of remote working from far flung locations with no desk provisions.
It sounds like he’s read up on quick wins to make an immediate impact and is logging data to present to his superiors. Without checking whether his edicts would actually improve productivity.
No surprise to hear people are now working to rule. You could have some real fun with that as suggested upthread.

I realise some PPs don’t believe there are WFH jobs with this degree of flexibility.

There really are - I had several and I was line managed by a variety of personalities. Some were excellent people motivators who were a joy to work for as they were also able to be appropriately hands off but available when required. Sadly a few couldn’t cope with remote teams with autonomy over their diaries and were awful micro managers who sucked all the joy out of working life.

@Buggeroffboss - looks like you’ve been landed with the latter sort. You have my sympathies.

Thing is, in many jobs that measure output in productivity rather than presence, you absolutely can take a 3 hour lunch break. It works fine, because ultimately if you don't produce what you said you were going to produce you get fired. People are good at managing their workloads/hours and people are especially productive if they are happy and relaxed, so if that means a 3 hour lunchbreak every so often, so be it. I couldn't give a shit what hours my team work, because when I need them - they are there. They are meeting their goals (and more than). We all just... do our jobs, alongside living our lives. Sometimes means a few late nights, sometimes means a wee friday afternoon skive.

He truly is a knob. But the answer to the question of why is that he doesn't like remote teams... Which begs the question why did he take the job? Surely he was informed at interview that everyone is spread out without sufficient office space to work from it. And how does someone senior not know that you can't alter someone's contract from remote to in-office without some serious HR loopholes.

In a previous role, my contract just said I had to work 37.5 hours per week. There was nothing about start / finish times or lunch breaks at all.

If I wanted to, I could take three hours for lunch on a Monday, then no break on a Tuesday, and make up the extra time on the Thursday.

Why would you do that, other than to make him feel uncomfortable?

To make the point that he is being ridiculous and pedantic.

Complain to HR and put evidence forward so he doesn’t pass his probation. We had to do it once to an awful boss. The whole team (top performers) said we would quit if they passed their probation, she was gone the next day.

Your new boss thinks there are people on the team who are pulling a fast one.
They say they are at work, but aren’t. Too many breaks, too many non work activities. Too much work done at odd hours when nobody else is also at work.

That is why he wants you in the office for two days a week. And for breaks to be set.

If anyone has taken the pee then they are to blame for his attitude.
No doubt when he was recruited it might have been suggested to him that this change is what was wanted. He in turn of course, has a boss. Somewhere. His boss may well be driving this now the old boss has departed.

The drinks thing is a bit silly.

Like many bosses you can go in harder and soften up later. Many staff try to see what they can get away with early on.
What you cannot do is start soft and try to be harder later on.

When I clicked your link I saw a big headline "Are you a robot?" and thought "oh yes, that would explain it." 😂

Not the sharpest knife in the drawer, me.

It sounds like HR already have an idea about him due to his lack of ability to count, as another PP has said. That will have left the wrong sort of lasting impression on them. I don’t think he’ll last long because one of you will say something, it will all blow up and I think HR will side with you. If it’s 💯 true you’ve all been super productive, then I think it will come back on him. It may take time but it will happen. He’s not a manager, he’s a dictator and wannabe who feels entitled to power he doesn’t have the skills to handle.
I know a couple like that - they’re super oppressive, make work feel like work because they’re miserable people, and remind you of cruel Victorian overseers in dark Satanic mills.