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 said in writing that we were to schedule tea breaks in our diary and not to brew up outside of that and then has taken 2 people aside after they were on a meeting with drinks and he had checked their diary and they didn't have a tea break scheduled. He's since advised that if people do have drinks in meetings he will be checking their schedules.”

did he really say that? I only ask because, a direct report of mine told my team of 20 that I’d told him he wasn’t allowed to make himself a cup of tea without my permission any longer.

what I actually told him was, it’s not really appropriate for you to make yourself and 19 others a cup of tea every hour of the day because you’re spending 20 minutes per working hour making tea.

his inference was slightly different to what I actually said and I was subjected to a witch hunt for being the manager who banned him from having a cup of tea

He sounds awful!
I’d escalate to HR and I would be documenting everything.

I’m flexitime too on a team of 4 in our section built into a wider team of about 30 over different depts.
we must have cover between 9-5 as that’s when the customer phone lines are active and we can’t start earlier than 07:30 or work later than 18:30. We also have a 3 hour buffer with our flexi time where we can go into debit and essentially owe them hours. We cannot accrue more than 10 hours flexi so must either take a day off as flexi or lose the extra hours
So as long as the other 3 know where you are if you’re coming in late/leaving early or having a long lunch then it doesn’t matter.
Hours are recorded on weekly timesheets.
We can also wfh or in the office.
As for the making a brew thing, some of the other teams have wireless headsets so will make a brew whilst talking in the meeting, he’d hate that! 🤣

This is likely to be policy not in the contract. My entire firm of 5,000 people work like this. Our working hours policy says work how and where you want that suits your day and gives you the balance you need with your home life. That's obviously not verbatim. we are all adults and can be trusted to do our jobs and management recognise most people are juggling other stuff, like caring responsibilities and just general life stuff.
As long as our diaries are up to date (which counts as informing your manager) and we get our work done on time then they don't care if we're taking two hour lunch breaks. As a result, people are loyal to the business and very engaged at work. It is brilliant.
If flexible working is the norm then you don't have to check with your manager, you are responsible for managing your own day and workload. The whole point is to remove those pointless management tasks and give employees agency and trust.
Obviously you have to work around any meetings or client deliverables. It wouldn't be ok to not turn up to a meeting that you had accepted for example, it's all about your diary reflecting when you are available and not available.

Scheduled tea breaks is bonkers, What's next, timed toilet breaks?! Thin end of the wedge.

You've got to ask why he was actually given this job. This is a reasonably large organisation with, presumably, correct recruitment processes and established remote working for the team he was going to manage. So surely an essential skill set identified during recruitment is managing remote teams.
That is, of course, unless they wanted someone to reign in the flexibility and culture of the said team. The tea thing is just pathetic and shows a lack of skill or strategic thinking. But it's not beyond reason that the organisation thinks the flexibility has become too flexible and want some different accountability and given him the remit to do this. Someone who got a job to manage 40 people can't be this bad a manager, can they?
Maybe he has been given a remit to get 20 perc of the team to leave. Who knows, but it could explain some of his more pedantic actions.
After 40 years in large organisations, my advice is to tread carefully. There might be a different agenda and you need to pick the battles with team consensus. Some of your entitlement that comes through on your posts based on it's fine because 'we get the job done' might not be how other teams in the organisation see it, or the senior managers.

Be mindful that for most organisations HR is a management tool. In some places they do manage over robust managers. But more often than not, they are there to support the management. Not undermine it.

Where from - Direct Line Travel Insurance Claims Department in 1993?

Your lunch break is none of his business.

I often drink cold tea at work, just because I can't get to finish drink at an appropriate time (in teaching). Also, I do think as many workers as possible need to find they have to be in work at the same time for a few days. That should make the logistics obvious.

He sounds like a right wanker

Probably has a micro penis

He sounds very unreasonable. He can't tell you what to do during lunch! If you want to cover yourself in jam and run down the street screaming that's your business!
What about people with medical issues, e.g. diabetes.? My colleague (when l was working, before kids) usually had some tea at certain times, and sometimes unscheduled if she felt unwell. What about water? He can't deny you water, and you could have the said water (or waterever beverage you feel like)In a sealed opaque container.
Definitely speak to HR about concerns. Can you mention about morale being low as well?
My partner has been bullied by his boss in the last year and now is redundant. In that time his boss told him he didn't want to see or hear our kids during video calls (haha as if you can stop them) and there is no way the Internet can drop out when on a conference call, cause clearly my partner controls the WiFi. He bullied him on various things from mental/physical health and autism and our family situations. Sometimes I think these awful, anally retentive people just exist to be a stick in the wheel.
Sending you the best of luck.

The 1950s has called and wants him back

I would be tempted to take a screenshot showing the time and that he is calling, and just keep filing them, but never ever answering.

See what he decides is your punishment for not being back in time from your lunch 🤣 when you have evidence you were

A mug with 'Gin O'Clock' on it would be ideal.😂

What a micromanaging prick of a jobsworth, as if you cant just make a brew any time u feel like it!?
He's got too much time on his hands,he's just throwing his weight about trying to make himself important and look good. You know what they say 'a new broom sweeps clean'
Keep going back to HR

I hope he fails his probation. He is an awful fit for the culture of the company.

Is his name Paul

@Twilightargent it's perfectly reasonable for a manager to not want to see or hear your children on a works call and, yes, you can prevent it.

If you show that you were back from lunch, that you could have picked up his call but did not, nor called him back quickly soon after, that will not look good at all.

I have a smart mug

it keeps my drink warm for hours.

itd shut him up as I’d tell him I made it before I clocked in.

drink water on screen and he can say nothing.

he can’t tell you what you can/can’t do on your lunch break

work to rule @Buggeroffboss No overtime, no staying late, no starting early. Phone off outside working hours

Or not, because they offered op the job and presumably he/she was not acting like this.

Not sure he can dictate what you do with your lunch break, although I may be wrong🤔

Ridiculous !! Sounds like you were doing just fine without him, maybe he feels he has to throw his weight about to show you who's boss, i.e. he has a lack of confidence in his ability to sit back and let things run smoothly

Crikey, I work as part of a remote team. I thought my boss was a dickhead but has nothing on yours! Ridiculous new rules!

Hi op he’s obviously trying to be the big I am marking his territory would you willing to say to him look boss name the place works well and doesn’t need fixing as a probationary employee it might help your time go better if you don’t going upsetting the staff as it’s demotivated employees already in 6 weeks. the system works well and he might be better off keeping the staff on side otherwise he might end up with grievances against his micro managing. Only saying this as I did the role for sometime and it works better if the team are supported than demoralising them. Just my advice to a new colleague.

In that case you will have seen that there is no set lunch time from which to be late.