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Strange manager - advice needed

8 replies

NewYearNewLife · 09/05/2014 10:11

I am in what should be my dream job.

Except i do not know how we can handle the manager. We are public sector based in a small outpost office.

The manager does not seem to understand how to manage people. He sits in a corner with his headphones on. He has offloaded all the work onto staff members and repeatedly fails to provide us with the additional background information required to do the job.

we have been doing some of his work that urgently needs setting up. He hasn't bothered looking at it or progressing it. we highlighted it to other managers who were concerned, but when questioned he came up with some excuse why it hadnt been done.

He constantly scribbles odd comments, not hard for us to notice when he sits with his back to us wearing headphones. Comments such as 'dont like the chatty one', 'need more money' ' (name of person) trouble', 'need to get out'. He also seems to list what other people have, big car, big house etc. He also emails his wife an awful lot during the day, these emails also contain comments about us. He was told to get rid of his radio by his boss, so he started streaming it over the internet. He wastold to stop this so he now deliberately annoys everyone by having his phone oon speakerphone.

He also does not do the full hours, as soon as we have left the office he goes home. We know this from other people who work in the same location.

We have highlighted our concerns as a team for quite a while now. We have had meetings with his manager. We have been informed that we were all recruited for a reason, we are all strong women and we suspect that they hoped we would run the show and make up for his failings.

Yet we are not prepared to continue when he seems so hell bent on our project failing. At a recent public meeting he may as well not have been there, he made no contribution. His bosses manager was there and we have recently discovered that she was there to assess him. Other organisations connected with our work think he is a laughing stock and have no respect for him. We have asked them to put their complaints into writing as the project really could fail.

We have been highlighting our concerns for over 2 months yet nothing seems to be being done.

We are concerned that there may be a healt h issue. When we have meetings with him its really off-putting, he seems to be thrusting under the desk. We have said that we are concerned that we could send him over the edge. One of us is so fed that up that this individual now hopes that we do this.

A few days ago we again spoke with management and said we wanted HR called in. We were asked not to, but to go to a senior manager which we did. The manager admitted that they know he is a problem but they don't know what to do!

Help - we are a great team (without him), what can we do, what evidence should we be keeping. One of our team already has an interview elsewhere.

Sorry for the long post.

OP posts:
SomethingAboutNothing · 09/05/2014 10:15

Wow, he sounds awful! Sorry I don't have any advice, but hopefully someone with something useful to add will be along soon.

NewYearNewLife · 09/05/2014 10:21

Thanks for your comment. If you were to meet him you would think he was somebodies sweet grandad. He is just so unbelievably lazy. The annoying thing is that his manager and his managers boss knows he is a problem. Several weeks ago we asked if he had previous management experience - we were not given an answer. If this was private sector he would be on a PIP

OP posts:
skinmysunshine · 09/05/2014 10:57

If the senior managers don't know what to do then you may have no choice but to call in HR. Are you in a Union? Can you ask for advice from them? He does sound like he may have some MH problems.

flowery · 09/05/2014 10:58

How ridiculous of senior management. I would suggest speaking to HR and you should consider raising a formal grievance. Sounds like you have done everything you could be expected to outside that process, with an absolutely pitiful response.

NewYearNewLife · 09/05/2014 11:03

Thanks for your comments. I really really wanted to avoid the formal grievance process but suspected that this was where we were heading.

Can a formal grievance be raised jointly? or do we all have to raise individual grievances

OP posts:
flowery · 09/05/2014 11:25

You can do it jointly. I understand you wanted to avoid a formal grievance, but ultimately, given you've tried everything else, it's either that, or put up with it, or look for another job really.

NewYearNewLife · 09/05/2014 13:43

one of the team was in the main office today and has been able to speak with a senior manager (female). My colleague is quite direct. Apparently they are now taking actions to confirm what we are saying about his comments etc (i do not want to go into further detail for obv reasons)

The senior manager has assured my colleague that things will change. She has apparently revealed that she wants rid of him. We will have to see. My colleague said that she had an interview next week, if things change she will stay otherwise she will be going. The senior manager has taken the dates on board and has apparently started conversations with our managers boss. Fingers crossed - this really is a dream job for me, i really dont want it ruined.

OP posts:
EBearhug · 09/05/2014 20:15

Be aware that even if they are actively working on removing him, it's not going to happen overnight, because they will have to go through the formal processes and so on. (It's still progress though, so good luck.)

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