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Original poster

Can my work do this?

54 replies

LavenderViolet · 13/08/2018 17:03

The office in which I work has always been a bit stuffy and rule heavy but we have recently had a new department manager and he has brought in a new rule that we are not allowed to talk during work time at all!

If we want to discuss work with a colleague we must email them and speak that way. If you want to speak with a colleague verbally then you have to - via email - book the conference room and can only converse in there.

We are allowed to answer our phones to customers but are not allowed to phone colleagues on our work phones with any queries; this must all be done via email.

It is absolutely soul destroying to have to sit there for 7 hours every day (we can talk on our lunch breaks but not until we are out of the building). It honestly feels like I'm in the country from the Handmaid's Tale.

Are work allowed to do this? Apparently breaking this rule could count a gross misconduct.

OP posts:
Cascade220 · 13/08/2018 17:07

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

IMissGin · 13/08/2018 17:07

Wow! I’ve no idea if they can but it’s awful. Is it just your department? Is there HR you can go to? I’d definitely be looking for a new job

Nquartz · 13/08/2018 17:08

Hopefully someone else has actual advice because I'm too gobsmacked to offer any Shock
At my work we're constantly told to reduce emails & phone/talk face to face instead!

Original poster
LavenderViolet · 13/08/2018 17:11

It's just our department but we are the only office based department. Everyone else either works offsite travelling around, or works in various 'practical' noisy places.

We do have an HR department but they have been pretty useless about it so far and have basically said that whatever the manager says, goes. He is very military sergeant major-ish in his behaviour and I think people are scared of him!

OP posts:
BrokenWing · 13/08/2018 17:12

Sounds very oppressive, what is the reasoning behind it, what type of office is it? Is it a call centre where they have found the background noise from colleagues talking sounding unprofessional to the customer on the phone? Is there potential for confidential information to be discussed and a customer hearing it over the phone?

I cant image why a manager would want to do this in any other type of environment.

ADastardlyThing · 13/08/2018 17:14

They can do it but why they would is beyond me.

Very bizarre but yes, absolutely fine for them to do. Sadly.

maxelly · 13/08/2018 17:14

I agree it sounds awful but I can't think of a specific law they're breaking other than very tangentially. I suppose it could be against health and safety regulations if you weren't (for instance) allowed to speak to alert your colleagues to a fire or other hazard! but i guess his ban on talking doesn't go that far.

It wouldn't constitute illegal discrimination unless the rule is applied unequally (men are allowed to speak but women aren't for instance!) and there isn't anything in the Employment Act as far as I know to say that talking must be allowed.

I suppose you could try and say the situation is so difficult it's actively damaging to your mental health and/or causing stress at work?

It's like an HR exam!

Dermymc · 13/08/2018 17:16

I'd just keep booking the conference room and chatting in private. Play the guy at his own game.

He sounds like a complete twat.

HotblackDesiatoto · 13/08/2018 17:16

I would think that if you were fired for speaking to a colleague that would not stand up in any tribunal. Aren't there rules against creating hostile and unfair work environments?

Pebblesandfriends · 13/08/2018 17:16

I'm not sure what he is hoping to achieve but if it's low morale and lots of staff leaving then it's a great policy. Is there anyway you can feedback to his boss how it's impacting you all?

ICantBelieveIDidThis · 13/08/2018 17:17

My absolute cunt of a boss (total narcissist) brought this rule in.

It prevented us from comparing notes when the boss tried the old 'divide and conquer' thing.

As each of us had been told different things (for different reasons), we ended up 'going to the toilet' in groups and meeting up before and after work.

maxelly · 13/08/2018 17:18

Also I would say in the event they do actually try and sack someone for gross misconduct for a single instance of talking in the workplace they would probably be on a sticky wicket, unless they can show some actual business reason why this was such a serious misdemeanour that it justified instant dismissal, which would usually have to mean some actual impact on the business. Employers aren't just allowed to declare any and everything gross misconduct!

However they would be within their rights to dismiss someone for repeated breaking of a rule, even an unreasonable one like no talking, after following a fair process and giving them warnings in the first and second instances of it occurring!

Original poster
LavenderViolet · 13/08/2018 17:18

No, it's not a call centre or the type of place where any confidential information could be heard. I think the manager wants to rule everyone with an iron rod. He's brought in quite a few new rules, including that we have to call him Mr (insert surname here) rather than by his christian name.

Apart from him the whole team in our department is female.

OP posts:
Parker231 · 13/08/2018 17:18

Yes he can do this although it’s ridiculous. I suggest you all have a meeting with him to discuss what the issues are and why he feels you should be working in this way.

HouseOfGoldandBones · 13/08/2018 17:20

I suppose they are allowed to do it, but they would be laughed out of court if they tried to dismiss you I would imagine,

However, I think you'll just have to show your Manager the error of his ways.

If you have a customer on the phone, I would email each & every query separately (or much better email the Manager)

Would your colleague like a cuppa? Book a meeting room to ask them. Just letting your colleague know that you're going to lunch, going for a comfort break etc, book a meeting room.

Try to "persuade" a customer to make a complaint. I would be complaining if I called an office & they told me that they couldn't ask someone a question, but had to wait for an email response.

Or, as a last resort, unplug the router.

BrokenWing · 13/08/2018 17:22

He is very military sergeant major-ish in his behaviour and I think people are scared of him!

I interviewed for a job with a supply chain director who was a bit like that, I got a bad vibe from him so asked him what his management style was and he said he'd been in the business long enough to have earned his stripes (motioned to shoulders to indicate army type stripes) and he could tell his staff what to do, he would shout at them in open office if they messed up. I told him I honestly couldn't work for him and in that environment and I wasn't surprised about his high staff turnover. Surprisingly I got a second interview which I politely turned down. It was a difficult decision as I was unemployed after redundancy but I had a few months money in the bank and life is too short for that shit.

Start looking for another job either internally with another manager or external.

HotblackDesiatoto · 13/08/2018 17:25

He's brought in quite a few new rules, including that we have to call him Mr (insert surname here) rather than by his christian name. Apart from him the whole team in our department is female

In that case insist that he has to call you all Ms Whatever. Can't have it both ways.
Don't let this shit slide

WipsGlitter · 13/08/2018 17:26

He makes you call him Mr ???? That's ridiculous. He's sounds very insecure and inexperienced. And a total shit.

DilianaDilemma · 13/08/2018 17:27

I believe they can actually do this, yes

Having said that, I'm willing to come in and give an hour-long presentation to your manager about why that is a painfully stupid idea and how that's going to hurt them not just operationally but financially in the mid-to-long-term.

Actually: I'll come in and do it for my usual 300/hour and if they pay me to explain to them why that's fucking stupid they'll still end up better off after only two months. Confused

Get another job if you can, OP, these people evidently haven't understood the first thing about how businesses work.

Violetroselily · 13/08/2018 17:40

I'd welcome this in my job...people have a tendency to only discuss things face to face or by unrecorded phone call because they don't want their name put to anything

auntyflonono · 13/08/2018 17:46

If he requests that you call him Mr Scribbins then its polite for him to call you Mrs Arkensaw and your colleague Miss Smith. If he is asking you to call him Mr Scribbins and calling you Penny and Sue then that's not on at all.

MummaGiles · 13/08/2018 17:46

No advice, but I bet they’re also allowed to monitor your electronic communications...

BitOutOfPractice · 13/08/2018 17:51

How is that even possible? It sounds so grimly Dickensian OP. Get another job

IncrediblySturdyPyjamas · 13/08/2018 17:51

Can you all learn some basic makaton.

The sign for coffee is a big C with your thumb and forefinger, as if you are drinking from your thumb.

The sign for tea is drinking an invisible tea cup with pinky up

ScreamingValenta · 13/08/2018 17:56

How archaic! Where I work, we are actively discouraged from emailing people if they're in the same office - the message is, get up and talk to them.