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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:
missfliss · 13/08/2018 18:01

Sounds fucking awful. I would be looking elsewhere

bumblenbean · 13/08/2018 18:19

Absolutely absurd. What a power hungry bellend. I’m afraid i’d have to seriously reconsider working there if it was me OP

redexpat · 13/08/2018 19:22

Omg please get the whole office to learn sign language! Grin

Quickerthanavicar · 13/08/2018 19:37

Series of card like Andrew Lincoln.
Find a new job.

Hamandcheesebaguette · 13/08/2018 19:47

Oh my god.

I work in HR but currently studying for my qualification and only a year of experience but this doesn't seem reasonable AT ALL and there is always a lot of talk of REASONABLE in HR.

Plus I don't believe that would stand up in a tribunal if he fired you for it.

What an absolute dick. Is there nobody higher up you can go to? Go to the papers?! I imagine this would pick up publicity.

What are his REASONS for this?! Surely conversation, idea sharing etc is encouraged in most workplaces?!

I am agog.

Etymology23 · 13/08/2018 19:53

Can you permanently book a conference room for normal talking? Then you can sign to a colleague to go in there?

Agree it is absurd. I wold go insane. I would only be prepared to call him Mr X, if he called me Ms Y.

Ridiculous man.

greendale17 · 13/08/2018 19:54

**SpartacusAutisticus

Sounds like my perfect workplace! l**

^What a joy you are(!)

HoleyCoMoley · 13/08/2018 19:57

Is it busy with constant customer calls, I'd be bored shitless if I was just sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. I'd be on my email all day telling colleague the most trivial info I could think of. Does he come into the office to check that you're not talking, maybe someone should suggest to him you take detention instead of getting sacked. Maybe he was a primary school teacher in a previous life.

LighthouseSouth · 13/08/2018 20:01

I don't know the answer but watching with interest....

because as long as I was allowed earphones and music, this would be ideal for me.

my guess would be there's nothing stopping him but if it makes a bunch of people unhappy and want to leave, he will change it.

FawnDrench · 13/08/2018 20:09

I find all this utterly bizarre and appalling at the same time.

How was this non-talking rule introduced? Presumably into a non-silent office.
Was there any consultation?
Have you got anything in writing?
Where does it state the consequences - must be in some sort of policy somewhere surely.

Don't you have staff meetings and/or supervision or one to one meetings to discuss how things are going and to receive feedback.
What about appraisals?

We are in the 21st century for goodness sake!

FuckingHateRain · 13/08/2018 20:17

Wow! Where do you work? Is it big organisation? Can you give us any clue?
I assume you don't have Skype or similar either ? I thought this 80s style doesn't exist anymore
I wonder if he does it cause you're all females...
What do you do? Could you get another job?
I ve changed two jobs in a year and both organisations were against emails and meetings
I'd die in your place Flowers

mineofuselessinformation · 13/08/2018 20:21

I'd listen to the radio with headphones between calls....

mineofuselessinformation · 13/08/2018 20:22

And possibly sing loudly and very off key.....

FuckingHateRain · 13/08/2018 20:24

And fart in parallel....

esk1mo · 13/08/2018 20:25

can’t everyone just speak normally? he isnt going to sack EVERY employee.

reminds me of a story my dad told me when he was at school. they were told if anyone turned up in denim they’d be sent home. the next day almost everyone wore jeans and denim jackets to school Grin

youarenotkiddingme · 13/08/2018 21:22

I fear they can do it.

I suspect they'd justify it as making colleagues all stock to the actual job rather than endorsing U.K. discussing their Aunty Jeans neighbours cat!

Realistically though it will affect production because of you need something to continue and can't ask - just email - work is halted until you have the answer.

PandaPieForTea · 13/08/2018 21:32

Does he have a boss you could approach? I’d be pissed off if someone I managed approached their team like that as we’d end up with staff turnover issues.

I’d probably be looking for a new job.

Delia65 · 13/08/2018 21:57

What esk1mo said

Just ignore his instructions and carry on as you were before. As long as you're all in agreement and stand up against this ridiculous rule I fail to see what he could do about it

Viviennemary · 13/08/2018 22:01

It sounds like this person has come from a place where the talking is out of control. It can be very distract for some people for constant chattering all the time. If he is insisting on Mr then you should all insist he calls you by your title too. You could all try complaining about him to Personnel or to his Manager. But yes I think work can do this.

NewUserNameTime · 16/08/2018 12:15

How is it going OP?

MissCharleyP · 16/08/2018 21:17

Bloody hell! I’d also (as pp said) die in that sort of environment. My last but two job were trying to get rid of pointless emails and actually asked each team to try and do one email-free say per week and said we should talk to each other.

I have worked in places were “chatting” was frowned upon and I was ‘spoken to’ about it. It’s a joke, I can’t concentrate in absolute silence and it makes me feel uncomfortable. I can’t see his staff retention being high....

LighthouseSouth · 16/08/2018 21:21

I don't understand the email free days

if you come up to me and say verbally "I need the data analysis of MN users on a Thursday night, and I need it sorted into columns of who has been drinking gin or wine or tea" ...the first thing I'm going to do is ask you to email me that, so I have a record of the requested parameters.

I'm not saying that should stop conversation if people want it - but an email free day would drive me nuts. Yes, I can write down what the person asked for, but the only way there's no comeback on possible problems is if that person emails me from their account and I confirm receipt etc. If I write it down and there's a problem, they could just say I wrote it down wrongly.

Chilver · 16/08/2018 21:28

As pp, i would agree with all colleagues to continue talking normally.

As for the Mr business, absolutely tell him 'fine, and we all expect to be addressed as Mrs, Ms, whatever... in return'

MissCharleyP · 16/08/2018 22:00

LighthouseSouth Yes, a lot of people had similar issues (not me, my role wasn’t such that I got lots of emails) so they scrapped the idea. But at least they tried, I don’t think they wanted no emails at all but rather to reduce emails pinging back and forth between people five yards away with something that could be sorted in a conversation of five minutes or less, so they tried the one day thing to see the effect it had.

LighthouseSouth · 16/08/2018 22:12

@MissCharleyP

sounds like people needed to be encouraged to stop and think before composing their emails - do you mean the kind of thing where they spread 1 message across 6 emails because they didn't put the full details in the first one?

I find the type of person who can't send a full coherent email initially will have the same problem in conversation, so the conversation isn't five minutes and will have added to the hassle anyway.

but I digress, yes, I wonder how OP is getting on. It's sod's law isn't it - as I said, I'd love that environment if I was allowed headphones and music.