Can my work do this?

[LavenderViolet]

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.

Yes, that was the kind of thing!

I’d be able to tolerate it with headphones and music or the radio playing in the office. I loved one of my jobs as it was a standard thing that we had the radio on to help people feel relaxed and comfortable. Used to be the case years ago - I remember visiting my dad at work and they always had the radio on, some employers seem determined to go back to Victorian times.

Hope the OP and team find a solution.

If talking is banned, then I'd be tempted to sing all conversations opera style

Having everyone learn sign language would be ace, but semaphore would be even better.

Open plan and hotdesking has increased a lot. It used to be individual allocated offices for managers and a bit of open plan for the rest. Now everyone is all-in together, so it's a 'mixed economy' I expect if it's like our place, management have been forced out into the main office, no allocated offices anymore and they are complaining they can't concentrate.

It probably isn't unreasonable to expect a bit of quiet so there isn't loads of background noise for people taking customer calls.

The manager is just being far too heavy handed, and would get more cooperation if he treated people like adults.