Inherited team that never meets in person through choice

[Daisythedonkey]

Hope someone can help. Recently been promoted to manage the team I have worked in for 4 years. I’ve worked my way up and did a large part of my boss’s job anyway so no problem being the boss and running the department so to speak.

However, boss was quite slack when it came to HR and pandered to the team (IMO). There is nothing medical or other personal issues that have led to the set up now (seen files etc.). Essentially I have a team member who lives 200 miles away who was employed during the pandemic and another who comes into the office one day a week, if that. A third who lives locally and can be in the office whenever. Prepandemic, everyone was in the office all the time and, if I’m honest, things were a lot smoother. There is zero team spirit now and very little informal communication. Office based team member misses sense of community and friendship, understandably really. It’s tedious rocking up to speak to no one all day!

I want to make everyone attend the office at least two set days/week. I don’t think this is too much to ask. Any advice/hints/tips?

The issue is poor management not remote working.

I'd be looking at the employment contract of a team member working 200 miles away. Does it say they need to attend the office at all? You could ask all team members to attend the office once every other month. I think that is reasonable. The one who lives locally could attend twice a week, again I'd be looking at their contract. I think in general twice a week is very reasonable possibly excluding members 200 miles. away.

And this folks, is why you should all join a Union!

A good rep would eat the OP for breakfast and come back for seconds.

Can only do that if you're a member however

@Nitgel - that’s what I’m looking for really. A sensible balance but the work needs to be done and newcomers need training.
@swanling - I agree, which is why half the issues I have exist in the first place.

Could people please note this from OP as well:

”My manager is very pro-staff in the office and wanted people back full time originally. I have had to fight against that on behalf of this group already”

It’s not all on her!

This.

Edicts aren't helpful. Effective flexible working is about building trust and delivering not hours worked or where people work.

However it IS reasonable to negotiate regular contact points. If you've recently been promoted to run the team you have a golden opportunity to negotiate this.

In the case of the person who is 200 miles away, that merits a separate conversation and needs you both to agree a baseline. I would seek advice from HR and check what this person's contract says as you need to avoid anything that could be construed as constructive dismissal

@Daisythedonkey for the training, is it possible to arrange a few days (with a hotel if needed) for all staff to be there to train new staff?

Agree. I'd be looking for another job if I were on that team.

@dontlookbackyourenotgoingthatway - not sure why! I haven’t done anything yet. I’ve got the backing of more senior managers to make changes, won’t do anything without HR advice, but I also won’t be held over a barrel by those who (don’t) WFH. There are others who do and do it well. I need to try and make it fair and appropriate for everyone. At the moment, the staff member who is in the office not only feels unsupported by the remote workers, but also ends up doing more as there is a turn up at the door mentality with some of our clients. As I said above, these things were all in place when I came in, were approved by my predecessor and I’m trying to back pedal out of some of them now.

You need to sit down with your manager and discuss an approach to the team member that has been given a home based role, and what support you are going to get on this.

Have they been in post for 2 years?

Plenty of companies are very successful with a wfh culture. Your team are not performing poorly because they wfh, they're performing poorly because they've had poor management. I would personally encourage more set in person meetings but I would also look at how to improve wfh performance and not make attending in person mandatory. I'm another one who would leave a job if suddenly told to come into the office more regularly.

If you made me commute 200 miles I'd simply quit.

Thanks! I’ll look that out.

I would stop assuming wfh is the issue.

Just work on delivery and step up oversight.

I work remotely as part of a larger team, and some of my colleagues absolutely take the piss with WFH.
It genuinely surprised one of them when they were told they can't look after their kids AND work from home at the same time - they were away from their desk half the day looking after their child and not working!

When I'm WFH the environment is child-free, as it should be.

OK, you actually have two issues here:

• a performance issue with a particular member of staff. Regardless of what their contract says about location they are expected to do their job to the required standard. If they are frequently offline for long periods or otherwise not responsive that is a performance issue that is as obvious as it would be in the office. You need to engage with HR to discuss whether eg putting them on a performance plan or beginning a formal disciplinary process is appropriate. You absolutely need to verify what their contract says, as their manager you are absolutely entitled to this information. A discussion about expenses and policy also sounds appropriate.
• a team issue that is about everyone in the team including you and including anyone you recruit. It sounds like you are taking everything on yourself, however the training challenge you describe is a team challenge. Instead of saying "how will I do this" it's how will we meet this challenge.

“Your team are not performing poorly because they wfh, they're performing poorly because they've had poor management.”

the one boasting about going off to do chores etc when she should be working is, in part, performing poorly because she’s WFH. Yes, there can be more check ins than there have been, but fundamentally WFH involves trust, which op doesn’t have.

If you knew anything about people management you’d know you can’t just take over a team and change massive things without serious fall out.

Sounds to me like you need to keep the status quo for 6 months and undertake some serious training yourself along with self reflection. Speak to your team. Then plan any changes slowly and carefully.

Once you've sorted out what's contractual and what's become habit, could you start by introducing a monthly day-long get-together at various locations to get the team back into the habit of being a team? So you pay for one overnight the night before, with dinner, and then work together on a clear agenda the next day until about 4pm when everyone is free to go home.

You might find that everyone realises how productive this is (I work remotely most of the time, and I really like the opportunity to join the team regularly) and it becomes something that everyone looks forward to. And assuming it works, you can then reintroduce the office location on the same one night/one day basis, and go from there?

Managing staff, esp when you were previously part of the team is not easy, but equally you need to pull the team together as that's what you've been hired to do! WFH has its uses, but we've moved past it being the only option now, so everyone needs to be more flexible!

I think that what the OP is hoping for

I think this is where you need to start. If you all work basic hours, then you all clock in together and catch up, you all catch up at the end of the day to discuss how your day went, you have a longer meeting once a week, you basically up the contact time. If there's training you need to do then you book it into their diaries in the same way you would in the office. If they're not logged on you need to get a grip on why

I agree with others, you sound inexperienced. As a leader, you help set the weather for your team and already your use of language gives you away - hunter turned gamekeeper, slack, blaming your old managed, blaming other team members. As @dontlookbackyourenotgoingthatway mentions, I hope they are in a union. You may never know they consulted the union, but the union may be aware of your behaviour, so make sure it is within both the letter and spirit of the law.

I would suggest you be the change you want to see, go into the office and keep the local person company and change the training so people aren’t reliant on overheard conversations for updates and training.

I do agree on one point, the issue of the office based person ending up with work others should be doing. As a manager you need to sort this out. The person in the line of sight should not end up with all the ad hoc jobs / queries when the others are available on Teams or the end of the phone.

@LadyLapsang - as I said, I haven’t changed anything yet (very new). I have had pressure from my own manager to change things as they are aware of some of the problems/people in the team. I’m not trying to be them/us. My new manager knows that the person I have replaced let things slide. As people, all of the team members are nice. As employees, not everyone is amazing and some people are not performing at their best. I can’t describe all the ins and outs here and have no intention of bullying anyone out of anything or needing people to resort to union involvement. But, I do need to get a grip on poor performance and create a wider sense of team. I want them to want to come to work/enjoy work. IME, and knowing the service we provide, this works better with more face to face. I thought two days was very generous given I’ve been asked to bring people in full time (impossible for the remote one).

What @LadyLapsang said. Being incapable of figuring out how to make the team be productive, not knowing how to train people remotely, etc. are are very, very basic things. Do better, before pissing off the staff. I’d quit without a seconds thought if my company tried to inflict an office on us.

@ItsNotWhatItsNot what advice would you give OP, as a new manager, on dealing with remote training and remote management? Telling her she’s rubbish isn’t very constructive.