Not allowed to talk to other staff

[LowLevelGrumpMostly]

We had a restructuring which has combined two teams plus a few randoms under a newly hired VP. I’m the only one in the UK but the rest of my old team do hybrid. The new VP is in a different time zone to everyone and weekly meetings are at 3am so I can’t attend. I haven’t been introduced to some of the people who’ve joined the team and when I asked to be was told no, new manager wants all interactions to go via them.

I’ve also been told I shouldn’t call my team mates and all interactions must be in writing with new boss cc:d or included on team threads. I’m probably the most experienced and knowledgeable in the team so was relied on a lot by other colleagues and new boss seems very out of their depth. It’s getting kind of lonely.

I’m well paid and negotiated a very tight contract, part time, school friendly hours, no travel, very defined role. New boss really doesn’t like my lack of availability in their time zone and keeps trying to palm off parts of their role they don’t seem to fancy or aren’t experienced with. I don’t have the time to take on additional work beyond my core as the job share I worked with left shortly before the restructure. I earn £65k for 3 days and would struggle to negotiate such a good contract in current climate and part time is rare in my sector. The new boss is highly critical and negative towards me but I’m very lonely. A few team mates have reached out via out of company channels saying they aren’t happy, experiencing similar, are too scared to talk to me as told not too.

So do I wait it out and hope execs twig, jump ship, talk to HR (none UK more discipline than wellness vibe). Having worked remotely I don’t have connections other than old team and worked via my previous wonderful boss who retired.

Agree. Join a union. Document everything. Definitely do the 'gosh I've achieved so much can we have a 1:1' email. Good luck.

It’s probably not worth involving HR. They are there to protect the company, not the employee. I’m nearing the end of my working life and have learned in situations like these, it’s better for your mental health to accept that it’s not working and move on.

I'm very sorry to hear this OP. I am in a very similar position. People casually recommend you look for another position, but that is not easy to do. And in the meantime you are stuck in a very precarious miserable position. I'm sorry I don't have any decent advice, only sympathy.

I am freelance and do a tiny bit each year for a boss who doesn’t believe anybody on the team should speak to each other. She truly thinks we should each do our bit in isolation and she is the only one concerned with how they fit together. She will not change. I duck it up as it’s only five weeks a year for me but in your position I’d be out there speaking with recruiters asap.

I don’t think it’s a company redundancy plan, we have open head count, I do things others can’t and are essential to projects. Plus plenty of ways they could audit and matrix work properly if wanted to construct that type of plan. Rather than use a new grad hire, who really has messed it up so it’s not a clear overview in anyway and nobody would take seriously. Generally company is pretty astute and ruthless and whilst would morally do it they wouldn’t do it so badly execution wise.

I think this is instigated by new boss who doesn’t know how to manage senior staff doing highly technical roles she can’t do or understand. But not sure why, I think she’d personally love to rehire new team in her own geography. But hiring there would cost 3-10x where most folks are.

And given you can't talk to people, it's awkward to put the pieces together.

Is there anyone on a similar level to your boss that you can have a quiet word with?

And a very random thought, is she working for a 3rd party? We had some rather odd industrial espionage in one job I had years ago.

Not third party. but seems to be reallocating folks to each others roles without training or support as a power thing. If folks ask for info or support she says whilst she could help (mostly I doubt that) she’s doing it for their own good to self-learn and skill up. As a result a lot less getting done and to worse quality. So effect is sabotages productivity.

Why do people never say this about GPs? I earn a lot less than my 30 year old GP neighbours who get £90k for 3 days they spent less time at uni and in professional training and have a public £60k pension each (mines predicted at £3k) never work out of 9-4 hours. I just supply their medical records and finance systems 🤷‍♀️My neighbours cut their hours with each pay rise they get as not worth working… by neighbours I mean folks three houses along but 750m down “the street” in the “village”.

It will derail the thread if we do the GP comparison thing I think.

She could be utterly bonkers?

I say that as someone with family with lots of dx for mental health issues inc me, so not being nasty.

I’m tending towards sociopathic, like a personality disorder. Needs to control people.

Maybe read a bit of Kevin Dutton?

It's difficult with global teams - there isn't a time that overlaps everyone conveniently if you've got AsiaPac, Europe and USA. But reasonable people will switch things round so different people are our if hours each time - including senior management. They will also records all-hands calls, because even if it's someone's working hours by timezone, you get people who are ill, out on training, busy with customers, etc.

It does sound like she's trying to isolate you and longer term get rid of you. It's obviously cheaper for you to resign than for them to make you redundant (from the employer's point of view.) IME, Americans seem not to realise that other countries have different employment rights - even when they've worked in all those countries for decades and done enough rounds of redundancies and disciplinaries that they should have a good idea of the different rules in each country.

So follow the advice to join a union and to get your CV up-to-date. You don't have to use it yet, but best to be prepared.

How are things going, OP?

Thanks for checking xxx. Tomorrow is a part time day off but schools etc mean off with granny. So only one day back and can’t sleep- stumbled across a team meeting recording with other staff seriously unhappy to limit of their capacity to voice. She’s sooo tedious - all I hope you appreciate I am taking time to talk to you. A sub team of 9 is now down to 5 with resignations. The vibe is quit or silent cold quit … everyone seems I need more info, don’t understand what you need quiet quit and boy she she’s angry

Sounds rough.

It’s probably been asked but have you chatted to HR and raised your concerns? Or what about talking to her manager?

Update folks! Getting weirder - last week cancelled weekly catchup as she felt exhausted and “trusted me to handle everything” - this week a one hour catchup of a one way stream complaining about most of my team mates and the fact one big sub team are off on a big Hindu festival (3 days vs her 9 at Xmas and 3 at Thanksgiving 🙃) it’s on the annual planner like Xmas, zero work allocated to me, nothing planned or discussed. Lots of whinging about how working so hard and needs to recruit better quality of employees. I’d love to know what she says about me to others in team.

I'd hang in there, she sounds like she's imploding.