I was utterly humiliated on a work call today

[Flerb]

Teams

Around 15 people

Call to discuss and go over department performance. Surprise visit from managers, managers, manager who grills me, GRILLS me on the stars, asks rhetorical questions one minute and then stares daggers at me and informs me they aren’t rhetorical two minutes later.

you could have heard a pin drop, just 15 horrified, blank faces looking anywhere but at their complete hanging going on in front of them

Is your department not performing well?

That sounds awful

That's the stuff of nightmares. Sorry you were subjected to that, OP.

Must have been horrible OP. You haven't given much detail, so all I can do is sympathise. Where was your direct line manager during this?

That's so awful. Was your boss there? If so they should've stepped in and said something. Did you not feel you could say you weren't prepared for these particular questions but would be happy to get back to them? Guarantee it's not you who should be mortified but that twat for being so rude

You have to stand up for yourself. If you don’t people take advantage at work especially. I would have definitely given sarcastic answers back at the very least. I would also make that managers life difficult when approaching me in future. Suddenly then they become all sweet.

What was it aimed at you?

What you describe is utterly dreadful but also very unprofessional. I’d they have issues you should’ve been primed. You were put in the spot.

what industry vaguely is this?

Make a complaint. That sounds bullyish

He sounds unhinged!

What does "grills you on the stars" mean?

I'm going to guess that's a typo for stats.

Perhaps they work in astrophysics?

At least your colleagues were looking horrified, so they know that wasn't right. Have you had any support from them?

That sounds awful. What was the reason for this? Have you had any contact with this higher manager before? I don't know what to say other than if they were approaching you in an aggressive way and there were witnesses it should be taken to the boss above them. It's not on to talk to people rudely, especially in front of others. I was bullied by a colleague for 4.5 years, I know how horrible it can be.

Or for TMZ?

Call them out for their bullying. They shouldn’t be putting you on the spot like that in front of all those people. Arrogant twat trying to look big. Maybe email them and cc their manager to say you don’t appreciate being spoken to like that and won’t be tolerating that again. Power trip prick

Astrology fan… Wanted to know if his Mercury was retrograde or Jupiter was up his own arse.

Have your colleagues checked in on you? If so it sounds like the big boss was way out of line.
(Assuming it wasn't stuff you would be reasonably expected to know & have prepped & even then at obvious sign of not knowing they should stop)
Call it out -that sort of behaviour has no place in the workplace & it continues because it's swept under the carpet as oh you know what he/she is like.

Sorry to hear about this. Over the years of tutoring adults, I confronted hundreds of stories not unlike this. If you search 'workplace bullying' I think what you'll find is horrifying. I used to be naive to think the abuse, bullying, demeaning, power plays and manipulation were the domains of the school playground, and in the sophisticated world of the adults, it disappears. It doesn't. The extent of workplace bullying is increadible.

FWIW, I would suggest the following. You say it was on Teams so presumably there's a recording of it. Chat with your friendly IT people and see if you can get a copy.

If not there are plenty of witnesses.

Make a formal complaint to HR

I'm not familiar with the grievance at work procedure at the UK but I would make a claim at your local labour tribunal.

If this isn't going to work, I would have no choice but to quit.

If it was a call to discuss departmental performance, it’s obvious they’d want to know about stats. I’m not sure where people are seeing bullying. Presumably you didn’t answer his rhetorical questions, which is why he told you they weren’t rhetorical. He was expecting an answer.

What constitutes a grilling? I would go to a departmental performance meeting being prepared to explain, in some cases every individual failure. When I was in operational management I had colleagues who would be vague, wishy-washy about performance trends, and it comes across as making excuses. If you can say we had 23 failures against kpi xyz having interrogated the data we were able to reduce that to 11 due to recording issues of ABC, Joan Bob and Daphne have been retrained in Z process and the practice instruction has been simplified because there was clearly confusion about section 4, that's robust, if you say yeah we've had a bit of a dip not sure why might be because we've had someone new doing it, that's not.
I also think you've misinterpreted their questions as rhetorical when they weren't.

Where was your manager or your manager's manager during this call? Did they step in to support?

Where they questions that would reasonably been within your competence to answer?

If not, then I would have called that out "I've taken a note of that question Big Boss, unfortunately I'm not close enough to the detail. I will discuss it with Y and one of us will get back to you with an answer".

If they were questions you would be expected to be able to answer, then the person sounds unpleasant but some are. I'd discuss with your line manager how the call made you feel.

Did any of your colleagues either support you during the call or at least check in afterwards?

I don't see bullying here, just a tough call. Had plenty of those, I see them as learning opportunities tbh.

@Fraaahnces - they're planets, not stars 🌟 🤣

Is your dept under performing? Was the call about this? How did the managers get the link? Are you the lead for the department?
If you're the lead and it's underperforming then they should discuss professionally in private
Do you have an HR department and policies on dignity and bullying?

Are the results of the stats under your responsibility? Were you able to explain them?

People responsible should be able to explain what is being shown.

Unless the person said the questions were rhetorical, they were obviously expecting an answer.

Meetings like this are par for the course in my industry tbh. In person as well as teams. If something isn’t going well, we’d be prepared for a grilling to explain.