Problems with team

[Shesaidshelistened]

I’m not new to running a team and have done at various roles for years. But I’m in a new role and it seems the team has been able to come and go as they please for a very long time. I have no idea what time they will be starting or finishing each day. Some days I am waiting hours for a response.

they all seem a bit frosty towards me too. I feel like they chat about me behind my back. I invite them to meetings/events and get various excuses why they can’t come, even though technically it is during their working hours.

Very often they can come across rude in emails etc. whilst I manage the team of 5, I am none of their actual managers, so I feel like I can’t challenge them.

i am not an ogre and am a real team player and im quite a people pleaser too, but its getting a bit of a joke now that they keeping giving me excuses and not being accountable.

has anyone had problems like this and been able to nip it in the bud?

I think the last two posts are really interesting for illustrating two completely different approaches to managing staff.

It sounds like are not managing a team, they are a resource and you manage their input/output only. That would be easier for you if they were robots you could control, but they are not, they are employees who have been given flexibile working by their manager and you need to work around that as a constraint, not try to enforce them to change, that should be their managers remit if they cannot perform. Take your issues to their manager.

I manage the function and work/output, but not the people in it, so I have no say in annual leave, appraisals, pay and don’t get notified if on sick leave. Their manager has moved to a different team but remains their manager.

🙃

Nope. Fuck that. Life is too short to work for a nonsensical, batshit set-up like this. I would be caulking this up to a learning experience and be quickly finding another job.

Do you work in programme management as this is a pretty typical setup? As long as output is produced by specified date is there really an issue? Whats the quality of work like?

State X meetings are mandatory and specified completions dates and accept flexible working is clearly company culture. If the company culture isn’t your cup of tea, is it the right company for your personality type?

Maybe they have a matrix management model. If it’s digital they probably do. The team is ‘led’ by one person but each discipline reports up through their community hierarchy. I manage 15 individuals who all work in different teams.

If the output and the management of the people are disconnected then I think you’ve been set up to fail. So the person that manages them agrees to anything they ask because that manager isn’t measured by outcome/output!
Also there’s disconnect because they are now managed by someone who doesn’t really have oversight of what they are doing because they’re in another team?
I’d be asking for a meeting with my Manager to ask how on earth this can work.

This won't be resolved until you become their actual manager. In fact, it will probably get worse. The previous manager has done you a big disservice by not handing over line management responsibilities to you. To them, you're just a caretaker manager and they don't need to respect that

You've been put in a horrible situation which is just unfair. You need a meeting with the team manager and then your manager and their manager, to thrash out the expectations of the role. Can you ask your manager for this?

If you got some coffee mugs and told people to organise them into groups - I bet you'd get: Small mugs and large mugs; bright mugs and white mugs; themed mugs and plain mugs; chunky mugs and slim mugs; plastic mugs and pottery mugs. They'd all be valid sets.

In the same way it's valid for a manager with one set of goals to organise the team differently from a manager with another set of goals, but if it's all the same team, that will clearly be a problem. Someone higher up needs to be working with you both to do overall organisation!

It sounds like you are inadvertently threatening their flexibility, which is precious to most people.
For example- what do you mean when you say your meetings are 'technically' within their working hours? If someone's standard home time is 4pm and your meeting lasts until 5 you can see how frustrating that could be. I don't know what you mean by 'events' either- one person's fun event is another's nightmare.why don't they want to go?
However, having no idea where anyone is on a daily basis isn't practical. Can you have it marked on a shared calendar? Is their work up to scratch?

How can you be responsible for the output but not the resources doing it?

Are you their manager’s manager?
Are you an external person brought n to implement change? Who reports to you if anyone?

If they don’t report to you then you are not their manager! It’s as simple as that.

Thank you to everyone for comments. I met with my manager on Friday and said about my concerns and they are meeting their boss and will report back.

Is the output you manage their only responsibility?
I currently am working on 3 different work streams.
2 have other project managers and 1 I am project managing,
I do not manage anybody else.
As teams we set out clear objectives for the week and we all get on with it like adults, meetings are mutually agreed and if someone can't make it they read the meeting notes. I have found micro managing is the quickest way to push talented people out of the door.