WWYD?

[Givemestrengthwiththisjob]

Been speaking to a mentor about difficulties been having with my boss. They unofficially reported it to HR as they didn’t like what they were hearing. Apparently my boss is on the HR radar but needs more people to come forward. WWYD? Work has become unmanageable because of everything being a priority and staff are stressed, complaining and going off sick. Staff are looking for jobs in droves including myself. It’s not something I’ve ever done before - even though I’ve often seen myself as resilient I am being micromanaged and told I’m not being proactive and that my LM is always chasing me (though they are also doing this with others). I have a team to lead but am put under a lot of pressure for even non business critical activities

Have a confidential conversation with HR, but be prepared that no much happens, happened to me a couple of times reporting bad bosses.

with my current boss I actually faced up and told her the behaviours that were problematic and that it was making me and others stressed and unhappy. I was lucky because she actually took it on board and two years on has changed hugely. But I was senior, and I didn’t have anything to lose as I had a bit of money that meant I could walk away. It emboldened a couple of other senior colleagues to start pushing back.

but depending on the seniority gap that is a really hard step to take.

Yeah I’m pretty senior. As is a colleague who has put one in but nothing much is going to happen. My mentor said I should not let my colleague fly solo on this but it’s just not
something I’ve ever done but with pushing back there’s a lot of backtracking (from my boss’s behaviour sounds like someone has had a word as they have started to actually praise the team).
I think the new boss isn’t used to managing global teams and us UK staff just get on with stuff but seems like we need to tell my boss everything we’re doing for her to have a comfort level stuff is being done. I hate micromanagement

If you stick your head above the parapet you're going to run the risk of getting shot. So don't do it on behalf of other people, do it for yourself. It is difficult when you want to stick up for other people who are suffering the same issues as you, but you need to concentrate on how it affecting you and your work.
Speaking to HR is the only way forward here. They need to know what is going on. You could suggest the same to your other colleagues, but they need to do the reporting themselves.

That isn’t my experience. I have reported and had nothing happen in the past, but I have never felt it was detrimental or caused issues for me.

when I was more junior and me and my team reported a bad boss, nothing happened and we all decided to leave in the space of a few months. With my current boss I reported, I was one of many who had flagged behaviours, and HR were aware but nothing changed, so I just very calmly went to my boss and outlined the problematic behaviours and the impact. My other senior colleagues then felt emboldened to also have direct conversations and call out bad behaviour when it happened.

the key is to take the blame out of it. My boss was essentially being bullied by our CEO I discovered, he was horrendous. Thus she dealt with it by micro managing and being unreasonable (because he was being unreasonable). We had to understand what each other needed to feel comfortable, and show compromise on both sides.

@Caplin I too have stuck my neck out for other people in the past, and it's come back to bite me on the arse. My lovely boss, who had nothing whatever to do with the issue (and was on holiday at the time), told me never to put my own career at stake like that again.