I’ve been where I am for about 3 years…. Local authority- big area. I really like the job, the public group I work with and Soemtimes (within restrictions that I know are in every public sector job) what I can achieve in this job. It can be quite satisfying.
However- it’s quite a practical job and when I started it was pretty much remote (I was told hybrid but that meant 1 meeting a month in the office). It was very difficult to learn. I raised that I was struggling with it multiple times by my manager to be told that I was ‘fine’ multiple times. The support wasn’t there .
. There is high sickness and turnover (team of 8, 3 x people off long term sick since I’ve been there. 2 of those were managed out and another 2 have left off their own accord, 3 people left shortly before I arrived).
Temp staff have come along and said things like ‘I can’t put my finger on it but somethings awry. The manager is pretty weak. He gives out the nice guy impression. Behind closed doors he has stared at me, briefly touched my face, hands, arm and leg- albeit very briefly and weeks apart- but completely unnecessarily. It doesn’t feel sexual but it feels unnecessary and gives me the creeps. In my 1:1s he tells me my work is great.
He seems to be able to make you feel like you are amazing, the best thing to ever happen to this workplace, then another day an antsy email will go out to the whole team that’s clearly directed at you. Or he will be standoffish or even ‘o it’s you’ when you walk in a room. Sometimes he’ll be very jokey (like mild innuendos) then other times vey serious and look at you like you’re ridiculous if you bring up a joke. It’s like you get picked up and dropped at a whim.
I try to just get on with my own work and not let it affect me but I find the whole thing quite isolating. I look around and everyone in my team seems pretty unhappy. If you raise any concerns the manager takes them personally. If you don’t raise them and then raise them later it’s “you should have said”. I also have a list of the strange things that have been said and done and try to write things that affect my workload on teams- as I have had different answers about the same thing before.
Anyway if you love the job but hate the culture/ manger (I don’t hate him I just feel on edge trying to read which version of him I’ll get), have you stuck it out? Does it just get worse and affect you more or?
im just pretty gutted as I feel like the only way to stay here is to ‘switch off’, detach. But if I work elsehwere it will not be the same job (unless I travel for much further than I’m willing to travel!) Or am I overthinking it and this is just the new way of working that makes it isolating and this would be the same elsehwere?
Help thanks!