So angry with my new employer

[Cherryblossom200]

Hi everyone,

I'm one month into a new job after being made redundant. I was lucky to find something fairly quickly so was pretty happy.

Initially my employer said in my interview they wanted me in three days a week, I said this would be a deal breaker for me, I'm a single parent and financially child care costs would be too much. They came back to me and said I could do two days in the office and one month full time at the start to train. I agreed with that, but was very clear I would only do one month full time.

Another person started in the same job as me and also said a similar thing that they were looking to do only two days in the office.

We both have been able to do our job pretty well and have started working from home this week.

But the issue is my manager, she's 4 months into her new job and totally incapable of doing it. She's useless beyond words, doesn't like presenting, disorganised, delegates all her work out, deflects blame to others in the team and generally makes our life difficult not easier. We all say the same thing, I can't actually believe she's made it this far into the job.

But because she's so bad at her job we are all now being asked to come in 4 days a week for the next 3-4 weeks possibly longer it's not clear. I've said no, and was prepared to walk away. They have agreed to allow me to leave work early two of those days to collect my daughter. But what concerns me is they keep moving the goal posts and I've lost trust in them. They knew the impact this would have and still did it. There is no reason they need to do this, we can easily get trained at home.

I'm now thinking of leaving and looking for a new job, and just try and find a fully remote job again. I'm just disappointed 😞 part of me just wants to leave tomorrow, but then I think I should try and find something while I'm working.

What should I do?!

Stay and try and find something else. In the interim say you can't do 4 days, as agreed previously, you need to revert to 2 on site.

Look for another job and when they push for 4 days in the office refer them to the agreement when you started.

Who is pushing for more days in the office? Is it the same person who interviewed you and negotiated for a month full time whilst you train?

I would speak to the hiring manager about your concerns and the movement of the goalposts. Depending on how things unfold I would be looking for a new job in the background.

Thanks everyone 🙏

What does your contract say? Do you have the 2 days thing in writing. If not, they may wiggle out of it or say it was a misunderstanding.
They hold all the cards at this early stage so I'd be prepared to walk, manager sounds awful anyway even if they do let you wfh.

Checked my contract no mention of it. So they can do what they want.

Which is terrible tbh, it doesn't show the company in a good light at all. To do this so early on especially when I explicitly said this would be a deal breaker in my first and second interview isn't showing me a company I want to work for.

Im wfh most of next week and will start looking for something to else asap.

What's the job market like now? I looked before Xmas not sure what it's like in the NY?

Look for another job and make sure your new contract reflects what you have agreed

If you had made an agreement, you needed to check it was reflected in the contract and if not, you tell them to insert it before you will sign. That’s contract review 101, and a big lesson for next time! Anyone can say anything but unless it’s written in your contract it’s worthless, as they can pivot, or be replaced by new management who have their own ideas etc.

Any kind of agreement on days in the office needs to be in writing to be capable of being relied on. Even then there's likely to be something to say the company can vary this if it's not in the employment contract.

Is there even an email exchange where this is laid out? Presumably they don’t want to lose you or your new colleague because of this either! Your manager sounds to be the problem, not necessarily the whole company.

I'd stay and look for another. It's a tough time in the job market, so it might not happen quickly.

Having said that, I'm 2.5 months into a new role, having left the previous one after 5 months because of the management, so it is possible.

If you get a new role, you need to ensure you get any WFH agreement or similar written into your contract.

Meanwhile, I would also be assertive about leaving early and trying to get back to 2 days only in the office. I don't know what the role is, but what are their reasons for insisting on 4 days in? Is it just for presenteeism, or is there certain in person cover needed? (We have to have someone available for the customer phone between certain hours, but as long as one person is there, the rest of the team can be pretty flexible, and we mostly have the same people starting esrly or finishing late - we have to coordinate better when people are on leave, though.) So if you can show the required work will still be done, I would probably try and push back on it.

I'd say to them that you're happy to come in to the office for 2 days and only an extra day when absolutely critical. The other 3 days, you'll work from home, be available for Teams/Zoom calls, you'll work from X to Y on those days in order to catch up with the backlog of work created.

However, as this is something that should have been caught by management earlier, you are only prepared to do this for 4 weeks (or however long it should take them to find a replacement for the manager who is inept) because this will become a regularised thing if they don't hire someone who is capable of the workload and type of work. Its not fair on the team if they are effectively doing the work that this manager should be doing but isn't . That needs to be made clear to management that the workload is not sustainable until they fix the underlying issue.

If it's not in your contract they can do what they like. Your childcare isn't the company's problem. And you are replaceable, they'll find someone else willing to do what you aren't. I would also assume they can get rid of you fairly quickly if you haven't been there long.

My contract states hybrid, the job description stated hybrid. That could be anything from 1 day a week to 4 days a week in the office. Our Team charter states we do one day a week but if those up high decided that we should be in 4 days we'd have to do it.

I spoke to the lady who interviewed me from HR and expressed my concerns, she is going to find out more without mentioning my name. She was really supportive and they don't want things to end with me leaving. I don't mind going in and training a bit longer, as long as I have an end date which they're not really clear about.

I hear it's abysmal. I'm in a temp role myself which I'm fervently hoping will go perm as I really don't want to be back out there again, took 5 months to find something previously.

Oh and a lot of companies are changing contacts now to bring people back in the office. Yes they can do this if they follow the proper procedures and show just cause. So getting it written in a contract is no guarantee it won't change in the future.

Thanks..and that's fair enough, But then they shouldn't of employed me or the other lady as we were both clear as day about not wanting to work anymore than 2 days in the office. I was mislead completely.

As more time goes on. The more angry I am, I don't think I will ever be happy working for a an employer who has done that so early on.

Again it comes down to not employing too people who explicitly said from the first interview that it would be a deal breaker if we had to come into the office more than 2 days a week.

This is a huge breech of trust. So I feel I have no other option than to look for something else. It's something I don't think I can get over 😬

I totally get that and if you can get something else better then good luck to you. The job market is so dire right now that employers know they can take the piss and a lot of people are so desperate to stay in employment they take poor treatment. The bad manager just compounds things.

Thanks, I know the job market is really bad which concerns me even more 😬

Yes look for something else asap

Sometimes things change in workplaces and they require flexibility.
I can’t get why you are having to go in more because your manager can’t do her job ? What are you having to do ?
was your Manager informed your said you could only do 2 days in the office ?

I think the team have too much work, the two people who are training us have too much to do. So they want us in the office to complete our training which could be ages until they decide we're ready. The problem is the two people training us don't really have the time to train us, so bringing us in won't make any difference.

But my manager is zapping the training resource most of the time as she still can't do her job despite being in the company longer than us.

The thing is, if they would have told us potentially the training period in the office would be longer then I would have gone with another job.

And tbh we are being trained up fine and in line with where we should be after a month on the office.

Sounds like your Manager isn’t looking at the bigger picture and the impact on the team.
Surely you’d be better not wasting time travelling and continuing with training over teams ??

Are you still in a probationary period? Is it not down to their discretion during this time and if you can or cannot wfh? Perhaps they should have been clearer in the interview or it was said as such in your contract if that's the case.