Manager of new team with lots of little annoying traits

[stripycup]

I’ve been given the task of managing a new team. An established team of 10 who are known to be a difficult lot to manage. I’ve uncovered a lot of little toxic behaviours that annoy one another and create tension between people. Some examples are phone answering avoidance so others have to pick up (allowing calls to bounce, especially close to finishing time), slightly late starts, rushing off a few minutes early, work avoidance, generally tucking up colleagues by leaving harder work and picking the easy stuff. There are a few gems amongst the team and one or two that simply look out for themselves. They appear on the surface to be a happy, friendly lot but I have had first hand proof of these sneaky little behaviours from a few and it causes genuine annoyance in the team.
Ive thought about getting them together and reminding them of being good team members and that it’s not conducive to a good atmosphere to behave like this. I want to let them know that the systems that we have in place tell me what is happening and that I am keeping an eye on things. I don’t want to come down heavy handed but just want to kind of set my stall out (their previous manager was on long term sick for months and I think these behaviours crept in).
Is this is a good idea? I want them to know I won’t be putting up with nonsense and I want them to know I’ll stamp out the poor behaviour. Seems very school like though! My last team were really well behaved and looked out for one another so this kind of thing is absolutely alien to me!

I think a team meeting where you go through your expectations e.g. people in on time unless you are notified e.g train delay, work taken in order etc. present it as a two way street I.e. is there anything that would help make your jobs easier etc. is the best approach. Ask if there are any barriers like childcare/transport etc. meaning they need to leave promptly.

Present it as I am new and appreciate every manager is different so we all start off on the same page here are my expectations ….. Follow up with an email with bullet points - include some of their suggestions if you can.

I wouldn’t mention you have systems to track them at this stage. Ideally have monthly team meetings and if there are still issues then have 1:2:1s and suss out if there are any reasons for lateness, leaving on time/early etc. if not set individual objectives.

Above post is sensible - but make 1:1s a regular, fortnightly?, thing as well, not an ‘if there are issues’ thing.

That's fine. Just start with the positives and then go on to say that you want to improve the working environment for everyone so that they can pull together even better as a team. No need to single anyone out at this stage.

With regards to the bouncing call though, bear in mind that they may be doing that for a reason - needing to do nursery pick up for example. Does the company pay extra or give back time in lieu. If they don't and it's a min wage job, bear in mind that it's illegal to pay under min wage for the actual hours worked.

How is work assigned?

We used to have 'cherry- picking' euro where I used to be too.
Our managers called it out and said they expected adults to be able to work without micromanagement but if necessary they would start assigning work to ensure fairness across the team. It did improve things a lot

Absolutely do the team building stuff, but keep it positive. Do not pick on the whole team for poor individual behaviour!

Late starts and early finishes - raise it with the individuals who are late, find out why first.

Picking up the phones - most sensible would be a rota system so everyone does their fair share, it doesn't fall to one person more than the other. But let them come up with the solution, 'i've notice this is an issue, what can we do about it?'

Work avoidance - again needs to be discussed with those individuals who aren't performing, bringing it to the whole team will just cause resentment and diminish respect for you as a leader.

Don't hide from these issues they'll fester and it'll make your job very challenging. But be supportive and human, find out why and what would help in the first instance.