Demand from manager - for total silence?

teabelly

Have you all got phones? If so how about a conference call amongst all of you? Hopefully this silly manager will see how ridiculous it is. A noticeable drop in productivity due to his stupid rules would be the best way to get this idea reversed as it is costing them money to have everyone quiet.

Mr_Falling_Star

What a load of old nonsense, do you have to sit at a high desk and take a pound of coal in with you as well?

If you are unionised go to your union rep who will probably bust himself laughing. If not then the other way is to have a quiet word with your managers manager or HR. I would say that its a unreasonable management instruction and therefore although you are complying with it there are sound operational reasons why the rule should be overturned.

Honestly, when will some managers learn that they don't own you? You give up your time and skills in renumeration for a wage, not to be controlled

getmore4less

teabelly wrote: »

Have you all got phones? If so how about a conference call amongst all of you? Hopefully this silly manager will see how ridiculous it is. A noticeable drop in productivity due to his stupid rules would be the best way to get this idea reversed as it is costing them money to have everyone quiet.

Oranise hourly meetings in a meetting room

Or

Miss you next targest and make sure that everyone know why.

If there are any target that this idiod is directly resonsible for just miss those.

IM can work, I had to use it in my last job with people in other countries, well with text and voice at the same time

Almo

ilovemydebts wrote: »

Call me old fashioned but aren't you paid to work not to socialise?

Firstly, the OP has said they are mainly talking about work so the above presumably doesn't relate to him/her regardless.

Secondly, I agree that there have to be limits, but no one can function at 100% efficiency 8 hours a day. There need to be occasions for staff to look away from their screens, change focus, kick back and build some relationships with their team - just a couple of minutes of banter/letting off steam is likely to improve efficiency over staff being forced to sit silently, day in day out.

And yes, I have worked in management, and yes, I was quite happy for my team to talk about non-work stuff.

shikoku

In this situation I would do exactly as the manager says; and when (if) your performance level drops you advise why. Of course he could simply disagree with your explanation. Sounds like a very tricky situation to be in. You have my sympathy.

SandC

You have my sympathy also, I worked in an office where this kind of ruling was brought in - we nickname the place Tenko. I won't elaborate.

I completely agree that you need to go along with this idiot's idea of how to run the place and it will soon become apparent that productivity goes right down and former deadlines kept without fail will start to be out of your reach. You have a direct manager who is happy with how you have all worked and he/she will be fully aware of the situation - I don't think it will be long before things are questioned and someone higher up than him has a word.

The place I worked in, you were glared down if you talked about anything non work related for even a nano second, did not have a happy team. Everywhere I have ever worked which is based on a mutual respect between management and staff has worked better because they appreciate that the work will always get done and people are quite capable of being trusted to know when they can have a chat and when there's stuff to be done quickly.

Good luck with it!

randomblock

shikoku wrote: »

In this situation I would do exactly as the manager says; and when (if) your performance level drops you advise why. Of course he could simply disagree with your explanation. Sounds like a very tricky situation to be in. You have my sympathy.

I would do this, dont cause a issue over it as it may be perceived you are downing tools. Accept his way of working and then whne productivity goes through the floor you can say the change in process is using up the extra time, it will very quickly changed back or will be a very costly exercise for the organisation

Tiddlywinks

Tygermoth wrote: »

To be fair that’s why we have not really taken any notice before. But he advised he could make it a disciplinary matter...

Can you get a warning for chatting?

He is a senior manager and has given a direct request - you do not have the choice to simply ignore him - work is not a democracy and he will not just go away.

He is new to your office and is unfamiliar with your work area - you've said there are a number of middle managers in between your team and the senior manager. They need to step in and manage this issue.

I would suggest that you don't turn this into all out war - attempt to see his point of view. He is hearing noise and has made an assumption about it being non work related. One of your middle managers should have made an effort to address his concerns and allow him to consider why the noise levels occur.

That said, case discussions should not be noisy or disruptive to others - are you sure the team is remaining professional in carrying out its collaboration or are there times when a bit of general chit-chat comes into play as well? You've mentioned strong personalities - do things get out of hand sometimes?

There are always differing perspectives in cases such as these - it may simply be a misunderstanding. Either way, he is the manager and is perfectly able to issue reasonable requests - the test of "reasonable" should be made by HR or evaluated with the help of mediation.

qetu1357

You need to leave it until your direct manager is back and discuss it with him or her.

If they cannot get the top man to see sense, you either have to comply or "work to rule".

CFC

Yes, a manager can reasonably make this demand and if you fail to comply it is likely to be treated as gross misconduct with an option to dismiss as an outcome. Not to mention that the fact that you feel the need to mention that you are all bubbly, lively personalities and that discussion can be heated and get contentious tells me that even if the chat is work related it is probably at quite a rate of speed and decibels. This guy also has to work within the same office and clearly finds the noise levels disruptive.

If not talking about cases means that your productivity slows then you need to suck it up and then to discuss this with your own immediate manager when he/she is back in the office. However if this senior man manages the whole unit, as you have said, then you all need to find a longer term solution and accept that the way the unit works is changing, because he's the guy in charge of your direct line manager.

You've all been ignoring him 'because he has no sway with your team'. You all may be a lot wiser to show some respect, keep the decibel level in hand, and not to push him to the point of telling you all to permanently keep quiet. What he says goes, end of story. It's his unit to run, it's not a democracy.