new manager making work unbearable.
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hi,
I have searched for a place to put this question but couldn't find anywhere but here.
I have worked at this job for over a year and I loved it till a new female manager started. I am in my early 60's and my job is customer service/admin it is a small office of around 30-35 people.
we all get on well, but have been very unhappy since this woman took over her role of customer services manager.
if she sees a team getting on really well she moves you to another team, for no other reason than what we believe is spite.
She is imposing strict rules on us, we are not to discuss work in our break room, we are not allowed to use any profanities in our break room or discuss anything done or said on a night out that she would deem inappropriate..one young lady was disciplined recently for telling her friends about her boozy night out, she was reported and received a verbal warning.
we are not a call/contact centre as we order medicines and drugs for pharmacies so we need to be accurate and efficient but the addition of newly introduced stats are making life on the phones very stressful.
People are very upset at work as the atmosphere is very tense and even the younger ones are scared they will make mistakes because they are under such stress and as we send out drugs to pharmacies and hospitals we cannot make mistakes.
is there anything we can do or say that wouldn't get us into even more hot water with this manager? is it worth speaking to HR?...This was a lovely job but she doesn't seem to care if people hate moving she just tells us that the decision has been made and that's that.
we log into to a phone system and she has recently brought up the fact that even if we log in dead on 9am we show up sometimes as 3 seconds late..yes SECONDS.. but if we get stuck on a call near home time that's no problem for her at all.
She wants us to log in at 8:59 everyday or we will show as late.
I don't want to leave as I do love the job but she is making our lives miserable with her pettiness and many of the younger girls are job hunting so I know it's not just me. Does she have any rights over our break out room please?
sorry for the rant...
You're welcome to rant but I don't think you have much choice but to keep your head down and play nicely. You've not been there 2 years so have limited employment rights, you could be 'let go' next week with no recourse.
Managers are quite entitled to performance manage their staff, and it sound like you've not been performance managed before and the only objective change that you point to is the introduction of new stats.
As other have said, while you are on work premises you need to behave professionally and swearing in the breakroom or regaling colleagues with exploits of a night out can be tiresome and offensive to others.
If you feel there is a genuine grievance, as opposed to just, 'I don't like it', then you will need to raise your head above the parapet and raise it with her in the first instance. Presumably the company has a grievance procedure?
Have the union got nothing to say about matters?Originally Posted by shortcrust
"Contact the Ministry of Fairness....If sufficient evidence of unfairness is discovered you’ll get an apology, a permanent contract with backdated benefits, a ‘Let’s Make it Fair!’ tshirt and mug, and those guilty of unfairness will be sent on a Fairness Awareness course."0 -
Banning profanity and discussions of inappropriate behaviour from your nights out in a shared work space (even if it is the break room) sounds pretty reasonable to me.
Why should other employees have to put up with swearing and tales of drunken partying? They might just want a quiet break.:hello:0 -
Maths isn't your strong point is it.If the clock in doesn't show seconds then the difference between logging in at 8.59 (8.59 and 59 seconds) and 9am is 1 second, so technically the difference between having a 8.59 and 9am log in could be as little as 1 second or as much as 59 seconds.
Oh dear.... egg on face.:hello:0 -
It sounds a bit like worlds are colliding. Her expectations of acceptable workplace behaviour are clearly very different to what she's found. I sort of know how she feels. I once worked for a year in a very 'earthy' office and I was shocked at first by the language used and the topics discussed. I'm not at all prudish but most of my working life has been in places where people wouldn't dream of swearing or telling explicit stories over the lunch table. It does sound as though she's taking it a bit far.
Is it possible that the higher ups are on board with her trying to change the culture of the office?0 -
It sounds like you've all being getting away with murder and this new manager is trying to make sure things are run properly.0
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when we started it was an office, mainly inbound calls for us to order meds but she is taking it on like it is a call center, we can't be under stress when we are ordering life saving/ end of life drugs one mistake could have terrible consequences if we order the wrong item and the customer has to wait for it to be re-ordered. we are being rushed on calls and she is now wanted calls to be more scripted, I loved the fact that we could build up a relationship with the customers but stress is having an adverse effect on this.0
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It sounds like you've all being getting away with murder and this new manager is trying to make sure things are run properly.
no one has got away with murder, quite the opposite, we used to be thanked for what we do, but since this woman has come on board she is taking away all the joy of helping customers as we are so stressed about trying to remember to get everything that has been enforced said on the call. it was really happy in there before, people all got on and now everyone feels under scrutiny. the customers are the best part of our job.0 -
One immediate thing which springs to mind is that she is seeing an employee working well within a team, so decides to move them to a struggling team in the hopes that they can have a positive impact on it.
Seems a bit harsh like. But if those are the rules, just play the game.
Well, if you spend a fair amount of time on phones then you can pretty much consider it a call centre. More of an outbound one.
The manager can introduce whatever stats they want. Your job is to do what they say/pay you to do. If they want you to complete calls based on some type of stats then you need to do it.
Sounds a bit crappy like.... But I would be eager to know to what extent the workload is unmanageable VS employee resistance to any sort of change.
The stats targets may be perfectly achievable for many people, it may just be that younger ones need to get up to speed a bit and some people are dragging their heels, or aren't *that* good at the job.
Then again, maybe speak to your manager about your concerns if you feel that the workload is genuinely unmanageable. At this stage I just see a boss who wants to do it their way/mark their territory, and not necessarily a boss who doesn't listen.
You got any outlets for further training/guidance on how to achieve the targets set out? Weekly/Monthly 1-1 meetings with your boss?
Seems a bit rubbish like, but then again I thought you said that you weren't at a call center?! If that is truly the case then there is NO HARM logging in at even 08:55! You aren't inbound so you won't be getting a call in that time. You can log in @ 08:55 and make your first outbound @ 09:05 etc.
Bit rubbish with the 3 seconds thing (sounds like the clocks aren't synced) but the simple solution is; Log in 3 seconds earlier. A strange, magical thing will happen if you decide to log in early..... SHE WILL STOP GETTING ON YOUR CASE!
Surprised that you haven't learnt this lesson in the 60 years you've been on this planet (Double that of me!) but here goes;
Your manager in ANY job is absolute pot luck! You'll encounter all sorts, from competent, to absolutely useless. You can't choose your manager, but you can choose how much you let them affect you in your daily affairs.
So by all means job hunt, but don't automatically assume that it will be any better.
hi, there are only 3 teams of 12 and all are experienced and good at their jobs, we have 3 new people just moving onto teams now and people are being moved for no reason that they can see. the trainees are sitting with experienced people wherever the are in the office.0 -
hi, two of my colleagues were told they were being moved to support 2 new trainees coming out onto the floor, however the trainees have been told to buddy up with other colleagues, hence these two feel they were moved out of spite, as they were getting on really well as a team.
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That really is a matter of perspective. I had two staff who were friends outside of work who always wanted to work together - they also thought they worked well as a team. In reality, I tried hard not to rota them on together because they were a bloody nightmare in the same place. Individually and with other staff they were fine. When together they had a great time but their work practice went right out of the window.
You/your colleagues need to try to consider what's happened by from all angles, not just their own. Do you know whether the stats and scripts are coming from her, or whether she is implementing them on orders from above?
And tbh, verbal warnings aren't worth the paper they're written on. They're a warning shot, they (at least in my organisation) don't constitute part of the formal disciplinary process.All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.
Pedant alert - it's could have, not could of.0 -
our pc clock and phone clocks are set at slightly different times. when we log in our phones go to not ready, we then have to enter another code and then press ready... none of us knew this was taking us past 9am as our phone clock doesn't work in seconds.0
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