What are people's thoughts on this...i am a manager with 4 direct reports. My manager tends to focus on the negative all the time. It's rarely positive. I brought this up recently at my performance review. I was diplomatic and said as a company we need to focus more on the positive and remember to say "thank you". I could've given very specific examples but the tone of the meeting wasnt negative for once so I didnt want to bring it down.
Today a member of another team made a mistake and my manager approved said work and right after noticed the issue but it was too late. My team are the starting point of this work and we had done nothing wrong but on our daily call with all team members she called us out regarding one thing which is completely irrelevant and would not have solved the problem. No focus on her mistake or the other persons mistake. My team member who is responsible for this area rang me so confused wanting to know what she had done wrong. Her automatic assumption now due to the negativity is that we made a mistake.
I feel my manager has a tendency to focus on the negative in my team in particular. We are the team that has the most "reach" if that makes sense in that our work can impact others but they dont impact us so much. But I have seen situations where she ignores mistakes when they make a mistake that impacts us.
I plan to bring it up with her in person but part of me wonders is it worth it. This is the way she is and I dont think i can change her. If I am not happy i think my only solution is to leave rather than pointing out to her all the negative things she brings up. I am there less than a year but it has gotten progressively worse. We are in our busiest period so that doesnt help.
On our daily calls the tone/morale is completely brought down if she is in a bad mood. Recently we had a big deadline and on the last day when we were 99.9% there we all were in great spirits on the call and she made some comment about "well finally it took ye long enough". No thank you or well done afterwards. I spoke to every member of my team afterwards and thanked them for their hard work and have planned a team lunch for us.
I spoke to the other manager and he said our manager is aware that her delivery isnt great but that he hasnt been great at flagging it to her. He thinks she will be open to feedback. He is there around 2 years so has more experience with her. Any thoughts?
@Heidi88 she sounds like 2 managers I briefly worked with. Early on in my career I saw how one team’s morale dramatically declined within months of a new manager joining and my line manager, who would be at what sounds comparable to your level with 4 direct reports, go off on sick leave.
In another team I worked in they had a very low morale when I joined and this was obvious from day 1. When I discovered just how many staff had come and gone in the previous 2 years, I did not feel one ounce of guilt when I decided to take up another job offer despite having only been there for just shy of 2 months.
If it were me I think I’d be flagging up concerns over how dejected your team feel due to how she chooses to act. She’s not being managed well by her managers and there is potential one day for big problems if they allow her to continue.
From an outsider reading your account it’s like a textbook scenario of how not to manage people! I’ve worked in enough organisations that talk the talk about “the right behaviours” and frankly this manager isn’t exhibiting behaviours that are fit for any workplace. Worst case scenario there’s a flight risk with your direct report who rang you the other day now.
Your manager obviously doesn’t appreciate how she’s a contributory factor to performance levels. It’s common sense stuff: if your staff are demotivated, don’t feel appreciated and feel like they’re being singled out in team meetings/calls then they’re not going to be the most productive they can be. It‘s Maslow’s hierarchy of needs stuff.
Is there an HR department or manager you could speak to about this?
This is really quite specific but
does anybody else have really nosy co workers? I was off last week at the hospital and so I text the people I work with (all men) saying I was having to go to a&e but would he back online as soon as I can. I’ve had 4 people ask me if I’m pregnant. I just find it really intrusive and personal and it’s not a great time to be asking me that
![Grimacing face :grimacing: 😬](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/joypixels/emoji-assets@5.0/png/64/1f62c.png)
I have to face them tomorrow for the first time and I feel really uncomfortable about it all!
Yes I did. I was doing a temp job and the co workers asked way too many personal questions. Considering we were in a supposed HR team I was amazed at how they seemed so lacking in awareness. I think they were trying too hard to come across as approachable and despite me dropping very obvious hints that I’m used to being a new kid in town and taking it in my stride they didn’t stop. It was suffocating! I got so fed up of being asked by the manager what I’d got up to the previous night one day during my third week I said, “why do you want to know every day what I did the night before, Inspector?”
He backed off after that. I’d gone by week 5. The job was dull, they didn’t have enough work for me to do and the thought of attending the Christmas lunch made me want to heave. I said I couldn’t continue the assignment due to personal reasons and had an extended Christmas break.
Silly boys it sounds like to me with your colleagues. There are certain “don’t go there” areas and asking personal questions like that is an obvious one. I’d be inclined to be frosty with them or tell them to wind their necks in unless they fancy a trip to the tribunal as co-respondents to a sex discrimination claim!