Work irks part 2 (rolling)

No, the reason for the security is that I’m dealing with GCE and GCSE examination papers.

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Colleague A has moved down to part-time for the next 12 months. Colleague B, who I line-manage, also does occasional work which Colleague A oversees. It’s just been announced that due to A reducing their hours, B now has to seek mine and A’s approval for things like time off, TOIL, changing their hours, etc.

Not happy about this and think it’s totally unnecessary, especially given that the decision was made without my knowledge or including me in discussions.

boss approaches my desk as I’m eating lunch

“Ooh, that looks good.”

proceeds to ask me work question

He has done this every day this week.

surely the prime thing to do here is prepare something otherwordly disgusting for lunch tomorrow and then when he catches your eye be like “looks good, eh?”

thinking spam and mackerel in little piles like makeshift lunchables

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I’ve got a lot less hours this week and I’m panicking.

Boss just called me up and said “I haven’t spoken to you since last year!”

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I’ve been off with a cold so far this week. I told the department manager, who is also being made redundant, that I might feel well enough to come in tomorrow. He said:

I wasn’t in today but John says, “Today has been one of the most souless and horrible insights to the deteriorating conditions that so happened to coincide with a visit from the architect of it.”

I told him I had a slight nagging cough and a bit of pain in my side that wasn’t going away but was able to go out and he replied:

Take tomorrow, on me. It’s horrid at work and everyone is hating it. You must take care of your health first and foremost, you should not take a sore throat out into the cold. Besides, the consequences of the restructure are not our responsibility. If work isn’t getting done it’s not our fault, not our problem. And anyway, it’s bad for morale to see someone come in even slightly unwell.

The bit about morale is the his dark humour. Morale probably cannot get any worse. The new manager won’t be starting for two or three months, he says. The rump of the design department will be expected to manage themselves. It is absolutely insane. I’m lucky that I am being made redundant, I think.

So tomorrow I’ll be off again. Sick. I’ll go in on Friday, get there at 10am. The manager will tell us all to go to the pub at 4pm latest, I’m sure.

FML. I need to find a new job asap.

Really appalled at how rude, intimidating and patronising my manager is. It’s unbelievable. Absolutely horrid person. The way I’m spoken to sometimes can’t be right.

Maybe it’s my imagination but one or two other people have expressed similar things and yesterday my manager told me off for doing something, which was exactly what I was told to do (by another supervisor). Someone else had to step in and defend me, in fact I was doing exactly what I was told to do. But of course I get the blame.

I’m probably naive because this is my first full-time job but I never thought adults were actually like this.

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have sat on across the aisle again on my own, because i want the space and also i am 30. in the last 5 minutes 3 different people have asked me why i’m sitting here and the assistant manager just popped his head around the support pillar next to my desk with this expression :face_with_raised_eyebrow: before disappearing again without saying a word. weirdos.

i feel you mate. mentioned upthread but the infantilising nature of employment is something we don’t talk about enough imo. especially office jobs, which very often devolve into weird high school-type environments with cliques and running feuds and ever more ridiculous and petty rules governing how you may and may not spend your time there. a totalitarian environment with a patronising layer of babying on top.

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This has done me

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Just been told that the car allowance everyone on my grade was promised last year has been cancelled so the money can be used to fund putting some lower grades on the bonus scheme. Pretty pissed off about it, was going to cover the babies nursery costs this year which means that with wife dropping a day a week we wouldn’t be worse off.

Appreciate this makes me sound like a massively entitled prick but don’t think a business should make significant financial promises verbally if there’s still debate about them happening.

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yeah - bad form that

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That’s what qualifies it as an “irk”.

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Got a war room for the project i’m working on and made it so the only people that have access to the room through the swipe card are people on the project.

7 people have rang the bell in the last 2 days to ask why the doors locked. They didn’t actually want anything

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Half of the design & artworking department is being made redundant, as I’ve mentioned already.

One of those kept on had 53 sick days last year. Now she’s announced she’s pregnant and will be going on maternity leave. One of the others tells us she’s looking for a new job as well because she hates what the place has turned into in just two short months.

I feel really sorry for the other people left behind. It’s going to be a nightmare. The place will fall apart around them and there’s nothing they can do about it. Things are already falling apart while I’m off sick - because the upper management failed to take account of my warnings.

The manager in charge of the ‘restructuring’ simply says, ‘It is what it is.’ Is that any way to run a business?

You have to be really careful with this kind of thing though - there may well be an underlying cause which would mean they’re covered by the Equality Act.

Not that that should diminish your frustration by any stretch.

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I feel sorry for your situation, I really do but I think you are devoting WAY too much energy to an organisation that has terminated your employment. Forget about their mess and dedicate your energies to finding your next job.

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Yes, I am not blaming her or saying she should have been made redundant. Just illustrating how the rump of the department will not be fit for purpose after the rest of us have gone.

Also, she’s got just as much right to the job as anyone, obviously.

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