There is a new manager at my workplace

Depending on your time frame, there’s an incredible book called " fierce conversations " I’d highly recommend a quick thumb through to give you some thoughts and ideas on how to have a frank, honest discussion with this person

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Bretrick this is a learning experience for your manager. He’s probably under pressure from top brass and doesn’t have the experience or competence to feel he can trust his team.

It’s a sign of a lack of confidence to micromanage. You have to show him he can trust you and try to understand he might have bitten off more than he can chew taking on this job. He could also have been hired to shake things up or to increase productivity, but lacks the interpersonal skills to do this without upsetting people.

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In my experience a lot of managers took on a position whilst from the onset with their eyes on the next rung of the ladder, usually with another company. This is seen as “Initiative” by the senior management of the present company because they are at the same game. No one I encountered cared about the fortunes of the current company they were working for, it seemed to be a mistake, to get bogged down by commitment to the company, and, just one of the reasons for the mess now.

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We don’t know much about this guy. But he sounds out of his depth. Taking on a new team with its own culture and history is not an easy task and it’s either a ruse by the higher ups to get people to leave so they can hire new for less pay, or he is the wrong person for the job and they have made a mistake.

We don’t know why the old manager left. But it’s a situation where you should find out as much as you can rather than cut and run to something on less favourable terms. Best not to react emotionally but to make it work to your advantage.

The manager needs you to get the job done. Or if it’s a ruse he needs to see poor productivity to have an excuse to remove the entire team. You need to find out which of these two it is. Because there are different strategies in each case.

If your right, that guy will go far.

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Remember having a meeting with the Ops Director about a serious pilferage issue (40k) it was interrupted with his preoccupation that the radio had stopped working in his company car, and needed to source a replacement which involved a ten minute phone call.
Steve, I hope your reading this, you know who you are :laughing:

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I’ve learned good leaders, come in and see how everything thing operates and then after a few weeks to month, implements changes. But ones that come in and start making changes and micromanaging, I ask hard questions to see how much they actually know and understand

Good managers make a point of not knowing too much, it can cloud the issues.

So sorry to hear your News Bretrick, been there myself but in my 40s. New manager new style manager, not one who had come up through the ranks but a Wizz Kid with an attitude to match. Hadn’t really any idea about what the job was like in the real world, just inside his silly head, the Staff were not happy and they showed it, customers were not happy either and also showed it. In the end we got one of the Area Managers surprise visits and he said the atmosphere was awful, being the Personnel Manager I was questioned, I didn’t hold back and I dropped the little beast right in it. The two of them were shut in the office for over an hour and when they emerged he looked very white and shaken, things did start to improve, but he knew it had been me who got him that dressing down and he never forgave me.
Was I bothered? Not a bit.

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Sometimes a workplace needs a bit of a shake up.

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“Grandfather Rights” Ended 2024 !! For CSCS Cards:

In Construction. [Transport And elsewhere]
Due to subsequent Concrete Failures.
Now. That Is. Brit Government style,
‘Fast Tracking’ Regulation Reviewing. sic,

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Having worked for The Royal Mail for over twenty seven years I did some time as an acting manager in a large mail centre. This was about twenty five years ago and to this very day can’t fathom out whether I enjoyed the experience or not :thinking:

One thing I can say is that throughout my time as a postie the university fast trackers left something to be desired when it came to motivating their staff.

When I first started the line managers (guv’nors) were ex forces. They knew how to get the job done, sometimes used robust language but it worked , society of course has moved on since those days! :wink:

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Very true that many graduate fast track programmes do not work well. The most often don’t provide adequate people management training, or take time to address inter-personal skills with young grads. Then to make it all worse, they cycle these grads through different roles, changing every six months. The focus is on giving the grad a lot of exposure to different parts of the business. The focus is not on making sure the grad is well equipped to handle each role. Even worse, the grads are encouraged to think up new ideas, new efficiencies, better processes. What could possibly go wrong?

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You need to see the bottom line, to know if a manager was good or bad.

In engineering we called the uni lads six month wonders, because they thought they could pass themselves off as skilled machinists, fitters and supervisors with just six months training.
They didn’t have a clue, but they were assigned to tell 20 plus year experienced fitters and machinists how best to do the job… :009:
PS:- I didn’t know you were a postie and line manager at Royal Mail Chilli…
:astonished:

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That takes me back to when I briefly worked as a postie in SW1 in the 1970s. The govs would occasionally check your accuracy on the frames, I had a friend and we always sat together to chat while we threw up mail, there was one gov who thought chatting was a sin and would constantly check our frames but as it happened we both had very good memories and it was very rare he found a mis-sort a fact which used to annoy him no end.

The sorting office had a bar because they lost too many postmen to the local pubs - always had a beer and a smoke during our breaks.

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The Paddington W2 office had a bar. It was just like walking into a pub. The atmosphere on a Friday evening could be rather colourful, even some of the managers would be worse for wear. Drinking culture in the workplace has changed drastically since those far off days.

Certainly was Foxy!
The line manager side of things wasn’t easy, having up to about seventy staff to look after. Despatches had to be made…on time! :wink:

Sorry to hear this. I’m a micromanaging world here at the moment. Threw 2 resumes. One rejection. I like your comment “grit” and bear it for now. Have a small feeling, best is yet to come