Going Postal

Last week was a somewhat tiresome week at work. My new boss seemed to think that having a team meeting at the end of May/ beginning of June was somehow going to be sufficient to make the section feel managed.

I sent him an email a few days ago to raise some concerns and he replied saying that we needed to be more ‘flexible’ in our approach. I sent him another e-mail explaining what the section was dealing with at the moment and some issues that needed to be addressed urgently and I said that the section was very flexible, particularly as we had been reorganised about four times in the last year, without complaint. He replied and said “I appear to have touched nerve” and that we should have a meeting. So, we did. Sadly, as expected, he seems to be a somewhat ineffective chap. Lots of “well we have to make the best of it” and “I don’t really know what is going on either but you’ll just have to trust me”

Now perhaps it is just me, but I find it somewhat hard to trust someone who I know showed my head of unit the e-mails I had sent. Or someone who decided that the first thing that he should say to me is “I get the impression your team is a bit stuck in its ways”. I responded by going through the skills of each member of the team and suggesting that he judge them by their work rather than hearsay. I had already warned the team to be careful when dealing with him and not to take him into their confidence - because I know that he tells our head of unit pretty much everything.

One of the people in my team came and spoke to me the other day, as he was somewhat frustrated with how ineffective some of the managers are in the unit. He came out with the rather classic line “I can understand why some people in America go into work with a gun and shoot dead all their colleagues. I wouldn’t kill you though.” Right, nice to know. If he’s kind enough to forewarn me, I might take a sicky that day, just in case.