Paid Members BomberPat Posted September 12, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted September 12, 2023 If he keeps up at this pace, it is more than slightly tempting to (correctly) slightly put the frighteners up him about this sort of thing posing issues for neurodiverse colleagues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Blog Posted September 12, 2023 Share Posted September 12, 2023 I had an interview last week for a job working for a children‘s charity. Was interviewed by the overall supervisor of that entire division and the manager. Manager called to say it came down to me and one other and that they had more experience which is fair cop. He said both himself and the big boss had thought I interviewed fantastically and that they could see how passionate I was about working to support children. He then said that he had asked the boss if they could create a role for me as they both liked me so much and she said there were new roles coming out soon and that I should apply. Is this just him being nice and letting me down gently or should I keep my eyes on the website?  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members gmoney Posted September 12, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted September 12, 2023 Keep your eye on the website. There's no reason to lie to you like that unless they were a psychopath. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deathrey Posted September 12, 2023 Share Posted September 12, 2023 Keep an eye out on the website, something similar happened to me once and I thought it was bull. Three months later the manager called me and said they were advertising the new roles he had told me about and would like to offer one to me. Â If the charity was NSPCC, they very rarely bullshit and the manager will likely have meant it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators neil Posted September 13, 2023 Moderators Share Posted September 13, 2023 21 hours ago, BomberPat said: first meeting chaired by our new manager today, and he was just an absolute management wanker. All buzzwords and metaphors. One of the issues I've had with this team since I joined it is the amount of superfluous meetings, and he's proposing that we do a short meeting every day to check in on "how we're feeling" and what our "challenges" are for the week. As an example of what those meetings could look like, he asked us to answer three questions about "how we're feeling" - the first was how we would describe how we're feeling about the week ahead if it were a weather report, the second was "what animal do you feel best represents you today?", and the last was one of those "which of these photos is you" memes. So I'm sat there - wearing a T-shirt of a zoo I used to work for - and I haven't written anything for animal. I don't really think in metaphors, nothing came to mind. It comes to my turn to speak, and he's all, "just say the first thing that comes into your mind". Well, no, because the problem is that nothing comes into my mind at the suggestion of what animal I might feel like. I could try and explain to you that I dislike anthropomorphising non-human animals, or about the impossibility of ever knowing another animal's mind, so the fruitlessness of saying you "feel" like a particular animal, but what's the point? You just want me to say that I feel like a sloth because things are moving slowly, or somesuch. It's the payroll deadline today and we've got a shitload of work to do, why are we wasting our time with this bollocks?  He then sent us all a link to a "user manual" to fill in, about how we prefer to work, receive feedback, communicate, etc. I wonder how long his "don't worry, there's no wrong answers" approach will last if I fill it in to say, "I hate team meetings, I work best by being left alone to get on with my job, and I'm a very literal person who doesn't think or communicate in metaphors". Until the last paragraph I did think he seemed twatish, as long as that is true and with good intent then I think its a good thing asking people about their working styles. I ask my team similar things and find it helps me gauge what works for them and what doesn't so we can figure out how not to piss each other off. That said...the "icebreaker" thing seems to be on the up and more so for fully remote companies. My current company has this tendency to do various things like this at the start of meetings, often with 10+ people, and so you'll easily go through 15 minutes of an hour long meeting with people talking about "Whats the worst haircut you've had?". I mean yeah, they can lighten the tone somewhat, but also a huge waste of time given that everyone has been working together for ages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Tommy! Posted September 13, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted September 13, 2023 I don't mind that sort of stuff if it's used. I find every couple of years where I am they go through that sort of stuff, it always shows the same things about how I work and the same people are always supprised to read it but never use it to get the best out of me. It's even applied badly on occasions " your profile says your not cut out to manage a team". No, the profile says people like me excel managing a specialist team of SMEs with detailed specific subject knowledge rather than a generic support team, you did read it all yeah? "Well, it was quite a long profile" Ice breakers can fuck off, none of us give a shit who our heroes are or what biscuit best describes us. We care about how we are going to manage 80 hrs worth of work between 60 hours of capacity which the meeting is set up to discuss.  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members gmoney Posted September 13, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted September 13, 2023 Ice breakers used to send me off into panic attack territory, pure cold sweat dread. I used to bunk first lessons at college and uni to avoid them. I remember thinking that I could never sign for Chelsea because they made the new guys sing a karaoke song. That's the reason I couldn't sign for them, nothing to do with being atrocious at football. I still don't like them, but I can manage these days, many because I've had to do them so many times and my chest has never caved in so far. I think it's a mixture of being a natural cynic, innate fear of making a tit of myself and despising the very specific inane forced fun of a workplace/school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Tommy! Posted September 16, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted September 16, 2023 (edited) I'm looking at dropping to 4 days so I have an extra day to manage my health and look after my ma. How does that work with bank holidays, if I work Monday to Thursday I assume I just loose Friday public holidays like good Friday or occasionally Christmas/ boxing day. Is that right?  Edit: it sounds like I get bh added to the pot then pro rated and I need to book those days off  I'm just trying to understand more before I contact my Union. Edited September 16, 2023 by Tommy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deathrey Posted September 16, 2023 Share Posted September 16, 2023 I dont work Mondays and I am essentially given the hours back for the bank holidays and can use the hours when I want though my manager requests that I use it within a couple of weeks. My husband doesn't work Friday's and his work give him the hours back too. I know friends who don't work Mondays who are automatically given the day off on the Tuesday after the bank holiday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperBacon Posted September 16, 2023 Share Posted September 16, 2023 12 minutes ago, Tommy! said: I'm looking at dropping to 4 days so I have an extra day to manage my health and look after my ma. How does that work with bank holidays, if I work Monday to Thursday I assume I just loose Friday public holidays like good Friday or occasionally Christmas/ boxing day. Is that right?  Edit: it sounds like I get bh added to the pot then pro rated and I need to book those days off  I'm just trying to understand more before I contact my Union. Are you going to be working your hours in 4 days or are you dropping a full day altogether? In either case, I am pretty certain you still get BH as given, unless you work a job where you regularly work BH and need to request it off if you so want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Tommy! Posted September 16, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted September 16, 2023 I'm dropping a day, but they try to do something with BH. Thanks @SuperBacon & @deathrey. I'll check what they are doing and contact my Union, as it sounds like they are doing their own thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westlondonmist Posted September 16, 2023 Share Posted September 16, 2023 2 hours ago, Tommy! said: I'm looking at dropping to 4 days so I have an extra day to manage my health and look after my ma. How does that work with bank holidays, if I work Monday to Thursday I assume I just loose Friday public holidays like good Friday or occasionally Christmas/ boxing day. Is that right?  Edit: it sounds like I get bh added to the pot then pro rated and I need to book those days off  I'm just trying to understand more before I contact my Union. My partner does 3.5 in 3, and quite a few in her office do 4 days. They pro rata it. She books holiday on every bank holiday on days she works, so all 4 on mondays, Christmas/Boxing day and NYD if she works those days. in 2022 she pushed that all staff inc part time got given 2 days extra for the queen and one this year. They got them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperBacon Posted September 26, 2023 Share Posted September 26, 2023 National Inclusion Week at work so I've just done a two hour introduction to BSL. Absolutely fascinating, and I think I'm going to take the level 1 course. I have no real need for it in my current role, but it just seems like something that would be really nice to learn, and it was really fun. The sign for London is quite funny, as is the rude one for holiday. It's amazing that you don't think about how much we naturally sign, and the facial expressions bit takes some getting used to (because I'm quite shy) but again, we all do that anyway? Also, turn down your headphones and earphones people! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted September 26, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted September 26, 2023 management wanker in a Teams message just referred to this afternoon's team meeting as "a bit of fun" and asked that everybody bring a pencil. Presumably not so I can force them into my eyes at the first suggestion of some tedious team-building exercise, more's the pity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted September 26, 2023 Share Posted September 26, 2023 "Split off into teams, and try and build a bridge using only your pencils and the human concept of despair" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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