I’m a new manager, brand new to the place, and my boss has badmouthed my staff already telling me they are lazy, and that she had set everything up for them and through their laziness,things have slipped.
I can’t believe how unprofessional this is and how unfair it is to my staff who have, in only three weeks shown me they are good, kind, welcoming people and are very hardworking. In fact, some of the team leaders have way too much to do and don’t even get a lunch break, always eating at their desks whilst on the computer.
My new boss said it was my job, I can do whatever I want and she ‘doesn’t give a shit’
Three days later after discussing with my staff a new way I’d like to trial (with a view to making the load a lot fairer), I ran it past my boss and she jumped down my throat. The other two managers have been there ages and it appears they drunk the kool aid, and they all said it wouldn’t be fair because then they’d all ‘have to do it’
My plan was just a two week trial, and if it doesn’t work, fine, we’ll go back to the old system.
My new boss has now changed her tune and told me I have to forget ‘everything I knew as a team leader because being a manager is completely different’. She literally says now that I have to sit and observe for three months before I do anything - literally days after giving me carte blanche
She is so erratic and I’m beginning to feel like she is a major reason for the unhappiness of my staff.
I tried to explain that I’m trying to create relationships with my staff and to create trust and in the next breath, she asks me who is unhappy, asking for names and saying the management meeting is a ‘safe space’
It doesn’t feel like safe space and I refused to give her names.
I’m not going to throw my new colleagues under the bus just to appease her.
Am I living in la la land or is this behaviour intimidating and unprofessional?