The Workplace Coach

The new boss has just started and while we are all going to miss Alison, the team is feeling pretty positive about things and looking forward to what this new guy, Michael, is going to bring to the table.  We’ve come through COVID relatively unscathed, we’ve enjoyed working flexibly and we’ve continued to deliver against our objectives.

First impressions so far have been pretty good.  Michael is clearly confident and results oriented.  He’s saying all the right things about working as a team, about delivering, about our value to the organisation.  He has mentioned that we’ve got some heavy lifting ahead of us but assured the team that we’ll get through it together. 

Its been two weeks now and I’ve just had my second 1-1 weekly catch up with Michael.  He was pretty interested in what I’m working on, wanted to get right down into the detail, and he asked a few pointy questions when I mentioned that I was a few days late on one piece of work due to delays with getting some information from an external stakeholder.  Hmm… Alison never scrutinised our work like that but I guess Michael is still getting across things.

Okay so its been a month since Michael (‘the Monster’ is what we are calling him now) started.  I swear I’ve had just about enough of this. Not only is he micromanaging me (and everyone else) but he ridiculed me in this morning’s team meeting.  We were going around the table giving updates and when I said that I’ve had to push delivery on the ABC project by two weeks he asked me in front of everyone “whether I thought I might be in over my head on this one?” It was all I could do not to break down on the spot.

If that wasn’t bad enough he’s starting to get really picky about my start and finish times.  Alison used to be okay with me occasionally starting late and finishing late, but Michael is like the clock police.  Yesterday as I was leaving the office he asked “What time could he expect me to be in tomorrow morning?” I replied “the usual time” and quickly left before he could say anything else.

I just don’t know how much more I can take.  I feel like Michael is targeting me and I’m getting super stressed about coming to work.  Its starting to affect my performance and my health.  Something has to be done.  I’m going to put a complaint in to Human Resources and take a few days off on stress leave. I’m sure when HR does their investigation the others in the team will back up what I’m saying.

Unfortunately, the above scenario is playing out in workplaces all over the country every day.  The amount of time and effort wasted, the productivity that has been killed, the team engagement that has disappeared in a puff of smoke.  Its almost scary.

All of this could have been avoided with a different management approach from Michael.  He wasn’t deliberately setting out to turn the team against him.  He truly has the best intentions, he wants the team to be fully engaged and high performing, and he was just managing the team the only way he knows how.  He’s no bully but he might as well be when you consider the impact he has had on the team. 

The next step is that the team gets put through an investigation into the bullying allegations made against Michael.  This causes extra stress for everyone and things get even worse. People start taking time off from work, they start looking for other jobs and then they start leaving.  Michael realises that despite his best intentions, what he is currently doing is not working.  He decides to get himself a coach.

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The Workplace Coach