The first thing you notice when you join this organisation is how people speak to each other. I mean there is being direct and there is being rude. Then there is the office banter which seems to consist of making fun of certain members of the team. “They don’t mind it’s just a bit of fun.” Well they looked upset to me. In fact some one told their tormentors to ,”f..k off”. It’s an open plan office but the manager didn’t feel the need to reprimand any one they just said ,”haven’t you lot got any work to do”.
During my first team meeting I was surprised at the level of cynicism especially towards senior management and HR. Senior management for being out of touch, having unrealistic expectations and constantly changing priorities. HR for failing to deal with absenteeism, issuing,” ridiculous” Health and Safety instructions, putting bureaucratic hurdles in the way of speedy recruitment and therefore the reason the team was short staffed and overworked. The manager didn’t challenge any of these assertions.
In my first one to one as part of my induction my new manager explained the role of each member of the team expressing his frustration with one individual. Saying he had raised the difficult he had with this individual’s work, full of mistakes, and despite constant chasing failure to meet deadlines. HR had been useless referring to the need for evidence and copies of notes of meetings with the individual to discuss performance showing specific targets. And when he had him in the office to tell him that his work was not good enough and if he didn’t buck his ideas up he would be out the door. What happened ? The individual submitted a grievance! And HR upheld it!
My new manager’s view was that it just wasn’t worth the hassle challenging employees, “HR just don’t have your back.” What this organisation didn’t tolerate was financial mismanagement. Budgets were closely monitored.Finance were quick to challenge managers over any potential over spend and demand an action plan to bring the budget back online. Explanations were demanded for any unauthorised expenditure. Any failure to adhere to financial procedures or concerns about budget management were quickly raised with senior management.
You know an organisation by the behaviour it tolerates, the way people behave towards each other and the ability and willingness of managers to challenge.
