As far as I am concerned my Line Manager is of very high calibre, who I very much respect. My issues are with my direct Supervisor, who it turns out is a bit of a Hat. It rhythms with hat anyway.
Being new to the office environment at first I questioned my work ability. It made me very anxious and ill. Was I doing something wrong? Hat (as will call him from now on) made me feel unworthy and incapable of doing my job.
Hat’s behaviour and humiliating comments made me feel unaccepted and unwelcome. Then I realised it wasn’t me, Hat was a bully.
Here is one example….
Hat was rude and impatient while I was speaking on my own mobile phone during my lunch break. If I need to speak to someone and they are on the telephone I wait until they have finished their conversation before interrupting or trying to distract them.
At the end of my phone conversation I asked what Hat wanted. Hat said he “If I spent more working and less time on my mobile phone you’d know”. Which was an un-thoughtful and hurtful comment after all my recent hard work. Over the past few months I have been starting work early, around 7:30am and working until after 5pm and found this comment very hurtful and untrue.
I questioned why Hat felt a need to track my personal mobile phone calls on my lunch hour he said it was “his job to monitor”, yet recently I asked for some simple monitoring information to support a Business Case I had been asked to write.
Sadly Hat’s input never materialised, in the end I obtained the statistics and calculated the information myself because Hat failed to produce what I required – Hat did provide some useless but nicely coloured bar charts which weren’t very helpful.
The hypocrisy….
It’s OK for Hat to use the company landline to phone workman when he had work carried out at his home. Furthermore the next day a colleague was on her mobile while off lunch and Hat said nothing to her. It is clear to me that Hat has favouritism and discrimination towards certain team members.
It seems a pattern has developed with Hat’s own behaviour and bullying towards me and other colleagues in the past but he is protected and given the benefit of the doubt or any issues are brushed under the carpet.
The reason I’m angry is Hat’s ongoing poor treatment to lower level colleagues, his rudeness, lack of respect and power ego trip attitude. I have tried very hard to work closely with Hat and build a positive relationship but he makes things extremely difficult. As a result team morale is suffering. I find Hat’s management style emotionally and physically draining and very stressful.
Hats like this need to realise management isn’t about throwing your weight about, it’s about supporting staff and getting the best out of them.
Don’t be the office hat.
