Why the worst parts of work can't easily change

[Jilly_in_VA]

In July, Mark, who works for a small technology company in East London, emailed his manager to tell her that he had tested positive for Covid-19. His boss didn’t ask any questions; instead, she expressed sympathy, wished him a speedy recovery and told him to take as much time off as he needed.

Mark, whose surname is being withheld for job-security concerns, didn’t actually have Covid-19. In truth, he was exhausted and anxious; the toll of the pandemic, coupled with working 80 hours a week, and being expected to be on call around the clock, had become too much to handle. The 40-year-old was feeling severely depressed, and suspected that he might be on the cusp of a serious clinical burnout.

“At that moment it was just so much easier to say I had the virus,” he explains, admitting that he felt some guilt for lying. “The stigma around mental health is real: questions are asked and judgements are made. The only good thing about Covid is that everyone just accepts it as a reason to be out of action, feels sorry for you and then moves on.”

In early 2020, as the pandemic started spreading aggressively around the world, almost every industry was forced to adapt its way of working – in many cases, overnight. Management experts framed this as potentially positive: they were swift to forecast that this period of extreme and forced experimentation would provide a rich and unique opportunity to stamp out some of the most insidious elements of toxic workplace culture: presenteeism, a glorification of overwork and an entrenched authority bias that stops employees from speaking up when things don’t feel right.

But as businesses reopen and companies begin to explore ways of operating that are fit for a post-pandemic world, there’s evidence that much still needs to be done to dismantle the relics and features that most prominently perpetuate unhappiness and ill health in the workplace. Mark’s experience is just one brutal and vivid example of this.

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210812-why-the-worst-parts-of-work-cant-easily-change
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It's not just in the UK. The part about "presenteeism" really hit home to me.

[Farmer-Rick]

1. Presenteeism sounds like just another by product

Of capitalism.

Micromanagement combined with excessive work hours and low pay. Just another day in capitalism.

[kedrys]

3. Back in the day, we called it "butt management"

As in as long as your butt is in your chair at work, we don't really care how you do your job. Asinine as heck.

[Hugin]

18. Great term for the practice.

Endemic these days, I'm afraid.

[Hugin]

2. Presenteeism really seems bimodal.

Granted, there are a few who will abuse any system. Those people abuse it while at the workplace as well.

When in reality, I believe that overall productivity is greater and costs for both the employer and employee are reduced.

Mostly the push to return to packing people into office buildings miles from their residence at a certain time for a defined period is being pushed by the people who have a stake in commercial real estate.

[Demsrule86]

5. I completely disagree. Employer abuse is constant and workers fearing firing are stuck.

I know some who take less pay at new jobs to get out of this trap

[Hugin]

6. Disagree with what?

I'm saying that working from home is the preferred option for those in office bound occupations.

[CrispyQ]

7. I also think there are a lot manager types who want workers back in the office, too.

It goes to my theory that occupations where one has authority over others, attract the very people who shouldn't be in those occupations, like law enforcement, management, & political & judicial positions. I've known a ton of managers who cared less about the quality of work someone did & more about the suck-up they did. And having a suck-up is always more satisfying with an audience, which you don't have with an at-home workforce.

You can rarely tell from an interview what kind of manager someone is. I had a few stellar managers in my career, but most were mediocre. A couple were really bad, but I left those jobs as quickly as I could.

[Hugin]

8. Having a distributed workforce requires leadership...

A rare commodity in most managers who have rarely performed the jobs they are overseeing.

And, yes, narcissists must have their audience. Difficult over a Zoom meeting. Unless you happen to be Darth Vader.

Many good points in your reply.

[CrispyQ]

10. I had worked for about 15 years before working for my first really good manager.

I remember thinking, what a difference this makes! Come to think of it, it was also the first company that had a good balance of work & personal life. Coincidence? Probably not. There wasn't a lot of turnover at that company.

I've never understood the idea of hiring managers who have not done the work themselves at some time. ???

[Jilly_in_VA]

16. In nursing

I have had only a few really good managers. Those good ones were mostly in critical care. I describe them as "the ones who get down in the mud and the blood and the crud with the rest of us". The others I call "paper managers"--they sit in their office and shuffle papers.

My first ICU manager was named Pat. She was amazing. When she took me on I was really raw and she shaped me. She told me the day she hired me that she never asked her nurses to do anything she wouldn't do herself, and over 2 1/2 years I saw that she meant exactly what she said. She could move faster and get more done than anyone I've ever seen. She also hated paperwork; along about the 25th of every month we knew to make a fresh pot of coffee about 4:30 am because she would come in with all her notebooks and for a couple of days would sit in her office and do all the monthly paperwork while swearing like a sailor, and woe was you if you bothered her. Once she was done she was back with us again. I judged every manager I ever had by her, much to their sorrow. Some passed the test. Others--oh hell no! And travel nursing, I met a LOT of managers. Tanya in Cincinnati in the MICU was as close as I ever met to Pat in the rest of my life. If I'd wanted to settle there, I'd have begged to work for her.

[Hugin]

17. "... never asked her nurses to do anything she wouldn't do herself."

The key to successful management, IMHO.

By that standard, I can woefully report, I've never had a good manager. I've had allies who gave me cover, though.

I had a friend once who had the best manager I'd ever heard about. He had implicit trust in his staff and their dedication to their taskings. He viewed his job as securing the resources necessary for them to continue with their work uninterrupted by outside influences both within the company and external. (Something he was legendary at being able to do with finesse.) When the time for the stupid annual self appraisals came up he always received endless flack for submitting only one sheet of paper with the sentences "I'm quite pleased with everyone in my work unit. We're making excellent progress." Of course, the establishment did everything they could to get rid of him, but, couldn't because his unit was the only one showing a profit.

[Jilly_in_VA]

19. Sounds like

the non-nursing variety of the good ones I've had.

[Hugin]

20. I'm speculating here, because, I've never been a manager.

But, if I were. I think I'd turn presenteeism on it's head and make an effort to frequently informally communicate individually with each member in my work unit. To see how they were doing and if they needed anything.

I'd call it listeningism.

[RobinA]

21. Unfortunately

I had my best managers when I was in my 20s and it's been all downhill since then. I'm 63.

And, I might add, both were naturals. If you could benefit from Management 101 you probably won't ever be a good manager. I'm not saying people can't learn to be better managers if they already have it, but if you have to learn the basics everyone might benefit from your doing something else.

[grumpyduck]

9. "Manager types" is a good term.

In my experience over 50-odd years, the majority of supervisors and managers have had zero training in management. Most of them were promoted because they were good at the technical part of their job, not because they had any leadership or organizational skills.

[Hugin]

11. Don't forget the scores who have failed upward.

To get them out of the way.

Discouraging the real workers as they see no prospects for promotion once all of the managerial slots are clogged with deadwood.

[Jilly_in_VA]

13. Peter Principle in action n/t

[grumpyduck]

14. Yup.

[CrispyQ]

4. I'm so glad I'm retired.

I can only remember two corporations I worked for that had a culture of balance between professional & private life. The rest were just like this article, impinging more & more into my private life, usually without any additional compensation.

[Jilly_in_VA]

12. Here's an example of presenteeism

People who are forced to come to work SICK. All the time. I'm a nurse, and it happens constantly, even in nursing. Here's the extreme example (this manager was a psychopath/sociopath, BTW).

My co-worker, a breast cancer survivor, contracted meningitis (possibly on the job). She was hospitalized in the same hospital we worked in, a floor below our unit, for two weeks, and recovered at home for another week on doctor's orders. When she returned, she was called into the manager's office and written up for "excessive absenteeism". She was told she'd be fired if she was absent any more that year.

The same manager gave me all kinds of particular hell when my father died. Hospital policy gave you 3 days' compassionate leave for a death in the immediate family. Dad died on a Monday and I flew down to Tennessee on Wednesday after calling the supervisor and telling her I would not be in for my weekend shift (Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights). On Saturday I got a call from the manager asking me where I was. I told her I had called the supervisor on Wednesday and told her that my father died and I would not be in over the weekend. Her response was, "Last I heard you were putting him in hospice. Well, I suppose we have to give you compassionate leave." Gee, thanks. I flew back the following Wednesday and was at work Thursday night as usual. On Friday she called me into her office and reprimanded me for not calling the supervisor. I told her I had done so and she needed to double check that. She didn't take that in very good grace. I got my compassionate leave (3 days paid) anyway.

I found out a few weeks later that this manager had at one time been a CRNA and had lost that license for diversion of drugs. A couple of years later I learned from a former co-worker that she was fired for destruction of documents.

[Hugin]

15. I always thought someday I'd be in management.

I never made it.

But, then I'm product oriented and not a process wonk.

Those who worried about taking roll call every morning hated me and still do.

The worst are the "Well, you're getting a paycheck." Managers. They'll hold that pittance over your head with no acknowledgements of innovation, performance, or ambition.

[XanaDUer2]

22. my job made me ill nt