I have a new job in the social sector. Our boss seems to have slipped into position sideways (they did not do our work for a significant amount of time before).
I got zero onboarding when I started working there; everything I know about the organisational ins and outs I learned by asking my colleagues.
The boss seems to actively want to not inform me of things, i.e. even if I ask about something they reply in the most cursory manner or immediately refer me to somebody else. I have no idea why they do it, my guess is that they sense that they’re woefully inadequate for the job, plus me being much older triggers insecurities?
For example, when I could not log into an app to see my future shifts, I asked the boss about it first but they immediately refered me to tech support. Calling them, after a while we found out that the boss had mistyped my name. Then I could log in.
Last week I was sick and waited til Sunday noon to check this week’s shifts - but again I couldn’t log in. The boss answered neither phone nor email. Fair enough I guess, on a sunday. Thankfully tech support was working and after a long while we found out that the app for checking my shifts only allows log-ins from within the workplace network, not the open web.
I almost missed my monday shift because of that. Boss calls me, enraged. I explained the situation. They clearly did not know that the app only allows log-ins from within the workplace network.
All my coleagues tentatively/silently agree that this boss is useless. How do we keep the workplace running, and why is it me who is left in the dark? Turns out they have a Whatsapp group. I don’t use Whatsapp. They asked me repeatedly and urgently to join.
tl;dr: this workplace would fall apart if people wouldn’t communicate through Whatsapp instead of official channels.
That’s the neat part; you don’t. Stop doing your boss’ job. They get paid for it, they can do it. Whether they do it well or do it badly is not your concern. Do not participate in workarounds to cover for bad management. All that does is push the obvious problem off to tomorrow.
For example, I have a boss who has repeatedly told me to post on reddit looking for technical solutions. I’ve told them multiple times that I don’t do reddit. My suggestion has continually been to engage vendor support (for a price, of course), which gets shot down. The problem condition continues to exist.
Record everything. Take contemporaneous notes about everything that goes down, and take them for yourself, outside the company network. That way, when you get blamed for something, you can come with receipts.
Just be aware: Extracting anything work related into a private account can itself be reason to fire you.
And if you’re already on the shit list, chances are you are being monitored for stuff like this.
I’m not suggesting that anyone exfiltrate work product. Just to take notes on what direction you’re given, what you know other people are responsible for, and to keep those notes somewhere that you have access to them with disregard to what your permissions at work are.
I don’t. But all my colleagues do.
Recording phone conversations might be prudent.
But most exchange with my boss is via email anyhow, so that’s good.
I’m not planning on keeping this job - it runs out before christmas - another “oversight” by my boss: it was supposed to last until next summer, but apparently the company only does contracts for 1 calendar year? - at first I was pissed, now I’m glad.
If you’re recording phone calls without notification, make sure all participants are in one party states (if in the US). But just regular note taking goes a long way in the legal system.
It always seems so arbitrary to me - anyone could write down anything - but I have noticed this too, at least with work related stuff.
Having it properly timestamped is key. Doing it consistently helps a lot. A single handwritten note isn’t going to carry much weight, but a particular note out of a system of notetaking over time does.