Incident report about team leader - playing the ball not the woman..

[ice-is-forming]

I put in an incident report about a poor decision our new TL made today.

I couched it in terms of the company being the route cause, because they hadn't provided the information she needed.

Long story short, we've had a shitty year in this job - like a very long Shakespearean drama. So even doing something like this - in the current upline dynamics, web of lies & nepotism- is complex.

She tried to make a colleague and me drive to another town for a meeting that wasn't actually needed. She lives in the other town.

It's only 35 ks and we do it all the time - only this week a lot of rain has been predicted & stay off the road messages sent out by the police & council & we're on flood watch. The only road between the 2 towns floods and gets wrecked in this weather.

So 8am it was pissing it down & we suggested we'd do the meeting by Teams - but no! She wasn't having it, be there or else was the message. My colleague did dash over when there was a little break in the rain - but coming home he had to navigate flooded, closed roads and debris etc..

I pretended to give it a go - but didn't - they don't know that.

But no way was I driving, i couldn't see 3 feet in front of me & it was flash flooding - so after an hour I told her it'd taken me 40 mins to go a 10 min drive and I'd been sat in the car by the side of the road for 20 minutes because it was raining too hard to see, and that Id gone home and would see her on teams -

But still no! She emails and says that I have to be there, and that she'll postpone the meeting for 30 minutes, and to "drive slowly and safely"

Obviously I say no, and we do the completely unnecessary meeting by Teams.

All other places I work for have an internal weather/ risk alert system - only this ones head office is in WA - and they forget we're here on the east coast.

I know other local orgs got an alert this morning. That's what I'm reporting, that because we didn't get an alert she made a poor decision because she struggles when there's no process in place. She couldn't listen to us, couldn't use her common sense, or do what the rest of the community were doing, and was worse than hitler.

That is all true, but it's also ego & personality driven..

I think to get our little bit of this bussiness safe ( my friend's already left because of it) we need to play the ball not the woman.

Is this what I've done above? - I don't usually get involved in ugly office politics & just do my thing, but today was mad so here we are. I may need some advice please - because I don't think this is going to go away any time soon and the job suits my lifestyle, so I need to learn how to play this successfully.

 

[bellaozzydog]

Root cause is always system/management failure

Ask the ”system” if it has an inclement weather policy…I’m guessing you already know this. Suggest one is put in place using other organisations as examples if you can.

It’s a regional issue so shouldn’t be push back

I play down the personal faults of managers….i rarely get any learning points or behaviours changes from arseholes.

A policy makes decisions easier, everyone needs to know the rules. Rules let you push back about bad decisions

It’s reasonable to evoke health and safety rules when everything in the country can kill you

But…arseholes are arseholes so Bon chance avec ça

Eta. My sister did this type of change management with a notoriously poor manager who insisted on phoning the team when they were in driving to their next meetings. (Being efficient using “wasted travel time” while putting the team in danger.

It rolled out and is strong policy, with the added attraction of keeping the manager off their backs constantly

 

[ice-is-forming]

Thank you yes it's been a ridiculously poor change management right accross all levels this year!

Im hoping that I played it right then - because yes arsehole managers is a hill I can't be bothered to die on atm.

Spoiler: Report

Description: We didn’t receive an internal bad weather warning or advice not to drive- although other local services did- the local community and ourselves knew it wasn't safe, also BOM and QPS.

I think our new TL was uncertain what to advise as we had received no internal warnings/ advice or process to follow, they insisted that we drive ( approx 35 k) to a meeting in that could easily have been held via Teams or held another day.

The roads flooded and a lot of it washed away and became dangerous to navigate. Because of the TL insistence and not listening to me- I was forced to sit in my car, with zero visibility by the side of a main rd close to dangerous traffic for 20 minutes- it took me 50 mins to do a 10 minute journey- I didn’t continue to drive to ***, I came back to my home office. TL emailed and still insisted I drive there 'safely and slowly' and she would postpone the meeting by 30 minutes to give me time to get there.

I refused and we held meeting via Teams. My colleague experienced similar- he got to *** as TL wouldn’t take no for an answer – on his way home he had to navigate roads closed by flooding and wrecked roads.

An efficient internal warning as I have used multiple times in other organisations would reduce this risk and have supported our TL to make better decisions

 

[bellaozzydog]

Thank you yes it's been a ridiculously poor change management right accross all levels this year!

Im hoping that I played it right then - because yes arsehole managers is a hill I can't be bothered to die on atm.

Spoiler: Report

Description: We didn’t receive an internal bad weather warning or advice not to drive- although other local services did- the local community and ourselves knew it wasn't safe, also BOM and QPS.

I think our new TL was uncertain what to advise as we had received no internal warnings/ advice or process to follow, they insisted that we drive ( approx 35 k) to a meeting in that could easily have been held via Teams or held another day.

The roads flooded and a lot of it washed away and became dangerous to navigate. Because of the TL insistence and not listening to me- I was forced to sit in my car, with zero visibility by the side of a main rd close to dangerous traffic for 20 minutes- it took me 50 mins to do a 10 minute journey- I didn’t continue to drive to ***, I came back to my home office. TL emailed and still insisted I drive there 'safely and slowly' and she would postpone the meeting by 30 minutes to give me time to get there.

I refused and we held meeting via Teams. My colleague experienced similar- he got to *** as TL wouldn’t take no for an answer – on his way home he had to navigate roads closed by flooding and wrecked roads.

An efficient internal warning as I have used multiple times in other organisations would reduce this risk and have supported our TL to make better decisions

That should do the job

if I was being picky I’d edit out all the drama and decision making/TL stuff as well depersonalise. No one wins when the TL feels criticised

“On xxx day there was a regional severe weather warning in place , we were due to attend a meeting at Xxxxx but both ran in to difficulties on the road due to the severe weather.

It would be good practice to have a severe weather travel policy which teams can refer to for risk assessing travel in severe local weather. This would be inline with the regional weather warnings to reduce unnecessary travel at these times”

You win when you change stuff for the benefit of everyone, forget about the TL being a knob and just push for a policy/procedure. Best scenario would be the TL having a light bulb moment and pushing the policy themselves pigs fly etc

 

[ice-is-forming]

Yeah - i should have had a cup of tea before I wrote it and been objective. I'm not sure if I can edit it now - I'll have a look but if not ke sera.

Tbh she is incredibly irritating though, this is just one of many things -

Edit to add: I can't change it, and it almost doesn't read like me, it's given me pause to reflect a bit on how much this TLs personality and actions are affecting me. That's the most emotional and subjective incident report I've ever written hmmmmm... I'll have to keep it in check, but today did feel very personal. Like she was trying to kill me not the weather. I sound like a whiney 5 year old describing what happened! I really dislike people who bring out the worst in me lol

 

[mojo pixy]

So, she insisted on an in-person meeting 35kms away while the weather was terrible. There's a weather map showing how heavy the rain was. She acknowledged it with her 'drive slowly and safely'. But didn't agree to do the meeting online, because in her opinion it wasn't bad enough? Based on what? Is she a weather diviner? I'm no lawyer but I've had lots of bosses and even been one, to me it looks as if she's tried too hard to Be The Boss by coming down hard on something that, if she felt more secure in her role, she may well have let go. Have you given or will you give her a chance to answer this query/complaint herself? She might, in reflection, agree she went too far?

Anyway it sounds like a valid complaint and I hope it all works out OK for everyone.

 

[ice-is-forming]

I got a reply from her today with her manager cc'd in. It was gaslighting 101.

Blatent lies tbh - I was quite stunned by the audacity. I thought about just sucking it up because this particular 9to5 really suits my needs, and gives me heaps of time for my other side hustles.

But I just couldn't.

Apparently - The weather was fine, there were no warnings, I need to call her when " I feel too unsafe to drive " and moving forwards I should use the company app ( sonter) that can help me see if there's any weather warnings, if I have an issue like this again - she even sent me a step by step video of how to use the app lol

I sat on it for a bit - having cptsd sucks when this sort of thing happens- I get super reactive.

Then I replied. ( Cc'd her manager in too) that I was happy to move on, and that this email to her was my way of doing that.

I sent the email trail of me questioning her direction of it being safe to drive at 8am and 9am - then an email I'd sent at 10am saying traffic had stopped because of flooding, then her email saying I had to go in after that, and my reply at 11am saying no way and that I'd gone home ( I wfh)
Plus I added all the official local weather warnings and pics from that day, that I'd saved.


I thanked her for suggesting sonter, which I've had on work phones for over 10 years now , and reminded her that having worked for emergency services for almost 10 years, I was extremely familiar with what " stay off the road " means.
I finished by saying let's not do this again, if I say it's not safe for me to drive then believe me.
I feel so gaslit and really annoyed that this company keep putting me through bollocks like this.

I'm not an unreasonable person, but they just dig their heels in, in the most obvious and ridiculous way when you point out that they're breaching their own policies.

I wish it was a systems management failure - but it's all about the egos.

Ho humm - another communication for the ever growing ammunition folder.

 

[bellaozzydog]

I got a reply from her today with her manager cc'd in. It was gaslighting 101.

Blatent lies tbh - I was quite stunned by the audacity. I thought about just sucking it up because this particular 9to5 really suits my needs, and gives me heaps of time for my other side hustles.

But I just couldn't.

Apparently - The weather was fine, there were no warnings, I need to call her when " I feel too unsafe to drive " and moving forwards I should use the company app ( sonter) that can help me see if there's any weather warnings, if I have an issue like this again - she even sent me a step by step video of how to use the app lol

I sat on it for a bit - having cptsd sucks when this sort of thing happens- I get super reactive.

Then I replied. ( Cc'd her manager in too) that I was happy to move on, and that this email to her was my way of doing that.

I sent the email trail of me questioning her direction of it being safe to drive at 8am and 9am - then an email I'd sent at 10am saying traffic had stopped because of flooding, then her email saying I had to go in after that, and my reply at 11am saying no way and that I'd gone home ( I wfh)
Plus I added all the official local weather warnings and pics from that day, that I'd saved.

View attachment 440228
I thanked her for suggesting sonter, which I've had on work phones for over 10 years now , and reminded her that having worked for emergency services for almost 10 years, I was extremely familiar with what " stay off the road " means.
I finished by saying let's not do this again, if I say it's not safe for me to drive then believe me.
I feel so gaslit and really annoyed that this company keep putting me through bollocks like this.

I'm not an unreasonable person, but they just dig their heels in, in the most obvious and ridiculous way when you point out that they're breaching their own policies.

I wish it was a systems management failure - but it's all about the egos.

Ho humm - another communication for the ever growing ammunition folder.

You just can’t win with some people despite having the full receipts to back you up.

Good effort, sometimes when the civilised route fails you just have to nail them with facts

 

[Wookey]

I got a reply from her today with her manager cc'd in. It was gaslighting 101.

Blatent lies tbh - I was quite stunned by the audacity. I thought about just sucking it up because this particular 9to5 really suits my needs, and gives me heaps of time for my other side hustles.

But I just couldn't.

Apparently - The weather was fine, there were no warnings, I need to call her when " I feel too unsafe to drive " and moving forwards I should use the company app ( sonter) that can help me see if there's any weather warnings, if I have an issue like this again - she even sent me a step by step video of how to use the app lol

I sat on it for a bit - having cptsd sucks when this sort of thing happens- I get super reactive.

Then I replied. ( Cc'd her manager in too) that I was happy to move on, and that this email to her was my way of doing that.

I sent the email trail of me questioning her direction of it being safe to drive at 8am and 9am - then an email I'd sent at 10am saying traffic had stopped because of flooding, then her email saying I had to go in after that, and my reply at 11am saying no way and that I'd gone home ( I wfh)
Plus I added all the official local weather warnings and pics from that day, that I'd saved.

View attachment 440228
I thanked her for suggesting sonter, which I've had on work phones for over 10 years now , and reminded her that having worked for emergency services for almost 10 years, I was extremely familiar with what " stay off the road " means.
I finished by saying let's not do this again, if I say it's not safe for me to drive then believe me.
I feel so gaslit and really annoyed that this company keep putting me through bollocks like this.

I'm not an unreasonable person, but they just dig their heels in, in the most obvious and ridiculous way when you point out that they're breaching their own policies.

I wish it was a systems management failure - but it's all about the egos.

Ho humm - another communication for the ever growing ammunition folder.

Well done. Perhaps imagine if the worst had happened, and you'd had a fatal accident due to a flood or crash, your family would have a case for death while in the duty of work, and ample ammunition in calls and emails and texts to show she has pressurised you into doing something unsafe.

So she's a liability to that company, that's clear. The above-hers should recognise this and retrain her, but you've done well with the shit show you've got, and you've got a trail.

 

[ice-is-forming]

Well done. Perhaps imagine if the worst had happened, and you'd had a fatal accident due to a flood or crash, your family would have a case for death while in the duty of work, and ample ammunition in calls and emails and texts to show she has pressurised you into doing something unsafe.

So she's a liability to that company, that's clear. The above-hers should recognise this and retrain her, but you've done well with the shit show you've got, and you've got a trail.

Thank you yes it doesn't bear thinking about. I mentioned that in the email - that I'd like to stay alive.
They are a shit show - and would you believe it's in human services too!

Upline are just as inept - it's very dysfunctional & they won't pull her on it because they'll think it reflects badly on them

I've been here 5 years. The only reason I've not gone for promotion when I've been offered it, is because I want to stay as far away from management as possible. They should just leave me alone to do my thing - which is more than good enough.

Anyway, I just looked on Seek and applied for another job- I think today might have been the last straw..

bellaozzydog I sent them all the receipts today - we'll see what tomorrow brings.