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.
My workplace introduced a “crash group” on Whatsapp. The idea was to have a channel for quick emergency communication in case the company got hacked and all other channels were taken offline. So IT was strongly encouraged to join, as well.
It quickly turned into everyone posting to Whatsapp every time they had any tiny issue or had forgotten their password, and expecting immediate tech support regardless of working hours.
So my boss, the IT team leader, left the group and told the CTO to call him directly if there’s a true emergency. He also told everyone else in IT to leave it. And when Teams was introduced, he ordered us not to accept any tech support requests through Teams, and to escalate to him if anyone complains about it.
Even the company owner and the C-suite call helpdesk or write tickets now if they need support (their tickets are automatically flagged with the highest priority).
My boss and the culture he fought for is one of the main reasons I took this job, even though I could have gotten a bit better pay elsewhere.
This is good to hear, and it kinda tracks that IT people know how to take the right steps here.
In the social sector such bets are off, completely. They share photos of work related printouts via WA (because, as I described in my OP, the appropriate web apps don’t work), and nobody even has the know-how to understand why one might object.
Good boss. What happened to the crash group?
It still exists, and people still use it to vent about their issues in it. But there’s now also a mailing list with externally hosted mail addresses of the important people in case of a real emergency.
I’d turn it into meme group lol
That’s a leader!