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.