Hi all, I'm (44m) an ops manager of a small engineering firm, managing personnel, inventory, QC etc. I got there from previously running my own business and learning lots there. However, it's obvious from reading online and in this sub, that I've probably missed out on formal project management theories taught in school. I want to stay up to date, so what would be a good avenue to pursue? I don't want to do another degree, but are there any recommended courses in Australia that can give a good background in some theory, even if I go away and have to do some learning on my own?

Thanks

I remember when I first started managing projects—I would assign tasks, assuming everyone understood exactly what I meant, but then later I found out that half the team still had questions. I think this is something a lot of new managers have to face but with time you understand how to communicate effectively.

How often do you find team members needing clarification on tasks after you’ve already assigned them?

There are several studies citing improved productivity and employee retention when employers allow remote work. However, I notice management is usually against it. I’ve been thinking about why this is, even for tech jobs that can be done fully remote. I’ve wondered is it because they realize they cannot accurately measure productivity in the first place, so instead, they measure other things like time in the office and how visible people are in meetings.

But lately, after watching movies like Office Space, American psycho, and shows like Mad Men and The Office, I realize it’s because of ego. They worked hard to climb the corporate ladder, and having that private office, the couch, those business cards, and walking the floor asking their subordinates what they are doing are some of the benefits. Also, they tend to make more money and live closer to the office, so commuting is less annoying, and they enjoy socializing with other managers. They care about ‘office culture’ because it’s the place that they can demand respect and force their team to kiss ass during those awkward team lunches and events.

Am I completely wrong, or is that about accurate?

This morning, Joe arrived at 6 a.m. even though their shift was scheduled to start at 7 a.m. They insisted on clocking in early, saying that other managers usually let them do so and that the schedule was “just for show.” I explained that they couldn’t start until 7 a.m., but Joe became argumentative, raising their voice and drawing other employees into the conversation.

During this back-and-forth, Joe involved our team leader, Carl, and somehow persuaded him to clock them in despite my clear instructions not to. Ben was also there, and rather than supporting my decision, he sided with Joe and Carl, adding to the resistance. I then approached Joe and asked them to clock out, reminding them that their scheduled start time was 7 a.m. Joe outright refused, ignoring my request. At this point, I told Joe that if they didn’t clock out, I would have to write them up for insubordination. This caused Joe to escalate further—they began cursing and yelling, creating a big scene in front of everyone.

Staying calm, I told Joe that their behavior was unprofessional and that I would have to clock them out for the day and find a replacement. Joe then threatened to call corporate and the market leader, to which I replied, “Go ahead,” and proceeded to clock them out myself.

This situation has left me feeling that some team members, including Carl and Ben, are trying to take advantage of my professionalism and adherence to company policies. It feels as though my efforts to follow the rules are causing tension, particularly because some staff are used to a more lenient approach. I was especially frustrated with Carl for clocking Joe in against my decision, seemingly just to avoid dealing with the situation himself, and with Ben for leaving rather than helping reinforce the schedule and policy I was trying to uphold.

Was I in the wrong? I am also dealing with other team members my age being jealous of me and my position. Ignoring me and taking advantage of me. What to do?

I've worked for CVS for 5 years now. Started as a cashier and it will be 2 years as a store manager in December. I'm only 23 and enjoy my job for the most part. But the I have issues standing my ground/ saying no/ actually being the boss sometimes. What are some ways to improve on those issues in and outside of the job.

I can do anything in the store besides this. I just don’t know what I can do differently to be confident in my decision making and the way I communicate to my employees.

Hi all! I got a new job this summer as a GM. I had been the GM - from opening day - at my old job for 5 years. It wasn’t my first leadership role, but my first manager meant role. Being the only person to have ever hired and trained every staff member there was a unique opportunity to develop my skills as a manager. I am so proud of the work I did there, the team I developed, the culture I curated. But it was time to seek better pay and growth opportunities.

So onto my new job. I’m managing a small team of kids age 16-23. The older ones have been here for several years. The company culture is very positive and laid back. During my training I saw a lot of opportunity to tweak and hone things - for everyone’s convenience and to help encourage better habits. I intended to take these ideas on slowly. I had read up on joining a team as a GM, since my last team was sort of home grown by me. Important info: I started the job at the busiest time of year - the most hectic, biggest sales, fullest schedule. Between my excitement at the new job, the ideas I felt enthusiastic about, and the summer pace, I got swept into the wave of chaos. I knew in concept that a new manager shouldn’t bust in and change things, but I did. Not a lot, but enough. And my staff got worried. My supervisor used to be their manager a while back, so they’re very comfortable with her. Several employees came to her and expressed that they didn’t like how I just came in changed things. Another important thing: I am a very positive and friendly person, I love communication and learning moments with my team members, but for some reason in settings where I am in leadership roles, people are intimidated by me. It’s a hump I’ve had to get so many new hires over in my last job. I can’t explain why - I am type A and I’m a confident person, but I truly think my positivity and perkiness should be able to outweigh that. Idk. So my new staff - all of them at once now - are intimidated by me. I repeatedly communicate to them in our chat (we’re never all together all at once) that I’m all about growth, cooperation, communication, etc. but they’re still shy of me. Since diving in too fast with my ideas and changes, and learning that they had come to my supervisor with their concerns, I’ve put all my change of plans on pause. I realized (at the same time my supervisor came to me) that I got swept up in newbie summer excitement, and wanted to slow down. But I’m worried I’ve started off on the wrong foot, and that some people have just let that sour their opinion. My AM especially and obviously does not like me, and I think that’s a big thing that’s making it hard for me to get in and connect. There aren’t a lot of opportunities to get everyone together, nor to connect with all of my team members 1:1 because of my schedule & our current short staffed state.

Just looking on some advice on how to back peddle on my sort of take over, and earn these kids trust back.

Also hoping to hear how GMs have dealt with AMs that don’t like them? She got promoted right before I got hired, but hasn’t really had much training in the role. Having gotten to know a few staff members now, I honestly would have picked someone else for the role, but I don’t think demoting her is at all the solution to any of this. She’s a hard nut to crack, very cards to the chest and a Meyers Briggs judging type. My supervisor sees potential in her. I’d really love to see that side of her. But she vibes she gives off when I’m around are just so potent, I don’t know how to get there with her.

I rewatched Ted Lasso as a reminder: that’s the kind of leader I have been, and want to continue to be professionally.

TLDR: entered a new work place as the GM, started off too intense with change too fast, staff are apprehensive and non communicative, I want to reset

I work in corporate. My management seems very aloof and unfamiliar in supporting individuals who has a disability. What resources are available for them to be effective, be proactive, and be mindful?

Posting for a friend - works in a multinational firm and is fairly seasoned with two decades of experience. She is in the current company for 2 years. She has had several concerns with her immediate manager- especially with lack of feedback for first year and getting no bonus. Her second year has been contentious mainly because her immediate boss has been absent from job for various reasons and her skip level came back with scathing review- basically ignoring all positive work she did and focused solely on one cross team concern that blew up and she made some error in terms of how she handled communication and practically berated lack of structure knowledge and work ethic of other department workers. Skip level boss is possibly upset that my friend is pointing out several departmental and managerial deficits as she herself has been manager in the past (possibly not a good one). She has gradually become an angry person and realizes that this may not be a good fit for her. What can she do to salvage her job if anything- she is convinced based on how skip level manager interacted with her that HR is already involved (that’s what she would have done in her past) but I am not sure if she is over reading her situation and is getting desperate on how she has been treated at other jobs in the past

For context- she developed SME over a decade in one company- did teaching job for 4- returned to industry and job hopped 4 times in last 8 years due to M&A (she was let go), layoff, and one instance of harassment. She decided to take individual contributions role to reduce stress - she was managing 29 people before

Hey managers!
I'm doing some market research on rock climbing and I was wondering if anyone here has planned an indoor or outdoor rock climbing trip for your team as a team building activity. If you have, could you share some information on your company size and industry segment?

I'm curious to know what motivates managers to plan these trips and what they hope to get out of them!

I've been a manager for 1.5 years at a multinational. I have only 2 direct reports. Person1 was hired 3 months before person2. Person1 is a friendly extrovert who quickly got loved by everyone in the wider team and she is also excellent at her job. For some time there was only the 2 of us so we got quite friendly and I feel I should have had more firm boundaries with her. When I interviewed Person2, she also seemed to be very competent and even a senior but she turned out to be very different at the job - slow in general, clumsy and doesn't see the big picture. She is also very introverted and disengaged. I get the feeling she is only here to do the job (which would be fine) but the wider team also complains she is not making any efforts to be part of the team. I organised team buildings on my own cost, etc, but the 2 direct reports are very different and now person1 got really fed up with person2 and doesn't want to work with her anymore. I gave a lot of feedback to person2 already but she doesn't understand that a random group of people working together is not a team and I also feel she doesn't appreciate the team and the company enough, we have it really good here. She just doesn't fit in and doesn't make any effort to fit in. When I give her feedback, she says we don't respect her introvertedness. I don't want to lose person1 but I also don't want to fire person2. PIP is an option but it's really about her personality... and in a sense I also feel a bit upset with person1 who is kind of putting pressure on me to fire person2 because she doesn't want to work with her... I suck :( what would you do?

Anyone have advice on these things?

So tired of my toxic job in corporate world. My manager treats me like im invisible, doesn’t even say hello and forgot that I started the project completely alone without help and sustained it for 6 months. He prefers the “senior”, who constantly tries to alter my work or undermine me and constantly tries to tell the boss she has made things better and me worse. I got a new job and will move away now for it. I have to tell him tomorrow that im leaving and I guess he will ask why. I do not want to tell him about the new job incase he tries to sabotage it. I feel I just want to keep it to a bare minimum conversation but i dont know how to articulate it without sounding like i hate the senior woman. I told him last week in front of the team that I’m fed up with my work changing everyday and he just stayed on mute. Says it all.

I have a direct report who did not give notice about a long trip next month. I asked him why I didn’t know about the trip and he said he “mentioned it to me at the beginning of the year and in multiple team meetings since”. I said I didn’t remember but it’s possible he did tell me, but even so he knows the policy is to email the supervisor and HR with any time off requests. He told me he had never heard of this policy before, though he’s followed it on previous vacation requests and also has signed the handbook of official policies. This is someone who is a very solid worker but who has resented me since i was promoted over him a year ago. I spoke with him to go over why it’s important to officially submit via the policies and also a two week trip in our busiest quarter means he should be reminding his team of the upcoming trip since he has a more senior role and would need to ensure coverage to be gone for two weeks. He took zero accountability and kept saying this was “how he’s always requested time off”.

on the monday after we spoke about this, he met with me to tell me that he was upset how i handled this situation, basically implying that i made it a big deal and could have just talked to him bc it was “the first time”. I pointed out that i did, in fact, just talk to him about it. he then gave his two week notice, saying he’s been burnt out for months.

I have a personal history of dealing with narcissist parents and being gaslit all of my life that I am working on and would like other viewpoints on this situation, maybe things i’m missing or not seeing or could have done differently.

I’m facing a difficult situation with an indirect report who has raised a grievance against me, alleging discrimination and bullying. The employee has been out of the office for three months, and throughout the grievance process and subsequent appeal, no evidence has been found to support their claims. They have expressed considerable frustration during this time, describing the process as “bull*****” and full of lies.

HR has suggested mediation to facilitate re-engagement when the employee returns, but previous attempts at mediation were declined by them. They have clearly indicated a desire for minimal interaction with me, which complicates things since they report to my teams. While I want to remain professional, this situation has taken a toll on my mental health, and I would like to limit my interactions with this individual.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation? How did you manage the return of an employee who has made serious accusations against you? What steps did you take to protect yourself from further issues while avoiding any appearance of retaliation? This individual has not been a high performer, so we will need to continue managing their role expectations.

I’d appreciate any insights or advice you can offer!

I have an employee that is smart as can be, very sharp, detail oriented, and does really good work. What they do not do well is communicate, like is hostile and defensive, and it’s never even warranted.

This person does not want to communicate about their timelines when getting something done, only wants to do things their way, and any questions about anything, including just a status update, are perceived as an attack, no matter how professional and solution oriented I or other team members are. Our account manager who works well with a lot of different personality types said that it is impossible to work with them. I give my team a lot of autonomy within the confines of keeping me in the loop. Periodic updates verbally or in written form are absolutely fine. I just need to have oversight and enough information to know if things are on track or I need to support you in other ways to get things back on track or provide more resources, etc. this was the expectation that I set and have reiterated over the last 10 months with this employee. I know enough now with this employee that the issue is not me nor the other people, now that it has become so obvious and there have been so many situations that were not OK.

This is one of the best work environments I have been in - culturally, people are very reasonable, transparent, and while we have lots of different personality types, and working behaviors, we all share the same end goal. If I must work for a company and not be independently wealthy, I couldn’t ask for anything better. We are not perfect, but we have a supportive, positive, solution oriented vibe in the company. Nobody tries to do any “gotchas”, we are all very transparent about where things are at good, neutral, or bad, with the shared goal of just doing our job well - it’s a very reasonable healthy, normal dynamic that we all wish every organization had. This person wants their way without any accountability or communication or transparency about what is going on and why, which is not possible to do in this predict particular role.

I need to give feedback to this employee as a warning to basically say you’re smart and you do good work, but your communication style, behavior, and lack of transparency are not acceptable, and quite frankly, hostile. You are immediately defensive if anyone inquires about anything, including your boss, even if neutral. Given the way they perceive things as an attack, it could really blow up, but it has become too extreme to be able to work around.

How have you dealt with this in the past?

What was the biggest difference you experienced transitioning from a first line manager to a manager of managers? What skills, knowledge, tools did you need to empower, motivate, reward, and hold managers accountable? How is a manager of managers different from being on executive staff? Thank you!

As the title describes. We have had a mix of internal and external candidates between the ages of 18 - 50 for 5 posts where the candidate would attend a local college roughy 2 days a week and work with my company for the rest until they earn their full degree. We held interviews last week and are still deliberating.

Of the internal candidates a couple of them are legitimate superstars, beloved throughout the company for their competence, work ethic and attitude. They are also woefully lowly paid for their capabilities and a degree will increase their earning potential to their “rightful” level. These people are 30+ and are already in our hire pile.

The external candidates include” kids“ still in high school and slightly older. They are, obviously, unexperienced but some have great grades and come across as enthusiastic and informed about our field. Also hired.

There is also a lot of mediocrity in both these groups and my question is really about this middling pool.

How much grace should we afford a young candidate who gave rather immature answers and gave us pause about their work ethic and reliability? On the one hand they could mature on the other we already have a fair amount of poor quality employees who never grew out of the same shortcomings.

Also, would it be fair to reject the internal candidates who have a work history with us of only putting in the minimum at best and instead hire a younger person who interviewed better?

Working as a non-Japanese in a Japanese company, I’m part of a small, primarily Japanese team, with a strict manager who often critiques my work. Before joining, I felt confident and articulate, but now I feel my communication and confidence have declined. Conversations are typically in broken, simplistic English, and when I speak up, I’m often questioned repeatedly, even if my point is clear, leaving me feeling as though I’m constantly in the wrong.

My manager frequently reprimands me, sometimes over minor misunderstandings or simple errors. Public criticism, especially for mistakes like missing details in meeting minutes, is humiliating, and it feels undeserved. I also struggle with public speaking, which makes me hesitant to contribute in meetings unless I have something meaningful to add, but my manager interprets this as a lack of engagement.

I’m often assigned heavy workloads without guidance, yet I’m told I fall short of expectations. New tasks are added to my plate regularly, and while I work hard, I’m criticized for poor time management. This cycle leaves me drained, constantly thinking about work, even on weekends, and dreading each Monday.

Hello,

I left a team six months ago for a new opportunity. Before I left I had been an ASM for several years. Recently the SM had put in their two weeks, so that position opened up. A friend that works there had expressed that he wanted me to come back several times during my absence, and told me that the SM had put in his notice. At that time I said I'd be willing to come back as the SM if the price was right, but I did not have immediate plans to return.

This is where it gets a bit messy. A week later the DM reached out to me and asked if I still lived in the area, I asked if he was asking in reference to the position that needed filled. He then text the old store manager and the current ASM and asked who had told me that the old manager had given notice. I then get a text from my friend who also wants the job that says something to the effect of "I like competition, and I'm fine no matter who gets the job I hope you feel the same way." I call him later say that I have not applied formally yet and to let me know now if he wants me to back off and not apply. He says to go ahead so I interview and get the position.

Now he is upset and feels like I took the spot from him, and that I should have told him before I talked to the DM at all. On the back end of things I know that he would not have gotten the job even if I did not apply, and that they would have gone with an external canadate, but this seems inappropriate to share.

Some anger and disappointment is natural in these situations, but I want to make sure that it does not effect the morale of the team as a whole.

How would you suggest I navigate this?

Tldr: Just venting about an employee who stole OT hours and must be fired per HR ruling.

I have an employee who has some entitlement issues. After she accepted her offer, recruiter said he'd never seen a candidate with so many questions (internal transfer). She talks with HR regularly (like more than weekly) about all the leaves and other benefits she is entitled to.

Her first week on the job, she asked for a month off (i.e. wanted second month on the job as annual leave). I said, "fine with me but this deliverable and this deliverable have to be done." So she changed it to two weeks but then had a medical emergency and ended up taking second two weeks as sick leave. When she came back it was clear she had been on vacation.

Lots of other examples. She's been on the job for less than six months. Complained that she had to do a bunch of readings for a mandatory training. Made a snide remark about it and blamed her coworker (when it was I who mandated the training).

A VP asked for follow up research, which I thought was a good sign that the last round she did was useful. First thing out of her mouth was, "well there goes my leave."

She said that she feels like people should be allowed to go on a month leave and be "really off." She says that in her last role if she took a month, either the tasks would get assigned to someone else or simply deprioritized.

We are a global team, and she has (by her own choice) lived out of HQ time zones. But she keeps very strict no-go zones for HQ hours when it's not her working hours. Even if 15 other people (incl execs) can make a time, she won't flex to meet it. I don't expect her to take 1:1s or working level meetings in those times but for execs, I feel she should flex. She was hired for HQ time but has put off her move to HQ locale and gotten HR to extend and extend and extend it, so she's abroad for another year (for medical reasons, though her condition is a temporary and common one that could clearly be handled in the US).

She did have a legit medical emergency and I'm sympathetic to it. But it feels half legitimate and half like she's milking it.

Her skip level, my boss, said that she's making others angry with her behavior. Our VP has even had to get involved because of the relocation issue.

What should I do? She is really working the system, and it's getting to be unreasonable. But she is like a hawk on HR rules that I don't know how to counter it without getting myself in trouble.

One of my better technicians has received an offer for a better paying position outside our company. I’ve been trying to get him a promotion for the last 6 months but my manager has been pushing my meetings regarding it back. Now that he has an offer, my manager has asked me to ask him for a copy of his offer letter so we can make a counter offer. I hate that this has gotten to this point, am I allowed to ask for his offer letter?

I will have the final performance/goal evaluation with the staff early December. I have few people interested to be promoted as senior service desk agents, all of them are very good, however I don’t know how to assess if each of them can cope with additional stress? I have inherited this team from a manager who s been promoted now.

Hi, I wanted to share with the community a book that I've never seen mentioned online in the typical lists of "recommended books about management" but that in my opinion is better written and has way less fluff than most titles I've read from those lists.

I discovered it because it was listed as a companion read for a startup workshop in The Netherlands. It's called "The Entrepreneurial Mindset: Strategies for Continuously Creating Opportunity in an Age of Uncertainty" and it was published by Harvard Business Review in 2000. I know, it's a very long time ago, but the book focuses on the big picture, which is pretty much always valid.
The central point of the book is studying how entrepreneurs think and work, and how managers can learn from that and translate those insights into the reality of their organization, to develop as leaders and to make their teams more proactive and more comfortable/adaptable to changes, uncertainty and tough choices.

A couple of my favorite key points from the book:

• "This much being said, don’t get trapped into microallocating people’s time. Allocating personnel-months is sufficient for most projects of any strategic significance."
• "Just because the resources are there doesn’t mean that they should be spent."
• "Trying to do more than the firm is capable of handling is tantamount to doing nothing."
• You should not just chase profits; you should build fresh business models
• Always quality over quantity; rather than trying to juggle every opportunity, stick to a few high-impact projects
• Less is always more. Commit to few things. Taking on too many projects without enough resources leads to delays, broken promises, burnout. Focusing on a few well-supported projects beats trying to manage a hundred different things. Chasing too many dreams at once just means everything falls behind schedule
• Focus on execution and adaptability (pivoting) and consider them equally important; reason why they should be considered as the same thing - called "adaptive execution". Don't focus on planning
• Don't focus on milestones and assumptions. When starting something new, it’s better to keep your milestones tight and focused. Fewer, higher-stakes goals, and few assumptions, make it possible to enable "adaptive execution", which otherwise becomes impossible
• Teamwork myths: a lot of myths about teamwork are actually busted by research. Myth 1: "effective teams work together a lot" - false, they work best when individuals are able to work independently. Myth 2: "conflict between group members is bad" - false, constructive conflict is essential to prevent dysfunctions like apathy, group-think, and "agree to agree". Myth 3: "teams are better off when members like each other" - false, the key is mutual respect rather than friendship/affection. Myth 4: "team satisfaction produces performance" - no causation actually exists, when the energy put into the team's own good feelings is less than the one put into the task at hand, performance suffers
• Innovation requires real resources. Successful companies give new ventures more budget, attention, and their best people. They don’t leave these projects scrambling for scraps. If your org is not ready to do this, you won't get results

We've had to cut some jobs due to budget. The layoffs come at the end of the year, which sucks because it's the holiday season and that's also when we happen to do various fundraising initiatives for charity. One of the initiatives is a friendly competition to see which department can raise the most money via payroll donations. The email blasts for this initiative go to everyone in the company.

The 3 people getting let go in our department will receive notice of termination on Dec 9th. The charity fundraiser emails start going out on Dec 2nd. These three people will work and be paid for all of December with their last day being Jan 3rd.

Would it be more humiliating to the 3 employees if we include them in the email list or exclude them from it? It's a shitty difficult situation to be in all around and I don't want to make it worse for them.

I don't want them to feel left out but I also don't want to be the asshole who asks an employee who is getting canned at Christmas for a charity donation on behalf of the company.

For some context, I (21F) handle my manager's inbox and schedule, which he has never had someone do previously. There was definitely a learning curve, but l've overcome most of it and we are on track to hit most of our joint targets this quarter.

Unfortunately, scheduling calls for him is a nightmare - he does not update his calendar on time (he allots different times a week as per his availability so there is no uniformity) and typically gives me his availability for the next week on Wednesday EoD/ Thursday. This makes it especially difficult to have enough time to find (yes I mean FIND) people to have a meeting with and offer them slot. We have international clients so time zones are another issue, and on top of this, he insists to have meetings on Monday and told me its my responsibility to make sure there are confirmed meetings and to do "whatever it takes to ensure that" including working weekends.

This week, I was OOO on Thursday and Friday, and before I logged off on Wednesday, I checked his calendar for availability next week. As usual it was not updated, despite him knowing I’ll not have a chance to do it later that week.

Fast forward to Saturday, I see that he updated his calendar and has put slots on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I know I’ll be yelled at on Monday for not having calls confirmed for 2 hours after I log in, so I need help navigating the conversation.

We all work remotely, and I have a meeting with him on Thursday. Managers - how would you like your associates to handle such a conversation. I gently need to convey that I simply need atleast 2 working days to set up calls. My manager is also of the belief that no slot of his availability should go to waste and is often mean about slots that go wasted.

Quick note - I’m sorry if this isn’t the correct subreddit, I just don’t know if there is a “corporate” way to have this discussion.

Thank you!

Where and how do you document it? Do you just remember it?

Lastly although im not necessarily new to this, what advice would you give first time corporate managers?

What are processes or habits you learned through the years the hard way?

Hi all! Started a new manager position in August and had one of my two employees in one department quit in October (health reasons). In order to make sure my other employee doesn't feel stress or work OT for the past month I've been working 12 days on 2 days off. All reports and data is still being reported on time but I feel like I'm falling behind in my other manager tasks and my quality and communication is slipping. Any advice from experience managers on how to deal with this as I probably have another month before hiring someone to the role?

Hello, I am looking for some advice. I want to be clear that I appreciate this person's enthusiasm, but this is starting to affect my weekend.

I have an employee who keeps calling me over the weekend. These are not Really Important calls - they're FYI calls. They aren't even calls that could be text messages - they are just calls to tell me things that could wait until Monday. Today's call, for example, was to notify me a customer may place an order for Thursday afternoon.

Great.

So now I'm going to be obsessively thinking about the ramifications of this order that doesn't even exist yet. Will I need to get more staff? When will they let me know? Should I reach out to them? (The last fyi he gave me was a false alarm, so that was a week's worth of thinking about an order for nothing.)

It's hard for me to disconnect from work - harder still when I have a deadline looming. I can't just turn it off. My brain is stupid.

Last weekend, he called well after I'd gone to sleep, and I admit I was a bit short with him. (I'm not my best when I'm awakened from a dead sleep.) I followed up with him to apologize and to set a boundary not to call at night unless it's urgent.

Today it was at least before 7pm. He's really, really excited - and I think he assumes everyone else is as well. He's also neurodivergent - autistic, I believe - so I want to make sure I'm addressing this as kindly as I can. (I am also ND, and I tend to be a little too direct.) I know he sees this as being helpful - and if I could shut down my brain, it would be a nice but totally unnecessary heads up.

How can I support this employee and his boundless enthusiasm while also protecting my weekend? It's not his fault my brain is stupid. Do you have any tips for shutting down your work brain?

Greetings to the peeps here, and thank you for the opportunity to share my question with the group here!

I recently became manager of a small charity in the UK. There's half a dozen staff members and most of what we do involves running programmes for children and young people.

Previously, I've been in manager positions and not had issues to write home about. That is NOT the case in this new role.

All of the 'other' aspects of the role are going well. Without going into too many specifics, everything is running better than before. For example, relationships with other agencies are improved, there's better customer engagement etc etc.

However, I'm really struggling with the staff. I've never been in a position where I'm asking people to do task A by time B and they've just...not done it. No reason given, no email sent...just not doing it?!

As it's such a small team who all live locally (including me) and, believe it or not, 50% of them are related, including the new assistant manager, there is an extra layer there. The culture has also been pretty relaxed previously as far as I can tell. The previous manager really had no idea what they were doing, to be frank. Even the most basic laws were not being met.

There is one staff member who seems to be causing a lot of issues. They are often late, without explanation, come in very stressed, don't follow basic instructions and they literally walked up to me a few days ago and said "I hate this job"...

I've noticed when other staff members are around them, they become more negative, more combative and more 'cheeky', for want of a better term.

I'm going to get to the point now, I promise! I've been trying to do a lot of self-reflection on this. I'm currently going through an issue that effects my hormones so maybe I'm being a bit of a dick and don't realise and then people don't want to do their work? Or maybe I've just lost my touch of being a good manager?

Or, is it a bad culture I've come into, with a bad line-up of staff that needs to be changed? Should I be stricter? I've let pretty much everything go with no consequence to not doing your work. I feel ridiculous writing that, actually.

As the Negative Nancy is on probation, perhaps I need to let them go and just deal with the fallout of that.

I've never been so frustated in my life lol, plz help.