Opinion on E-mail/Meeting

Malt_Vinegar · 26 Jul 2006 at 18:00

I received this today from my head of department. It has gone to the whole department.

Subject: Collective and individual responsibility within the department

Agenda:
I will open up with a 5 - 10 minute talk which is designed to provoke a response, but no one is too interrupt or to argue with my statements.
I will then leave everyone in the room for 1 hour and I want each person to write down what they as an individual and as members of a team will do to achieve the aims I have laid out.

Would you consider this a badly worded mail? I ave no problem with it at all, seems like a perfectly normal request from someone who wants to get a point across to the whole dept.
My whole office is up and arms and "Offended" by it?! Whats your opinion?

TriedandTested · 26 Jul 2006 at 18:06

Short and sweet. To the point. Good email i say

sniffy · 26 Jul 2006 at 18:11

I see no problem what so ever.

cleanbluesky · 26 Jul 2006 at 18:12

Malt_Vinegar said:
My whole office is up and arms and "Offended" by it?! Whats your opinion?

Because he is pushing your buttons like puppets. You have to wonder about the perception of a guy who wants to do something like this.

You have to wonder why he wants you to think that he will be 'provoking a response' and then deliberately leave you in your own company for a task that could be done individually at your desks...

To me it just sounds like a crappy teamwork excercise, hence the emphasis on the word 'individual'... but bear in mind that such excercises are for the ego of the manager more than having any actual learning capacity for those that engage in them

blueCAT · 26 Jul 2006 at 19:05

It's just a bit rude.

The first sentence immediately asserts that the person has the authority to command people not to interrupt or argue. This demonstrates a superiority complex and a lack of respect for others' opinions. The second sentence is also quite bizzare. Sounds as if the guy's planning lock his team members in a room, not willing to discuss things with them! I've seen far worse though.

Better would be something like...
"I plan to open up with a 5 - 10 minute talk designed to provoke a response, however please hold your questions until the end.
We'll then break and reconvene after an hour where we'll discuss the aims of our team, focusing on what we can do as individuals and team members."

TriedandTested · 26 Jul 2006 at 22:03

He's the boss..he is superior to them all (position within company) and should lead his team the way he sees fit; that's why he's there. He's not there to be best buddies with them all and pussy-foot around them when he wants something done...bosses like that are soon out the door.

Dave M · 26 Jul 2006 at 22:14

Bluecat got it right, the original email is unprofessional - it isn't clever to talk down to your staff.

tried&tested: You enjoy being treated bad? If thats your thing great but it isn't for everyone. Talking to people like they're **** generally ends up with only the **** people staying. You don't want a weak manager, but somewhere between weak and rude is a professional manager.

TriedandTested · 26 Jul 2006 at 22:22

Telescopi said:
Bluecat got it right, the original email is unprofessional - it isn't clever to talk down to your staff.

tried&tested: You enjoy being treated bad? If thats your thing great but it isn't for everyone. Talking to people like they're **** generally ends up with only the **** people staying. You don't want a weak manager, but somewhere between weak and rude is a professional manager.

Love it

There's nothing wrong with the email, it's not offensive - unless you're VERY easily offended. Granted, it may be a bit blunt but if staff are going to get upset by a silly email about a meeting they clearly don't have enough work on; perhaps the manager should sort that out too.

You don't go to work to be wrapped in cotton wool and to be best mates with your boss.

Malt_Vinegar · 26 Jul 2006 at 22:40

I agree its a tad blunt, but the response from my dept was nothing short of astounding??

Up in arms, going to complain to the Director of IT, there was no other topic of conversation for the whole day?!

I just cracked on with my work and left them to it. It was pretty annoying, i did try to reason with them, but i was shot down for attemping to playing down the whole thing.