My boss says my team dislikes my management style. What’s going on?

Each week, Dr Kirstin Ferguson tackles questions on workplace, career and leadership in her advice column, Got a Minute? This week: handling difficult feedback, threats for failing security tests and redundancies for part-time contractors.

When you receive negative feedback from your manager, it can be hard to swallow, but it’s an opportunity for change.Credit: Dionne Gain

I’m a senior manager in a job I really enjoy. However, it is very difficult to keep my boss happy. I get called out on many things that seem really minor, and my confidence has taken a beating. Recently, she gave me feedback that my team has felt disempowered and belittled by my management style, and that they don’t find me sincere. I found this devastating and humiliating. She said it was salvageable and that we could work together to rectify things. This is the first time I have been made aware of the issue and I wonder if there has been a bit of mud scraping in the background. I want to succeed in this role, but feel completely reduced by it. What should I do? How do I stop feeling so upset and taking it all so personally?

It is clear you want to work on your leadership and are keen to respond to the feedback. That is half the battle.

Whenever we hear feedback, there are three classic triggers we all experience and you scored the trifecta. The first is we think the feedback is wrong, which may have started to wonder when you considered if there had been “mud scraping.” The next trigger is to think the person giving the feedback is an idiot (or worse) and so we don’t hear the feedback because of the relationship we have with the person giving it. Finally, feedback can trigger something in us – shame, embarrassment, ego. In this case, it all happened for you at once.

Try to reconnect with your team by sharing how grateful you were to hear this feedback from them. Let them know you are keen to address it and even ask for their help in doing so. Also, take your boss up on her offer of help, since it may mean your relationship improves to the point you can hopefully also offer her feedback on how she sometimes causes you to feel.

I work for an international corporation with nearly 100,000 employees and many genuine security risks. The organisation sends fake phishing emails and makes phone calls to ensure that staff don’t fall for malware or phishing scams. However, employees now face threats of loss of salary or bonus payments – and potentially dismissal – if they fail these tests. There is training provided to avoid them, but we work in a high-pressure environment where the expectation is that all emails and chats are responded to ASAP. What rights do employees have if these consequences are brought to bear?

Training people to be vigilant is smart, for sure. But having threats of job losses or salary reductions simply adds to the high-pressure environment and will increase – not decrease – the risk of mistakes being made. It will also lead to a culture where breaches are hidden under the carpet because it won’t feel safe to report them. Your company needs to focus on positive reinforcement and reward wins if they want to see real improvement. Unless someone negligently or wilfully causes an IT security risk, I just don’t see how this will be a productive solution.

In terms of your rights, that will really depend on your employment contracts, awards or negotiated agreements. Contact Fair Work if you are concerned.

I work for an organisation which employs counsellors as a remote telehealth workforce. Last week the organisation restructured its workforce and made everyone on contracts under three days per week redundant. Is this legal when employees have held contracts for years at two days per week? What rights do we have?

Any redundancy needs to be genuine and due to operational needs such as funding changes or restructuring. In the case of people on fewer days being forced to take more days, that may be a breach of contract, but you would need to contact Fair Work to find out what will apply in your specific circumstance.

In any situation like this, it will assist to raise your concerns with others feeling the same way so you don’t need to approach a solution on your own. It may be worth documenting your concerns and speaking with your CEO or board. Focus on the loss of service the organisation will now experience as a result of the changes and the ways having a flexible workforce on different days has assisted those you help.

To submit a question about work, careers or leadership, visit kirstinferguson.com/ask. You will not be asked to provide your name or any identifying information. Letters may be edited.

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