Team Punishment - why does management do it?

[Tiny]

Last week was a bad one at work - someone(s) screwed up big time and caused an "outage" that was very visible.   Since there have been a string of unrelated mistakes that caused "outages" over the past couple of months - upper upper management threw a fit and locked down any and all "changes" to production.  ALL change requests must go thru upper upper management for review before the change is promoted to production. this effects 100 people doing their day to day work and dozens of projects. 

I have no idea why upper upper management thinks it's a good thing to 'punish' everyone. All it does it errode confidence in leadership.    This isn't the first time our upper upper management guy has acted like a tyrant/5 year old/full of himself feudal lord.   He pretty much called for an "oath of fealty" or quit just before the Pandemic hit. 

I'm pretty sure there's plenty of research on how 'punishing the team'  tends to NOT have the intended consequences. 

So far to day - I have had to explain to some users why they can't load data (for month end processing which happens in 3 days) because I have to wait for an OK for a guy who has no idea what he's oking -  not to mention that my changes ONLY effect the data entry people - if the data is automatically loaded with errors - we can just delete it and start over.   I've also had to explain to a project manager why we can't set up the FTP's for the project (because a guy who has no idea what he's oking is doing a power play - this FTP doesn't directly effect production anything at this point.)     

There's a couple of other projects/things that need to go to production before month end (where planned and scheduled)  that aren't gonna go.  I'm sure I will get in trouble for not meeting my agreed upon deadlines. 

I strongly suspect I am not the only one in this bind.     

So, my rant to upper upper management: 
Gee, thanks for punishing me (and my end users) for no reason so you can feel like you did something.   I'm guessing who ever screwed up that you want to punish isn't really feeling all that punished.      

And this doesn't make me want to "work harder at making sure what I do, doesn't screw up production".  It makes me think you are an asshole and why should I take anything you say seriously? or follow anything you say??   I'm not afraid of you. I'm not afraid of "losing my job" I will gladly walk away, and I'm not afraid of "losing my integrity - I already do the best job I can do. Everyday. "   

Ok, end of rant.  (and I probably will now be able to keep my mouth shut and not say something stupid about this to my manager or my co-workers. Cause there isn't any reason to fan the flames of insubordination.  This too shall pass. )  


I am so very glad that I will most likely be done with this job within a year.  This kind of stuff doesn't make me want to be part of the "team" nor does it make me feel good to be part of the team (that's doing what it's suppose to do).  

[Tennesseer]

Does whatever your employer produces make it to consumers? Has the product flaws affected your employer's sales? Have investors in your company taken notice of said flaws and/or sales?

[Tiny]

Mar 29, 2021 16:48:00 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Does whatever your employer produces make it to consumers? Has the product flaws affected your employer's sales? Have investors in your company taken notice of said flaws and/or sales?

We don't produce anything 'tangible' or a product  we sell a service.         

I think the majority of the issues have been inconveniences in the sale of our services and in providing our services due to server issues and perhaps an application going down.   

I think the issue is more of a "egg on our face" issue than anything else.  Status/confidence is very important. 
 

I'm back office accounting...  Everything I support and do was unaffected by the problem(s). I suspect the majority of people/projects being subjected to the "freeze out" were also unaffected.   


 

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

I'll see you and raise you my supervisor threatening disciplinary action if people don't bring back water for the cooler because she did it twice in one week.

Now if I'm thirsty I hear the mission impossible theme in my head as I check to see if she's around.

Mostly at least three of us stopped using it all together unless it's a day she's not there. Not worth the stress.

Then someone is being a smart ass because there have been so many jugs in the walkway you can barely get through.

It's a confidence booster to know you can be fired over water. Which I now REALLY want to point out is actually a biosafety violation because there is no real separation between the offices and the lab (we're upstairs and it's downstairs but since its BSL2 we shouldn't have anything food or drink wise in that area of the building)

She did say if I want a 4 on my review in safety I have to identify and solve issues that went unnoticed. I am just doing what she said😇