Even after retirement the dread of going into work on Monday still haunts me; why is working life often so unpleasant?

This morning I find myself thinking that I do not miss the dread I used to feel going into work on a Monday morning. On any morning really but especially Monday. It seems to me that it need not have been like that, and I think I have known that for a very long time.

Why did I dread going into work? There are many reasons but my employer was by some margin the biggest. He was the biggest lots of things, all of which would be considered derogatory and some even profane. He was a despicable man with all of those revolting alpha-male traits: aggressive, arrogant, selfish and remarkably stupid. It is nearly three years since retirement brought relief from the impenetrable wall of ignorance and ineptitude he built around himself, and which seemed to exist invisibly in our workplace 300 miles away, like some science-fiction neuro-control ray. Even if he was on holiday in Thailand we could still feel its effect.

I learned from the beginning of my professional career that such people are common, not just in the private sector but in the public sector too. It did not take me long to learn through experience and observation that a great many ‘managers’ were charlatans, and actually very poor at management. Not only that, but they would blame their ineptitude on the workforce, or at least on the weakest or most vulnerable in the workforce. At times, divide and rule and humiliating individuals seemed to be the only tools in their managerial pencil-case. It is not good to be bad at your job but, in my book, it is far worse to blame your failings on others, over whom you have the power of demotion, docking pay, sacking or other profane forms of punishment. No wonder so many managers are also sexual predators.

I have known good managers in my time – in the voluntary, private and public sectors. Sometimes they are good managers constrained by an overwhelming bureaucracy of idiots, whether this is a Board of Directors, Board of Trustees, politicians, advisory committees or any other of the multitude of bodies who sit around very large tables, consume large quantities of free food and alcohol and wallow in their own self-importance.

I am being unkind. I was a Director myself for three years and I would not level those criticisms at myself. However, let’s be honest – I did enjoy the free food at meetings and conferences. And of course there are good and decent politicians and trustees who want to ensure that things get done and that workers are properly trained, supported, encouraged and rewarded.

One of the most obvious failings of management in my experience was in recruitment. I learned that most managers are lightning conductors – with almost any task they will take the shortest and easiest route that involves the least amount of effort on their part. I have witnessed so many workers recruited in a haphazard manner and who, as a result, sometimes fail at their jobs. Their lives are miserable and they are perceived by those same managers to be slackers or incompetent or worse. Hang on a minute – it was you that recruited them! It was your ‘process’ that was so inept it picked the wrong person. And yet the worker gets the blame. Worse still, one or two of their co-workers will blame them too, which I find particularly unforgivable. Divide and rule really works.

Like everyone else I can only go by my experience, and this is mine. Your experience may be different. You may even have been lucky enough to not only have a job you enjoyed immensely – and were good at – and had a manager or Board of Directors who supported you, respected you, listened to your ideas and did not put artificial impediments in your way at every turn.

In my professional career I can truly say that there were only about 10 years or so where I found something I was good at and was encouraged – or just left alone – to get on with it. I enjoyed those years. However, the last seven years of my professional life were hell, and I am still suffering from that experience now. Or at least I was until today; I think having a rant means I can put it behind me now.

Newton Abbot, Monday 10th February 2025, 10:51, 4ºC, grey sky, light to moderate breeze, dry.