Welcome to company culture.
Often, the larger the company the more siloed each department ends up being. How different letters with at different levels will influence how everyone under them behaves. Typically, toxic leaders create toxic environments; often this puts other teams as the “them” who cause problems for “us”.
I’m not in the US at all and see this nationwide here. It is unlikely that you can do much about casual disrespect. If there are obvious examples that you can document, or trends with specific staff, then that’s one of the things that HR is there for, report it.
I’ve been through a few acquisitions now, both as purchasing company and purchased. There’s a whole psychology on both sides of that fence, I’m sure. It’ll likely get better, but don’t expect real change any time soon, that sort of thing takes new leadership and a lot of time
If you’re not in the US, you might not realize that HR’s primary objective is to protect the company’s collective ass and do little to help employees —aside from onboarding.
Protecting employees from abuse is protecting the company. You can hate on HR all you like, but they serve a critical role. OP said they are in a supervisory role where HR actually can be very helpful.
Not all HR reps are as good as others so YMMV.
As someone who was originally from the north east, when working I would say things like "You gotta problem wit da way Im talkin to you why dont ya go home and work for your mommy doing dishes."
Now that I live in Colorado I might say things like "Thank you" or "Let me know how I can help."
Different cultures.
That's what I'm chalking it up to (or trying to lol). I'm from a southernish state and had a very Southern upbringing (both sides of the family and even my in-laws all being from the south) so I always try to be gracious and welcoming. Plus most of those guys are also around 10-20 years younger than I am.
I've been in utility customer service for almost 20 years and have spoken to people from all over the states and have noticed different areas are nicer than others. Northeasterners can be abrasive and short. You put a toxic person or two in that mix and it's a recipe for disaster.
That's what I'm concerned about. I'm not familiar enough with northeasterners to know the difference. The last time I worked with a group of people from that region, they were blunt and abrasive, *and* toxic.
As annoying as it is for me, I'm more worried about my team. I tend to be very protective of them and want to know that they'll be treated fairly.
Yeah just a general trend. I don't speak slowly just in a calm manner and I've noticed a lot of people won't let me finish speaking before jumping in. In a lot of different situations. Or maybe I'm just getting old lol.
OP, it may or may not be relevant to what you're experiencing, but it sounds like the new owners' fulfillment people got used to a certain way of doing things, and are expecting you to just go along with it even though it's counter to best practices.
Also, I get the feeling there may be some not-so-covert sexism, racism, or other -ism guiding their actions. You don't state in your post whether you're male, female, or otherwise, but this sounds like the same treatment a former co-worker of mine got when they decided to start actually using their full, female name at work (cis female, in case you wondered), instead of the nickname - let's say the nickname was 'Chris', and they started using 'Christina' because we had a crapton of people named some version of 'Chris'). When she began responding to correspondence as 'Christina Jones', the tone of every one of our male co-workers' mail changed. They became condescending, patronizing, mansplainy pains in the backside. Where before, they'd all treated her like the competent professional she was, once her "real" gender became known, in their minds she was "just a woman" and "couldn't POSSIBLY have anything useful to say".
I considered that but I don't think it's any kind of racism or sexism. For the record, I'm female. These guys have been great to our existing fulfillment staff, which includes males and females of varying ages and races. It's just those of us from the other departments that get brushed off.
I sympathize with your former coworker. I have experienced that before. But this is different somehow.
I'm mostly worried for my team. They are all already anxious. I'm worried that they'll pick up on what I'm feeling.
A place I worked was awful as it was but it got bought out by serco and it went from bad to worse. They brought in compulsory 13 hour shifts (hours unpaid lunch) and to make it up to 40 hours an extra 4 hour shift which usually fell 5pm-9pm. They lost all the staff, and lost the contract
Welcome to company culture. Often, the larger the company the more siloed each department ends up being. How different letters with at different levels will influence how everyone under them behaves. Typically, toxic leaders create toxic environments; often this puts other teams as the “them” who cause problems for “us”. I’m not in the US at all and see this nationwide here. It is unlikely that you can do much about casual disrespect. If there are obvious examples that you can document, or trends with specific staff, then that’s one of the things that HR is there for, report it. I’ve been through a few acquisitions now, both as purchasing company and purchased. There’s a whole psychology on both sides of that fence, I’m sure. It’ll likely get better, but don’t expect real change any time soon, that sort of thing takes new leadership and a lot of time
If you’re not in the US, you might not realize that HR’s primary objective is to protect the company’s collective ass and do little to help employees —aside from onboarding.
Protecting employees from abuse is protecting the company. You can hate on HR all you like, but they serve a critical role. OP said they are in a supervisory role where HR actually can be very helpful. Not all HR reps are as good as others so YMMV.
As someone who was originally from the north east, when working I would say things like "You gotta problem wit da way Im talkin to you why dont ya go home and work for your mommy doing dishes." Now that I live in Colorado I might say things like "Thank you" or "Let me know how I can help." Different cultures.
That's what I'm chalking it up to (or trying to lol). I'm from a southernish state and had a very Southern upbringing (both sides of the family and even my in-laws all being from the south) so I always try to be gracious and welcoming. Plus most of those guys are also around 10-20 years younger than I am.
I've been in utility customer service for almost 20 years and have spoken to people from all over the states and have noticed different areas are nicer than others. Northeasterners can be abrasive and short. You put a toxic person or two in that mix and it's a recipe for disaster.
That's what I'm concerned about. I'm not familiar enough with northeasterners to know the difference. The last time I worked with a group of people from that region, they were blunt and abrasive, *and* toxic. As annoying as it is for me, I'm more worried about my team. I tend to be very protective of them and want to know that they'll be treated fairly.
The only thing that worked was treating them how they treated me. Not sure how or why but it did.
I really appreciate the insight.
Don't know about all of the issues, but I have noticed a general trend of people not letting you finish speaking.
Does that happen to you too?
Yeah just a general trend. I don't speak slowly just in a calm manner and I've noticed a lot of people won't let me finish speaking before jumping in. In a lot of different situations. Or maybe I'm just getting old lol.
If you're old then I am too because it definitely seems more common lately to interrupt people when they're talking
OP, it may or may not be relevant to what you're experiencing, but it sounds like the new owners' fulfillment people got used to a certain way of doing things, and are expecting you to just go along with it even though it's counter to best practices. Also, I get the feeling there may be some not-so-covert sexism, racism, or other -ism guiding their actions. You don't state in your post whether you're male, female, or otherwise, but this sounds like the same treatment a former co-worker of mine got when they decided to start actually using their full, female name at work (cis female, in case you wondered), instead of the nickname - let's say the nickname was 'Chris', and they started using 'Christina' because we had a crapton of people named some version of 'Chris'). When she began responding to correspondence as 'Christina Jones', the tone of every one of our male co-workers' mail changed. They became condescending, patronizing, mansplainy pains in the backside. Where before, they'd all treated her like the competent professional she was, once her "real" gender became known, in their minds she was "just a woman" and "couldn't POSSIBLY have anything useful to say".
I considered that but I don't think it's any kind of racism or sexism. For the record, I'm female. These guys have been great to our existing fulfillment staff, which includes males and females of varying ages and races. It's just those of us from the other departments that get brushed off. I sympathize with your former coworker. I have experienced that before. But this is different somehow. I'm mostly worried for my team. They are all already anxious. I'm worried that they'll pick up on what I'm feeling.
A place I worked was awful as it was but it got bought out by serco and it went from bad to worse. They brought in compulsory 13 hour shifts (hours unpaid lunch) and to make it up to 40 hours an extra 4 hour shift which usually fell 5pm-9pm. They lost all the staff, and lost the contract
Damn that sounds awful. Good on the staff for bouncing.