We got a new manager, recently promoted to managerial grade, but by common agreement at least 2 grades higher then they should be. We had a rather lacklustre inital team meeting and after it I asked them where they wanted to start learning what we did. In response they replied” I`m don`t need to know what you do or how you do it I`m here to manage you”

Now if they had kept out of the day to day running of the office it would have been fine BUT they insisited getting on involved with things they didn`t understand and continued to refuse to try and learn. Not only did this make them look like an idiot but if visitors didn`t know us it made us look like idiots too.

So I struck a blow for our sanity and while this might seem petty it was remarkably effective. Although we could wear uniform, in practice it was better to wear casual clothing. However our manager, desperate to show who was in charge wore uniform which showed their badges of rank. They sat in a small alcove and couldn`t be seen by anyone coming into the office. My desk was in eyesight of anyone coming into the office. So I started wearing a suit. Now if a visitor goes into an office and the people working there are wearing casual clothes or uniform but one person is in a suit, or business clothes, the natural assumption is the suit is in charge.

And so it went, and so much so that the fact visitors came to me started getting under our managers skin. They eventually asked my colleagues why no one came to him. As they were unaware of my actions they could only think that as he was sitting out of sight people didn`t know he was there. When they mentioned it to me I asked “why do you think I started wearing suits. Everyone knows the suit is in charge”. Much laughter ensued, and all my colleagues now knew about my little blow for freedom. Manager never got the joke