What's Wrong with Work?: The 5 Frustrations of Work and How to Fix them for Good

Chapter 3. Frustration 3: Blurred Vision

I've been meeting members of the finance team at a medium-sized business in the City of London for most of the day. I have sat in on team briefings, talked to team members one-to-one and heard from the manager about some of the performance problems she has been noticing.

A few people have mentioned that team work seems to be breaking down. Some say that they aren't sure what their job is and expectations of them seem to change daily. Others say there are tensions between the newer members of the team and the longer-serving ones. One or two say it used to be much more enjoyable when the company was smaller and less well-established. Others say they don't know what is going on and wonder if the people at the top do. One member of the team is feeling particularly hard done by and confides that she is probably going to leave because she finds the work boring and repetitive. This is all the more disheartening because she thought she was joining a vibrant company on the growth curve and was promised opportunities to be part of the success of the business. Lots of minor but grating annoyances are mentioned to me – problems with communication, problems with the online database, problems with specific team members, problems with staff in other teams, unrealistic targets, lack of understanding by "the management" about the pressure everyone is under, long hours. I am filling up my notepad with grievances.

The manager takes all of these complaints seriously ...