Hi all! I work in a small function within a larger company. Our team is informal - people provide updates regarding their babies, vacations, dinners out, etc. in the team WeChat, send memes during monthly function-wide Teams meetings, and “reply all” emails congratulating colleagues in response to function-wide emails. My line manager and all of my colleagues are located outside of my country, so all of my interactions with them are digital.
I have received positive reviews and a performance based bonus, with the only things my boss cited being my tendency to work outside of office hours and the sense that I “felt pressured” to respond to people in our WeChat, specifically, outside of working hours - neither of which were marked as performance issues, but just “you’re doing well, don’t put so much pressure on yourself” feedback.
Recently, there has been some tension on our team, as 15% of the team has been laid off over the past 6 months. There was also a sudden reallocation of roles that, while nobody was let go, caused some frustration among the impacted colleagues. I am actively interviewing with other companies while carrying on as usual.
On Monday, a colleague of mine sent a function-wide email announcing some “wins” she had made during the past quarter. I replied all, as I’ve seen other employees do, with “excellent work and results [name]!” Within the hour, I received this email from my line manager:
“I want to be direct, as this situation is becoming disruptive for the team. I understand your intention to engage through comments and replies, it is creating visible frustration among some team members and contributing to unnecessary tension.
To help improve the dynamic, please avoid using “reply all” in communications and respond directly to individuals where appropriate.
Thank you for taking this feedback.
“
It was a bit shocking to me, as this has never been cited as a problem before and is something that I’ve seen other employees do, as well - with less professional/vanilla statements than my own. It was also frustrating because I have more metrics and feedback that I’ve been seeking out from my leadership, and find that this feedback is frankly nit picking in comparison. I feel targeted.
Of course I’m not going to question her direction - I only sent these communications to look like a team player, and honestly couldn’t care less - but am I crazy for feeling insanely weird about this?