I’m caught between the anger of my team and my bosses. For several months, my team have been behind on their targets, because of understaffing in my department and the extremely high targets set by the top. This was worsened by the company founder constantly changing his priorities, misremembering what he agreed to, and cycling through the staff list to closely examine their work output and trying to find fault.

The founder also has a habit of encouraging interdepartmental rivalries, and in any given month he’ll focus his critiques on a particular department in a misguided attempt to motivate them through fear. He has been especially focussed on my team for a few months though because I have been the most vocal about the understaffing problems and budget cuts that have made it harder for us to do our jobs effectively. But he doesn’t see it that way. He claims that we’re just being lazy and making excuses.

As a solution, he’s forcing me to implement a time accountability policy in my department that I completely disagree with. For starters, all the staff in my department now have to clock in and out when they go for lunch, not only at the start/end of the work day. And the company is issuing day sheets to all my staff which they have to use to account for every hour of each day. It is also my responsibility to sign the sheets at the end of each week, and cross reference the details in the sheets with physical work.

I’m in total opposition to this policy as it treats both me and my staff like little children. It has created a lot of drama amongst my team, and it doesn’t solve the underlying issues of budget cuts and understaffing. My team is angry too and rightfully offended, but as I am the one who delivered the news and will be implementing the policy, I can tell that a lot of the resentment is directed at me. Is there a way for me to turn this around?