I am a team leader in an office with eight female and one male staff member. I did not grow up in this team, but I was hired from outside as a team leader. My predecessor was so careless that over time his colleagues took a lot of liberties: Visits to the doctor and coffee during working hours, or shifting his own working hours to suit his personal needs, leaving out uncomfortable work, to name just a few examples. From the beginning, I was observed with skepticism. Later, a colleague confided in me that the employees were afraid that I would reduce the "freedoms" acquired in the daily work. This is, of course, what happened.

While in the beginning my colleagues were still polite and sometimes friendly to me, this changed...