RE: What Would You Do with a Writer WHO TRIES TO GET YOU FIRED? (WAS: What Would You Do with a Writer Who Can't Write?

["Dan Glovier" <dglovier -at- edline -dot- com>]

Steve sed:

<some background stuff snipped>

> When I could tolerate it no
> longer,
> I simply forwarded the last snippy reply to our manager, with a
request
> for
> him to "take care of this, please."

Good call. It's always a good idea to involve management and go through
the proper channels when things get to this point.

> Case closed? - wrong! To my surprise, next I know, I am called in for
a
> one-on-one with the manager, who to my disbelief is projecting the
entire
> situation on ME. When I protested that I was not the one who had the
> attitude (did not send the unprofessional emails), I was yelled at,
had a
> finger wagged in my face, etc.
> I have NO IDEA where this displaced loyalty/protectionist attitude on
the
> part of the manager comes from.

As soon as this hit the table, I would have gone a bit more on the
offensive. 

I would have referred to my previous evaluations and asked where in the
evaluations it said my work was less than satisfactory (I'm assuming
your evaluations are top-notch). I would have asked my manager if he
currently thought that my work was lacking, and if he thought I was
coasting to retirement. 

In other words, I would have eliminated "Bozo" from the discussion ASAP.


Why? Because now my work is the focus of the discussion and not "Bozo's"
attitude. If your manager pointed to something, then it sounds like he's
either buying into Bozo's propaganda or there's an issue. Either way, it
needs to be addressed immediately. 

I'll discuss personality conflicts and work through those. I will not
tolerate my work being disparaged for no reason. 

The other neat thing about discussing your competency is that this can
be a more concrete discussion. Ask him where you missed deadlines,
caused errors, and basically were a detriment. You should also bring up
your positive points as well (changes you've made, any "hero" scenarios,
etc.). 

Your work should be a touchstone that is never questioned, and to let it
sit there only lets it bubble and cure. This should not happen.

Once this whole "competent" issue is cleared up, THEN you can move
forward with the personality issues. Plus, all future attacks on you
will be met with disbelief, shooting them down before they can take
root. This will also diminish what "Bozo" says in the light of your
manager.

> so of course I escalated the issue to upper
> mgmt, since the problem was now between my manager and me. Long story
> short,
> I was fed the typical mgmt line ("you obviously have a chip on your
> shoulder", "you've got to figure out some way to get along" etc.).

Another step I would have taken. I would have also...

> documented everything (and reported it to HR).

There it is! :)

I'm not there, I have no idea what's going on outside of what you've
told us, but from what I've seen it sounds like someone is indeed trying
to chop out your roots and move in. 

As I said earlier, you followed all of the "personality conflict" steps
perfectly. However, I think you should have been a bit more aggressive
in the defense of your work with your boss. 

Good luck!
Dan Glovier



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