How to cope with bad work situation?

[brewer12345]

Well, I found out that the bad manager is thinking about sending the primary bad actor (and his main @ss suction provider) with me on a lengthy trip, with the intention of allowing this creature to sponge off a relationship I have carefully built at great effort. Thinking about refusing the trip.

OTOH, my buddy and I were talking to the uber boss about technical issues yesterday and megaboss (who I really like, although I wish he would take more of a hand in things) asked for a document I have been trying to get to for 3 weeks. When I explained that getting sent to multiple mandatory (and complete waste of time) trainings plus very heavy demand for my services mean there are no more hours in the day, he looked thoughtful and then afterwards went looking for my bad boss and the layer between bad and uber. Naturally bad manager had left early (because he felt like it), so uber ended up talking to the other guy for a good 30 min. There are lots of ways this could turn out badly, but I cannot help see a glimmer of hope that the message is getting through.

I also decided to up the ante. I left a copy of my resume on my desk, partially covered by a pad of paper.

[RonBoyd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brewer12345 I also decided to up the ante. I left a copy of my resume on my desk, partially covered by a pad of paper.

Perfect!

(And to think you once accused me of being passive-aggressive.)

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Just listening in here, but is there some risk in dropping hints about your portability?

I have seen people do that with the result that they get discounted even farther than they already were ("screw it, he' planning on leaving anyway"). The seriously mistreated but competent people take their time recognizing that the situation is hopeless, keep their heads down, do their background work, then just give notice and leave with little room for negotation at that point.

But I realize every organization has its own culture.

[CuppaJoe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brewer12345 ....Any tips for coping? I am trying to just keep my head down and stay engrossed in what I am doing, but the urge to add rat poison to some's drink or bludgeon them with a chair is rapidly increasing.

Sorry to hear about this, Brewer. I have no good tips but it reminds me of the happy day "bad employee" moved out with her two bosses. I was too engrossed in my work to get up and say "ba-bye."

For a couple of years "bad employee" was the talk of the office; people would stop me on the street to vent. I tried humor for awhile and got another employee involved in a covert joke that I'm sure "bad employee" never noticed but to a point it helped relieve the stress. Someone once poured some kind of dust on her desk to drive away the evil spirits. I actually discussed it with her boss who said, "of course, she is {bad at her *****."

On the day of the Christmas lunch one of the bosses got a big grin on his face, couldn't control it, "second bad employee" had given notice. On New Year's Eve the security guard(!) stopped me to show me that she had signed her stuff out of the building. She made so many people happy by leaving.

One of the former employees there added salt to the wounds by keeping in touch with both bad employees and making a point of telling us where they are now; one moved to another city and the other went rural, no place is safe from these creatures.

[RunningBum]

Sometimes there is justice. I had a boss once who was really bad. Nothing illegal and nothing you could take to HR, but it really sucked to work for him, I won't bother listing why. A lot of people transferred out to a peer manager's group. Those of us who stayed untilt he project finally ended after about 5 years wore it as a badge of honor that we lasted it out.

About 3 years later, I left megacorp. Then megacorp did some layoffs, and I heard that the boss had been let go. A couple months later, my boss in my current job showed me a resume and asked if I knew the guy, since the background looked similar. I looked at the name and dropped the paper, yelled, and made a cross with my fingers. I did reconsider for a moment to make sure it wasn't just something personal, but thinking about all of the others who felt the same way, I told him the resume needed to be black flagged, and I'd be glad to tell anyone why.

[brewer12345]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rich_in_Tampa Just listening in here, but is there some risk in dropping hints about your portability? I have seen people do that with the result that they get discounted even farther than they already were ("screw it, he' planning on leaving anyway"). The seriously mistreated but competent people take their time recognizing that the situation is hopeless, keep their heads down, do their background work, then just give notice and leave with little room for negotation at that point. But I realize every organization has its own culture.

In a normal organization, I would not dream of doing this. But here, well, not only is it an ossified culture that takes years (literally) to get rid of someone, but currently I am one of the highest performers in the department and the uber boss is quite well aware of how much he needs me.

[Bestwifeever]

I tend to worry a lot (everyone needs a hobby) so watch out that any mud that gets thrown later doesn't stick to you (e.g., "well, Brewer knew it was going on, he documented it all and didn't do anything about it," "Brewer is guilty of harrassment too because he was there and didn't do anything about it," etc.). It sounds like you're protecting yourself from that but I would definitely get active on getting out of there.

[Moemg]

Years ago I had a bad boss and bad co boss well we always gave Christmas presents to our bosses but nobody wanted to contribute for these two . It finally got to the day of our Christmas party and we decided to buy poinsettias for them . Well we were at the party having a few drinks when they opened the foil surrounding their plants and the pointsettias's were dead. Everybody started laughing and one nurse actually spit out her drink and no one offered to replace them . Talk about karma !

[Helios]

How about a gentle nudging of the hiring managers who want you?

All positions start with a need, real or perceived.
If you can plant that seed in a positive manner, you are moved.

[wildcat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mews ok, no rat poison. Roaches in the desk? Bedbugs in the chair? ta, mew

You can just do what I do when they are away from their desk for a min

Ctrl + Alt + arrow keys to turn their PC screen upside down

Then, with our open office environment, you get to hear their bewilderment and subsequent call to the IT desk

[oldtrig]

I have been there. There is no fix in most cases, except medicine. Life is to short to put up with b--sh--. My blood pressure stayed high when I was in your situation. I took prozac, it worked for me. After I was on it for three months I could care less about most anything I never got upset about anything. Not sure if that was good or not but it worked for mr. All turned out good for me. oldtrig

[hguyw]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildcat Ctrl + Alt + arrow keys to turn their PC screen upside down

Holy cow! It works! You can turn it sideways too!

(Sorry. I never knew you could do that! See how useful this forum is?)

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hguyw Holy cow! It works! You can turn it sideways too! (Sorry. I never knew you could do that! See how useful this forum is?)

I found out by doing it by ACCIDENT. I had to get on the internet on that same computer and do a search to try to find out what I did, and how to undo it.

Reading upside down has never been one of my best skills!

[kumquat]

Didn't work for me. Just shrank the text so I can't see what I'm typing. Hope I can reverse it

[MichaelB]

A business culture that accepts disrespectful behaviour actually encourages it. Senior management has already voted on what matters. This is not likely to change unless top management changes. Uber-importance will not always prevail where a strong management culture exists, the management instinct of self-preservation is a powerful force.

Documentation will not help deal with a de-motivating workplace. The only real option there is to find greener pastures – and not discuss with anyone at work for any reason.

[target2019]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brewer12345 I also decided to up the ante. I left a copy of my resume on my desk, partially covered by a pad of paper.

Print it, and leave in the printer. That will cause some talk.

[Westernskies]

Quote:

Originally Posted by target2019 Print it, and leave in the printer. That will cause some talk.

...throw them a red herring- make sure the copy left in the printer has a highly inflated salary history...

[DangerMouse]

If it wasn't for the bad boss would you want to remain in your current position? For me that would determine my course of action. If it is your dream job and you would like to stay there until you FIRE your actions need to be different from what they would be if you would be happy to move on. Whatever you do, keep records of his behaviour. Record notes in a diary, keep copies of inappropriate instructions, CYA at all times. Probably the thing that will get most notice is if you are unable to make deadlines due to this bozos actions. However, that could have a backlash with a bad review.

[Maurice]

This won't really fix the situation but it might make you feel better.


The Annoy-a-tron:

ThinkGeek :: The ThinkGeek Annoy-a-tron

[freebird5825]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brewer12345 I also decided to up the ante. I left a copy of my resume on my desk, partially covered by a pad of paper.

Are we related?

2 years before I FIREd, I actually put in a request to get official time to take a civil service exam.
I was a GS-13 Engineer w*rking for a 3 letter agency and really desperate for a change.
So I politely informed my predator supervisor that federal regulation blah-de-blah granted me the right to request administrative time (not annual) and mileage allowance to travel to any other agency's civil service exam.

The other agency? The United States Post Office

And she had no choice but to sign the request AND the mileage reimbursement paperw*rk to boot.

Hope I made ya smile.

PS The USPS supervisor's job never materialized, but they didn't know that.