The Manager Who Should Not Be

[kizayaen.livejournal.com]

(The Continuing Adventures of the New Manager)

On Mondays mornings we have our weekly team meetings, today being the first since the changeover to the new manager. She of course felt obligated to attend and introduce herself formally.

I had to try very hard not to laugh at her outright when she explained how her management style, which she has been using for over twenty years now, was to treat people like mature adults and to not micromanage, and that we'd probably never hear from her as long as we do our jobs.

I was sorely tempted to point out that my wife once was on the phone with HR; the manager in question assumed that the call was in regards to her, and began efforts to get my wife fired the very next day.

I was further tempted to point out that sending out deskwide warnings on a trifling issue is not exactly an indicator that you tend to treat people professionally or as mature adults.

Last of all, I've been itching to say, "Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!" all day now. At the meeting, I was trying to decide whether to point at the manager and scream it in hysterics... or whether to instead yell, "Ia! Ia! Chrystal fhtagn!" and then run out of the room, climb in my car, and go home. Somehow I managed not to do either, and instead just calmly sipped my Mountain Dew then went to my desk to settle in and do some work.

But resumes are going out. Oh yes, my friends, resumes are going out. I cannot describe the horror which would befall me if they weren't. (But it would glow with a sickly green glow, I'm sure...)

x-post to kizayaen

Comments

[hisamishness.livejournal.com]

lost your email - drop me a line and I'll point you to our hiring website and inquire internally.

[kizayaen.livejournal.com]

[my lj name] at gmail dot com

[duality.livejournal.com]

you'll be amused to note that on the other side of the wall here we had to have a meeting about how it's not ok to put "asked [coworker] for assistance and was told that they don't get paid to be a senior analyst" in casenotes. i'm not sure what's worse, the fact that some nitwit over here thinks that we actually get better pay for more responsibility, or that another nitwit put in the case notes (which our client can -see-) that someone else is not willing to do their job.

then there's the long conversation during the meeting about which venues is ok to let people know someone's not doing their job, followed by the side rant about one person being paranoid that others are going to have personal vendettas against her.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Why are they paranoid about people having personal vendettas? Don't they think they can handle any problems which arise?

Yeesh. I'm pretty sure there were at least a couple of people who had vendettas against me at various points, but it's not as if they were competent enough to make any kind of impact. Well, except one, and that was back when I was young and naive and thought that deep down, everyone was nice. And it was more that he was bored, in a position of power, and liked abusing it.

(And in the end, he still didn't manage to have any major effect. Loser. I prefer my self-appointed nemeses to actually be able to appear on my radar, y'know?)

[kayfox.livejournal.com]

Maybe its because the industry is full of backstabbing? (Personal experience, mind you)

[duality.livejournal.com]

i'm not sure except for the fact that the one that was suggesting the possibility i can -totally- see as doing such a thing herself.

[jecook]

::facepalm::

Best of luck, and I hope you land something before the fecal matter impacts the air movement device.

[duality.livejournal.com]

double trouble is if anything really impacts the air movement device it is going to end up getting both of us. there's not much way around it considering for the most part kiz is like Job compared to me around here, but then i've been putting up with the crap here for 5 years now. they've been snipping at my fuse.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

I had a manager like that. I started keeping a log diary of EVERY interaction, good and bad, and my thoughts and reactions.

In my case, I left it in a desk drawer with some personal papers where she shouldn't ever be. I was reassigned the next week.

In your exit interview, I advise you to take your version to HR with the phrase "hostile working environment." Start with "Day one, entire department threatened because one person screwed up."

Use as many actual quotes as you can.

[jecook]

Ouch.

That's extremely evil.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

You say "Potato" I say "Well, that IS actually the reason he's planning on leaving!"

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of one manager I had who used to send humungous amounts of not-terribly-nice popups. I screenshot them and saved them on my personal drive. The manager found them. My only response was "Well, that was stupid. Now you've not only told me you browse people's personal drives, but inspired me to start putting them somewhere you can't find them."

Not terribly bright, that manager.