God damn office politics

Emp_Fab

randella said:

Emp_Fab said:

Just be honest with her...  point out that her boss asked you to do something and obviously you did as you were asked.  Ask her what else would she have had you do ?  Question her bosses instructions by running it past her first ?  Tell her that the real issue is not you not consulting with her but why her boss didn't go through her to pass the instruction to you.

True though it may be, I'd frame it a bit more delicately than that. 

Quite a bit more delicately, in fact. 

I'd also probably miss out the bit where you imply she's shit because her boss skipped her out.

Well, that's the jist of it - I'm sure he could tailor it to suit her personality.

Alternatively, he could just make the 'L' sign on his forehead before punching her in the foof.  I'm sure he'll know what's best.

VimFuego

it's things like this that make me think firearms should be allowed in the workplace, hell they should be compulsory. 

capo4th

prowla said:

capo4th said:

prowla said:

The management in my company is like a sack of frogs.

Two people have a private conversation and expect everybody else to know their decision, whether it's been communicated via an "as you know" mail, or just not at all; unfortunately, my telepathy gene is deficient.

A couple of months back they sacked both of the other people doing a similar role to me and then when something went wrong started tellng 3rd parties across the world to talk to me.

As a result, I decided to quit and gave them 2 months notice (I was only contracted to 1 month, but didn't want to leave them completely without a paddle). They asked me to stick around to carry through a project, so I agreed to stay there a couple of months longer.

The latest trick is the Christmas meal this week; it's in another town 16 miles away, so the communique went out:
"For those of you coming into the office initially, we will be providing transport at 10.30am from the office.  However if you wish to make your own way to Thames Tower independently we will not be reimbursing travel or car parking costs.
We are envisaging that the lunch will finish at approximately  4pm, if you would like transport back to the office at 4pm, please can you let me know by 6th December.  If there is enough I will organise a taxi/mini bus back.  For those of you wishing to party on, we will do what we have done in previous years, which is to make your own way back, by taxi or public transport we will reimburse the taxi or fare home"
So, my choices are:

• a. If I want to have a drink with the meal (and in the bar before) then I have to get a taxi home and then figure out how to get to the office next day (there isn't direct public transport).
• b. If I want to drive home then I can't have a drink and have to get a coach back to the office.
• c. I pay my transport to go to the meal.
• d. Or I just skip it (I'd rather spend my time & money otherwise and I'm going out for another meal the day after and am entertaining over the weekend).
• (The company is also paying for folks to stay overnight and flying a number from other offices.)
  

The above is fairly indicative of the way things are run.

This would be normal practice in most companies.

Why should your firm transport your ass round the countryside?

Fair question...

Everywhere I've worked has covered transport if it is a distance from the normal place of work.

In this instance, they're flying folks in from elsewhere, will provide transport home (if you go out and get drunk), and will put some people up overnight, all paid for (including being transported around the countryside), so it's really only the people who want sleep in their own beds who are excluded.

There's also a meeting beforehand, so it's pretty much a full day's work in another town, with a couple of hours wasted getting from A to B.

All a bit of a faff, really.

I am sure if you highlight the fact that you are being discriminated against you will be able to submit your Uber receipt

Norwegian_Blue

What kind of pickups does a Personae have? Not come across them before! 

57Deluxe

when I worked at IBM I would come in each morning to between 240-400 emails daily - all requesting me to advise them on what I was going to implement from their proposals!

I was impossible and coupled to the fact that we had to use Lotus Notes utilising all the complex group user functions ...

Jeez... so glad I don't have more than half a dozen Licklibrary daily these days!

MattBanshee

I go over my line manager's head all the time, mainly because he's an arse, but his manager is really great.

In your situation, I would go over your manager's head and complain about your manager complaining about your going over their head. Maybe they'll be told to butt out.

DefaultM

If you send it to him first then he can send it on himself and pretend he was a part of it, or even that he did the work himself.

This happened to me in one of my old teams. I spent a few weeks on a piece of work for central management. My direct manager asked me to send it over for proof reading, at which point he told me it was really good. Next thing I know he's sent it to central management himself with no mention of me, saying that it was something he put together.

I put a complaint in and it didn't go well. They just said I would have got the credit in other ways eventually. I'm not sure how though when he'd sorted it so that no one had a clue I'd done the work.

MattBanshee

DefaultM said:

If you send it to him first then he can send it on himself and pretend he was a part of it, or even that he did the work himself.

This happened to me in one of my old teams. I spent a few weeks on a piece of work for central management. My direct manager asked me to send it over for proof reading, at which point he told me it was really good. Next thing I know he's sent it to central management himself with no mention of me, saying that it was something he put together.

I put a complaint in and it didn't go well. They just said I would have got the credit in other ways eventually. I'm not sure how though when he'd sorted it so that no one had a clue I'd done the work.

I've had this happen before; spent hours on a report for one of the senior managers (a direct instruction from them), and my line manager instructed me to send it to him first for "proof reading" and that he would then forward it on. I converted it to PDF first, with my name in the footers, and then sent it to him.

Chalky

OP should have done the job but cc'd his boss. That's just the way the game works.  If you don't like the game, go play something else - like being self-employed...

Emp_Fab

@prowla Eeeee... bloody luxury.   My company's idea of a Christmas party is to expect all non-head-office staff to make their own way to the party in their own time (ie you can't drive during working hours), at their own expense (ie for company car drivers it will be charged as private mileage).  They won't pay for the required overnight stay (it's a four hour drive for me)... AND they charge you to get into the party!!  This year I think it's a tenner and you get the meal and a voucher for one drink. 

They may as well send us all Christmas cards dipped in shit with "Fuck Off" inside. 

They made over £40M clear profit last year too.

randella

Chalky said:

OP should have done the job but cc'd his boss. That's just the way the game works.  If you don't like the game, go play something else - like being self-employed...

Depends on the boss. If I cc'd my manager with every piddling little job I did outside of major project work, she'd rapidly get pissed off. I give her a précis every couple of months, and I'm given enough responsibility that she has only a very high-level overview of what I'm up to. 

I know the expectations of my job and the level, amount, and type of service I'm paid to provide. It's up to me to juggle it all, and this is the bit that gives me the conundrum. I like the freedom but don't get paid enough for the responsibility. Elsewhere I'd get better pay but all the responsibility would evaporate and I'd be back to code monkey unless I wanted to move into management. 

Managing stuff, I'm good at. Managing people is something I've never tried and really don't fancy. 

Bridgehouse

My office party was shit this year. 

I had to organise it and pay for the whole bloody thing. Nobody else bothered to turn up. The boss got drunk and tried to shag my missus, failed, and was sick on my bed. I had to clean it up.

You should have seen the emails going round the next day tho...

LuttiS

My office party was kind of awkward this year... It was on the day in snowed, many staff got snowed in or other excuses, but out of 50ish staff, 8 people turned up...
There was much leftover food. 

Jez6345789

 I hear the rebellious cackles in this thread.
and frankly left that all behind when I hit 40 and said no more.

all that said you were flattered the big cheese asked you to provide him something directly so imparting recognition and status on you.


As you are part of the Team expectation is if any of the names you put forward fall under her remit you are effectively allocating her resources, disregarding anything she might have planned or been asked to provide.

obvious golden rule you always cc key people in. to save everyone’s ego you start the email hi Mr CIO here is the list you asked for.

cc in your line manager.

Back in the day I would of asked the same of you as she did.

Not out of petty mindedness or that I was ever weak or vulnerable just if I lead the team it is courtesy to make me aware of potential changes.

if your are playing that game you play by those rules silly time wasting but the rules of corporate life.

prowla

Emp_Fab said:

@prowla Eeeee... bloody luxury.   My company's idea of a Christmas party is to expect all non-head-office staff to make their own way to the party in their own time (ie you can't drive during working hours), at their own expense (ie for company car drivers it will be charged as private mileage).  They won't pay for the required overnight stay (it's a four hour drive for me)... AND they charge you to get into the party!!  This year I think it's a tenner and you get the meal and a voucher for one drink. 

They may as well send us all Christmas cards dipped in shit with "Fuck Off" inside. 

They made over £40M clear profit last year too.

That did make me chuckle. :-)

I'm going to give mine a miss; everything that I would be doing on the wasted day I'd just have to pick up otherwise, so I'll just use the time instead.

maltingsaudio

I feel sorry for you corporate lot and envious at the same time. You have to put up with the office politics crap because your company pays you regular money to do so. 

fields5069

Emp_Fab said:

@prowla Eeeee... bloody luxury.   My company's idea of a Christmas party is to expect all non-head-office staff to make their own way to the party in their own time (ie you can't drive during working hours), at their own expense (ie for company car drivers it will be charged as private mileage).  They won't pay for the required overnight stay (it's a four hour drive for me)... AND they charge you to get into the party!!  This year I think it's a tenner and you get the meal and a voucher for one drink. 

They may as well send us all Christmas cards dipped in shit with "Fuck Off" inside. 

They made over £40M clear profit last year too.

That sounds pretty bad. My company has got better in some ways. Christmas parties have become more local, but hotel stays for the local half of the team are back on.

In previous years our parties have alternated between Bristol-area and North London. One year they had it in Bath Racecourse, with no overnight stay for "locals". I'm from Newport, so I just didn't go. I used to hate the big affairs anyway, with the absolutely crass sexual nature of the "entertainment".

fields5069

maltingsaudio said:

I feel sorry for you corporate lot and envious at the same time. You have to put up with the office politics crap because your company pays you regular money to do so. 

I'd put up with it if they were rewarding me handsomely. I've just applied for something with lots of travel and stress, but for 25k more it'll likely be worth it.

Legionreturns

maltingsaudio said:

I feel sorry for you corporate lot and envious at the same time. You have to put up with the office politics crap because your company pays you regular money to do so. 

Indeed. I may not have to put up with this sort of bollocks in my line of work, but I get verbally abused, kicked, punched, bitten and scratched on a regular basis for little more than minimum wage. (And that's just the weekly staff meeting ) 

chillidoggy

We gave up having a works party many years ago. There were more retired staff turning up with their spouses unannounced than those who actually worked for the Company.