Backstabbing At Work

In My Humble Opinion
1

Need some advice on what to do–if anything.

I’m only a month into a professional-level IT job with a growing high-tech company with under 1000 employees. I thought things were going just fine.

Most of my prior employers have had their teams–especially managers–maintain open calendars on the Outlook system. So I checked out my manager’s schedule seeking a time for a technically oriented meeting. Managers–well everyone–should lockout viewing of sensitive meetings on a calendar by setting a “private” flag. In this case my manager who is new to the role, did not.

Under the meeting heading “Potential HR Concern” it was addressed to the HR rep and concerned me.
Here is what it said:
The potential HR issue concerns the new hire, xx. Between now and [day of the week] I’ll try to gather as much information as possible from both the person who originally raised the concern as well as others who are working with xx so we have something to go on.

As one can imagine, reading that was panic inducing. My career has been long, successful, and most uncontroversial.

Being new to the organization, I’ve been on my best behavior, so I’m both befuddled and anxious. After confiding in a very few trusted friends in management elsewhere, we were clear about making the distinction between issues addressed by HR and issues addressed by management. The latter are more work performance related, or minor feedback about stuff like promptness. HR issues are more fact-based, and that’s the scary part. I’ve never harassed anyone, stolen, cheated on time sheets, denigrated other people, nothing even close. At this job or prior.

They had their meeting, I’m still employed. It didn’t come up at the next “check-in” with my manager. If they felt I was a danger to society I imagine I would have been canned.

If I did something wrong I would surely apologize or more.

My concerns:

  • backstabbing is a way of life at this company that I’m just discovering.
  • if I have an enemy (probably one, if others corroborated about my alleged sin, I’d be gone) they’ll be a second time.
  • constantly looking over one’s shoulder is not condusive to either good work performance or something approaching enjoyment
  • does this mean that I now have a black mark on my record that will make it harder to get promoted or transfer to another job within the company in about a year?
  • perhaps this will blow over and be forgotten?

Since I’m not supposed to know about this inquiry, I don’t feel free to ask anyone there. So I’ll ask here, is there is anything I can do or should do? My heart is telling me to get another job pronto and get on with living a positive life.

Thank you.

2

Assuming you’re a good employee, and assuming you don’t spend your days surfing the internet, and assuming you complete your required work, I suppose there’s little to be concerned about. But, it would have jarred the fuck out of me if I saw something like this.

I suggest you lay low, do your work and continue to monitor your manager’s calendar; that’s what I would do. I’d probably also be able to figure out who sabotaged me from follow-up conversations and actions too.

3

Seconded Leaffan. I have had this happen to me, and although it didn’t happen at that specific time, when it happened again I was laid off. I even snooped my boss at the time’s emails and she’d contacted the owner about how to respond to me, but not responded to me directly. That’s when I freaked out but couldn’t let on that I knew she’d seen my email and contacted the owner about it. I got a pass that time.

The next time, boss started asking questions about my job and how I did things. I told her nothing and learned later that the owner had asked my boss to take over all my duties. She refused.

4

I have no idea how frequently this occurs but it did happen to me 30 years ago. I was aware that I had somehow fallen out of favor and finally resigned to take a better job but clueless me had no idea that the seeds of discontent had been sown by a trusted subordinate. Just before I left, my boss apologetically let me in on the secret, that he had been bypassed in the poisoned chain as well and was being pressured by his boss to put the screws to me.

I hope the little worm, whom I had given very positive reviews, had a fairly miserable career at whatever he did after that job.

5

You have my sympathies, Hoppin John. This is very unnerving.

I had something similar happen to me about a year ago. I didn’t know about the meeting beforehand, but was informed about it by my supervisor after the fact. For a couple of years, I had been taking on many new, outside-of-my-job-description duties because we were understaffed (and I was bored). As a result, I learned a lot of new skills and significantly expanded my job function. My boss rewarded this by having me reclassified and giving me a pay raise. One of my colleagues (who had declined to take on any new work) found out about this by snooping in personnel files she wasn’t supposed to be in and raised hell with my boss and HR, claiming that it was “unfair.” I can imagine that my supervisor’s calendar entry about the meeting could have read very much like the one you saw.

I was fortunate to have a supervisor who wanted me to know that someone was out to get me so I could safeguard myself. Can you speak to someone in HR privately and confidentially? You were not snooping in your manager’s calendar; you have rights to be there and it is not your fault that he didn’t mark such a sensitive meeting as “private.” The fact that you learned about it should not reflect badly on you, and your concern that you fix whatever might be wrong (if anything), is admirable. In my company, confidential employee conversations with HR have the seal of the confessional. Just a thought.

Wishing you the best,
J

6

Best thing you can do in this circumstance is forget about it. You don’t know what it was about, or who was involved. All you know is that you didn’t do anything, and the company doesn’t think you did anything either. It won’t help you to try and find out who may have said something about you, and any information you receive about that is suspect.

You are unfortunately vulnerable. If for any reason another issue is raised, this one may be brought up again, and after the passage of time you may not be able to convincingly defend yourself. So the first incident will be considered a strike, and based on that the second one will be also. Looking further into this matter now in order to clear your name could be considered the second strike by itself. And once you have two strikes, not leaving is often the third one.

So your best bet is to do your job well and not dwell on this matter.

7

Since you’ve been at work for only a month it could have been something along the lines of “we are missing one of the internal forms that should have been filled beforehand”. It wouldn’t be the first time I see stuff which should have been done in advance take weeks or months, either on purpose (processes which most organizations begin in advance would not start until the new hire joins) or because someone made a booboo. One time my contract took a month to get ready - and then I refused to sign it because there was a mistake in it which would affect my salary and advancement possibilities; fixing it took another two weeks (it was just updating one single field, but it must have been the field where Adam met Eve, from how hard it was to find and fix).

8

Yeah,it’s scary…but mostly because you have zero idea of what’s going on.No facts whatsoever.
So, maybe those facts would be detrimental to you. But it is also possible that the facts are to your benefit.
The only facts you know are:

  1. the HR person said he will “Try to gather info” so he will “have something to go on”
  2. they did nothing.

So maybe they gathered facts and found out that they had nothing to go on. And maybe they decided that the unnamed “person who originally raised the issue” is a whiny, lying bastard. Presumably, they asked him to document his complaint about you ,and maybe he made himself look so bad that not only was his complaint ignored, but he ended up getting a reputation as “not a good team player”.And maybe that was put in writing.

Maybe they decided that you are a great employee, and even put it in writing, too.
You simply can’t know.

9

NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO!:eek:

There is NO good that will come of this, and you may get canned. Just because one has rights to be in an account is no reason to read their email. (I’m a busybody, myself, and of course would do this, but HR would use it to ramrod **jayrey **out of there so quickly that heads would spin.)
I don’t have a good solution, but this is a horrible idea.

BTW, there is no such thing as speaking to someone in HR ‘privately and confidentially.’

10

I agree with this. If you simply can’t function without indulging your curiosity, take advantage of the rumor mill. Ask someone you trust if they’ve heard anything negative from others about how you’re fitting in. Say you overheard your manager saying something, and it could have been absolutely nothing, but now you’re feeling all paranoid. If nothing else, hearing a “no, I haven’t heard anything bad about you” might make you feel a little better.

11

The story seems very strange to me. You’ve only been there a month. Short of any altercations with your boss or coworkers or blatant actionable offenses (stealing, drugs, etc), I can’t imagine what sort of HR issues would be raised within a month of starting work.

What is the culture like at your company? Who do you typically interact with and what sort of interactions do you typically have? What sort of work do you do?

Well that depends. Your “record” consists of both your formal performance reviews as well as your informal reputation with people who work with you. If there is no merit to this issue, then a year from now it probably won’t even come up, providing your performance is good. If it is an issue, promotions and transfers might be a moot point.

And actually just because you accidently have access to an account doesn’t mean you have the right to read the contents.

12

Follow your gut and get the fuck out of there. I worked in a toxic environment at my last job. I knew the first day working there that I’d made a mistake, but thought I’d hang in there for a year, then leave. I got fired after just 9 months on the job. It was the low point in my career. Fortunately, I quickly landed another, better job, with more money, and I’ve been here ever since (it will be 6 years in July). It’s turned out to be the best, most rewarding and most lucrative job of my career.

13

My understanding of the OP is that access to the accout was intentional. It was that the person who gave the OP that access put something in that account that they didn’t mean to put in there.

14

I appreciate everyone’s input here as it does help cut the tension internally for me.

And actually just because you accidently have access to an account doesn’t mean you have the right to read the contents.

For the record I was not looking at a private email account, but rather at an open calendar of my manager. If this seems strange to you, then I’m assuming that your experience in corporate offices is quite limited. It is a widespread practice.

The mistake was in my manager not marking the appointment as private, thus locking out any viewers. My curiosity is a job requirement, as the heading “potential HR concern” from my perspective would commonly apply to an HR computing system or software. I do have a need to know about emerging systems problems across the organization.

The story seems very strange to me. What is the culture like at your company? Who do you typically interact with and what sort of interactions do you typically have? What sort of work do you do?

This is strange–that’s why you are reading about this. I very much wish I could trust folks here, but the second I let on that I know something is when things could get stirred up and that would be ugly for me, even if I did nothing wrong. Investigations are part of perceptions here.

For my work I facilitate meetings and help people figure out business cases for developing or purchasing software and hardware. I’m considered a very good and sensitive communicator.

When this happened I was so new that my engagement was limited to a handful of folks in what I believed was informal and light encounters. Now that I’ve been around three months, I’m more integral but still have trust concerns, especially with bonus reviews coming up, followed by a performance review.

The culture where I work is quite competitive as the company is growing quickly with new territory to be claimed by the ambitious. People seem to think they can get ahead by making others look bad, and one tactic is backstabbing. I have talked about this regarding another employee with a third person who is older and also new. I pretty much let her share her insights without adding my own input, and the backstabbing thing seems a very real practice around here.

Since it seems like I’m going to be employed for a while, I’ll use that status and look for another job on the side. My skills are quite marketable and it would be nice to have a viable alternative to consider.

In my younger years I read competitive environments well enough to do OK, but at this point in life I’d rather minimize those games and put my psychic energy with my family while still doing fine at my job. That’s not a very exotic request.

15

I wouldn’t worry. Once you talk to HR, you’ll likely find it was some stupid crap, which is 99% of what they get. The problem is they always have to take it seriously, so they investigate and talk to everyone, even when they know it’s a waste of time. My last complaint with HR was that an employee overheard me “threaten to kill someone.” A co-worker had asked where I got my tie, and I replied with the classic “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.” :rolleyes:

16

Sorry, but talking to HR is the one thing that I’m not going to do. In my 30 years of corporate life I have learned (from friends’ ordeals) that HR’s role is to support the management chain. They may facilitate meetings to help ensure folks get their say, but ultimately their allegiance is with management. When I was a kid this was called a ratfink.

I think a factor in my not being fired early on for this mysterious charge is the lack of corroboration. Generally one rule HR advocates for is a two strikes policy (unless something is quite grievous). Basically a pattern of bad behavior has to be apparent and two occurrences is enough evidence.

17

Due to the economy this is an employer market and companies know it. I’ve seen a lot of good people kicked to the curb recently. Getting fired is something that needs to be explained to potential employers. If you can improve your financial situation with a new job then do so as quietly as possible and don’t ever let on why you’re leaving. You never know who you’ll be working with or for.

18

[QUOTE=O’Jays]
(What they do)
(They smile in your face)
All the time they want to take your place
The back stabbers (back stabbers)
(They smile in your face)
All the time they want to take your place
The back stabbers (back stabbers)
[/QUOTE]

Maybe walk around whistling this tune.

19

I’ve been in similar situations - sort of. Probably a different company dynamic and I had management support…

#1 - crazy peer lady employee confronts me one day - out of the blue - about my working hours. I basically tell her to mind her own business and talk to my boss if she wants. Next day, boss tells me HR received an anonymous complaint about the same. Everything was okay, no big deal.

#2 - one day talking with an old manager (a manger of mine from years earlier) she mentioned that someone made a sexual harassment claim against me years ago when I worked under her. I never heard a word about it. HR and management looked into it and found it was bogus/unfounded. It never reached a point where I even knew what was going on.

In both instances, there were some toxic coworkers. #2 was just a toxic department. Just sharing my experience. Good luck.

20

I don’t blame you for looking, but this is not a justification. You need to click on the meeting to see the notes on it, correct? You were there to schedule a meeting, not read up on your boss’s calendar. If they need you to respond to an emerging systems problem they would ask you to.