I recently joined a new company at mid-management level. Part of the onboarding plan agreed was to partner me with a manager in the company for 3-6 months to get familiarized with the culture and way of working. I was partnered up with a guy who just got a promotion to the same level as me as a step in this plan.
I have been asked to take over one of the accounts he has been handling (which was in a shit state) and put it right. Since this guy got lot more experience than me in this company, I have been very patient trying to gather information from him and manage the account better than what it was before.
This is where things are getting annoying. This co-worker has not shared much information with me and I’ve learnt most of things by trial and error for the past few weeks. I have been introduced incorrectly to the counter-part at client and within our organization. Couple of occasions I had to take the initiative to introduce myself as the coworker simply didn’t turn up for meetings. Apart from fixing up all the issues in the project, I have to listen to his pearls of wisdom in management whenever we talk. This wisdom can be summarized as to good managers motivates the teams by going out for drinks and getting drunk senseless. Anything that I have fixed is a result of his long term planning and foresight and failures are part of my learning process.
Reality is that I have lot more experience and exposure than this co-worker, but he has the ear of the top guy in the company. He is not afraid to pull names and ranks all the time to impress teams. However he is considered as a top performer in the company and many are reluctant to confront him.
After umpteenth time of getting management advice and how to blend with people by drinking and dancing at X’mas party, I told him that there are many ways to manage and I have my own way. He was taken aback but challenged me to prove myself.
Other than being a constant annoyance, it has come to a point where I am questioning the decision to join this organization. I probably will have a discussion with the top guy very soon and thinking of asking him what the hell he was thinking partnering me with this drunken show off….
Your thoughts on how to handles this would be appreciated…
Good luck, Maradona. In the event that you do stick around, come on over to the workplace griping thread in the BBQ Pit; we rarely solve anything for anybody, but we can commiserate the hell out of any problem, large or small.
Set him up to fail and leave no trace of your presence.
Be prepared to leave the company so they know they are keeping a lunkhead and losing a good employee.
Profit!
ETA: Or just tell the boss that you will not work with this guy anymore. New situation or you quit. Be prepared to walk out right then.
Trust me on this: you will never feel better than when you remove yourself from a situation that you find unpleasant. I’ve quit 2 jobs in my life (to be fair, I’ve only had 2 jobs in my life; I’m gainfully unemployed, mostly) and both times it felt like I had won the lottery just after summitting Everest.
There’s a reason that account is in a mess, it’s the previous manager of the account.
I suspect company management knows that. Don’t ask them for advice yet. And when you do, make sure it’s an opportunity to undercut your co-worker.
You have an opportunity here, to go to whoever your contacts are in the project and do the ‘I’m new here approach’. Just stop inviting him to meetings and go one on one to the other people in the project, even if they are in a different company. Let’s say your awful co-worker is named Jim. Just say to other people involved, “Jim has moved on to other responsibilities, I’m new to the account and want to get a grip on what’s going on and your role and responsibilities from your perspective.” Then after some digging, you say, “What’s your view of where we need to head?” Use this feedback to to get a better grip on things (budget, schedule, oversight…). After each interview you’ll be better prepared to go to the next and be more informed. People will forgive you for a stumble at the beginning, but you don’t have much time left to be the new guy.
Drop Jim from meetings. Tell your management you think it’s time to work out the project on your own and make it yours. Tell them they don’t need to bother Jim with it any longer. Tell Jim the same thing, send him a nice email thanking him for his help but that you feel it’s time for you to take control of the account.
After 6 months you may still be able to play the new guy, I would have taken the above steps after the second meeting Jim didn’t show up but I’m aggressive.
if Jim steps into the account again trying to override you, then make contemporaneous records and ask your management for clarification on the issue. Technically, you’re back stabbing, but if Jim is stepping into your project, he’s disrupting the company’s
reputation with the client and he needs to be stopped.
Dont go to HR or management. "I probably will have a discussion with the top guy very soon and thinking of asking him what the hell he was thinking partnering me with this drunken show off…."** Do NOT do this. **
Do update your resume and LinkedIn account. Get a rec now.
Soldier on. One of three things will happen:
They will discover he is a jerk-off and fire him.
He will get you fired somehow.
Or
You will get a offer of a better job.
I recently joined a new company at mid-management level. Part of the onboarding plan agreed was to partner me with a manager in the company for 3-6 months to get familiarized with the culture and way of working. I was partnered up with a guy who just got a promotion to the same level as me as a step in this plan.
:snip:
After umpteenth time of getting management advice and how to blend with people by drinking and dancing at X’mas party, I told him that there are many ways to manage and I have my own way. He was taken aback but challenged me to prove myself.
[/QUOTE]
It sounds to me like you have gained all the benefit you are going to from this semi-mentoring program.
I would do what Marion_Wormer says - stop involving him in anything. Take over the project(s) and run them as you see fit. Don’t invite him to meetings, don’t copy him on e-mail, make it clear to your direct reports that they report to you, not him.
You don’t have to confront him or convince him he is wrong. But you don’t report to him either.
If he objects or tries to overrule you, tell him “thanks for your help but I will handle it from now on”.
I wouldn’t do that, unless his drinking interferes significantly with work. If you do meet with the Big Kahuna, better you should say simply “I don’t think I need that mentoring anymore. Here are the changes I am going to make, and why they will make money for us…”
I have taken couple of steps mentioned above already. Got the resume ready and sent it to a potential new place yesterday…
I hear what you are saying about not talking to the big boss about his behavior. I had the team complaints aftermath of the X’mas party where he had put moves on two junior girls in the team. I had a chat with them and asked whether they want to pursue HR action, for which they thankfully said no. The team made a request to not to invite this guy for any functions in future which works beautifully for me.
If I stay around in this place, I will have to be ruthless. I’ll soon have a chat about taking full ownership and coming out of this stupid mentorship with the big kahuna. However the organization culture isn’t what I am used to and have constant double thoughts about the mess I landed myself on to.
p.s. – I’ve been lurking on this board for over 10 years now. This is like my little sanctuary of sanity when stuck at work for 8-10 hours a day in a little office room :).
There is a lot of good advice here. And the main thing is, if you already have one foot out the door, why not try to fix things where you are?..you dont have much to lose.
Part of the problem here seems to be lack of a clear plan. Handover tasks need finite planning - that is, something like “when we have completed these five key tasks, which we will do by the end of month x, you’ll be ready to do the job without my interference”
If you go into a handover situation with only vague notions of a) what is actually to be done and b) when it will be complete, it can easily shamble along forever, or at least until it fails.
Get a plan. Set milestones for completion and make the break towards doing the job independently of your peer.
To put it bluntly, you’re screwed. He’s probably a narcissist. If he feels you are a threat to his ego or reputation, He Will Win and You Will Lose™.
One of the managers in our group is a classic narcissist. I have learned that you cannot win against these people. They cannot be changed. Upper management thinks he walks on water (because they don’t really know him). He is supposed to retire this May. We are counting down the days…
Just because the guy you are partnered with has more experience in the company does not mean he is effective at his new job as a mid level manager.
Determine who is your supervisor(s), determine the goals that you were hired for, determine all your resources and work from there. Keep documentation of everything to support your decisions.
Do what your job requires with the tools that your supervisor gives. How you deal with problem tools often determines your future as a mid-level manager.
Mange tout - You are right. Lack of plan is something that bothers me too. I’ve raised this with my reporting manager (let’s say Sam) when I joined and he was very vague about it. It was more in the line of, you take couple of months and see how it goes. The attrition rate in this place seems high and Sam probably doesn’t want to commit for a solid plan as yet.
Jim is a classic narcissist. He has been officially on leave for December but drops in every time a VP comes in from head office for a meeting to just to show his face. Jim talks the talk of innovation and comes up with these crazy ideas which are probably good sound bites for the senior management, but rarely amounts to anything in the long run.
I have doubts about my longevity in this place, however will give it a shot in fixing project.
