I work in IT in a very small office, small both in size and personnel. Do to a recent reorginization we inherited a new office mate, which meant a rearranging of the office. This new person in the first two days in the office has declared themself the manager of the office and tried to take over. Fred (not a real name) and I have run the office for ten years. We are both Level 8 techs, (the highest in the institution we work at). This person was a level 5 lab assistant doing a lateral transfer from a different department. They were resonsible for handing out tests and grading them.
This person’s new job is to answer the helpdesk phone and transfer them to the appropriate resource. This by virture of have completed a one semester certificate course (not a degree) in Helpdesk Management. The way HR wrote the job description was to insure this person got the job. None of the level 8 techs, (There are five of us, Network, Programming and Microcomputer specialist) would qualify, because although we have an average of 17 yrs experience, multiple degrees and tons of update training, not one of us had a certification to answer a damn pnone and write down a problem and refer it to the person who could fix it. We are merely qualified to fix it. Not that any of us would want the job, it would involve a considerable cut in pay. Not even Trisha, the instructer of the helpdesk classes qualified, she did not have the certificate for what she was teaching. (I might note Trisha is fully qualified and an excellent tech in her own right and the best choice for the job, but as a level 8 tech, not a level 5 lab assistant).
This person took the liberty today of deciding what should and should not be in the office, and threw away what ever they did not feel should be there. And then decided to put in a request to have a new desk installed for themselves, (which would take well over half the office, in an office alledgedly shared by three people.) Then decided the carpeting needed to be replaced, and new paint, and the open shelves are inapproriate, we need closed cabinets, so it looks neat. To replace the carpeting and repaint would knock us offline for days, during our busiest time of the year.
I have been there for over ten years, and the used steel desk I started with ten years ago is still good enough. We are not a reception office, we make things work. Reference books belong on a shelve right above your desk so you can access them quickly.
I guess I am really just venting at this person for being an ass and HR and Administration for letting them get away with it.
I blame you…for letting him get away with it. Declare yourself office King, which outranks his office manager, and pick up a crown from Toys 'R Us tomorrow. If I’m not mistaken, you outrank his ass. Show it.
Who IS the boss? Wouldn’t the boss have to approve all these changes, which involve spending money? Sounds like the new guy needs to be set in his place. I have worked with a guy like his before. Young fuck wants to take over the world, one kitchen (or office) at a time, and wants to change things right off the bat. No matter that things have worked fine for years, but things had to be done HIS way.
He didn’t last a year. We scarred him out! (Boss was the “nice guy” type and refused to take a stand against him.)
Thought about that but I am not Office King. I don’t want to be. Fred and I have shared an office for all these years and we are equals. If there is a head of the IT department it is Doug, he has twenty years in on our system, and if Doug talks you listen. If you have a problem you say “I don’t buy into that”, state your case and the whole department kicks it around and comes to agreement, or at least a plan, we will do this because 4 out of five says it will work. Great part about having a small tightly integrated department. Our real administrator, Steve, took the attitude you have made it work for years, if you need me I am in my office. So it just got done. Now we got a damn inferior decorator that cares more about a nice clean office than getting the job done, and is more busy redecorating than getting the damn job done.
The real boss is Steve, but he is going to retire in a year. He has the spine of a jellyfish, which has always let our department run itself. And it worked well. A new CEO and a new political environment. Trouble is now he will not intervene for IT for internal political reasons, and I don’t blame him. Shit if I had one year to go I wouldn’t make waves with an obvious political (Internal, not national) agenda. My new supervisor in-training will be a person while quite smart has no clue as to the way things work. She is a PhD with zero experience. No help there. As we called it in the army, a clusterfuck.
I recommend you study the history of Soviet Russia. (I suggest starting with The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union: 1917-1991.) If you don’t have time for that, you can read the abridged and parablized version Animal Farm. Cast yourself as Stalin (or Napoleon…not the French Emperor, the character in Orwell’s novel) and your new officemate as Trotsky (or Snowball). Pretend to agree with every decision your officemate makes, and then publically denounce him as a sabotour and traitor to the cause. Drive him from your department, and then use your political and economic pull to have him pressured out of other departments. Then, when he’s finally esconced himself safely from your powerful grasp hold a show trial in absentia where other coworkers admit to having conspired with them, and then summarially execute them and send a video to your former officemate. Post oversized posters of yourself on all the walls, smiling benevolently, and then deface them with anti-you graffiti and then accuse your coworker for sneaking into your department at night to do this. Procede to blame him for everything that goes wrong, including and especially your own failed plans, and encourage others to do the same in dogmatic displays of anger. Finally, send an El Salvadorian janitor to stab him in the head.
I don’t claim that this is the most professional manner to deal with the conflict, but it will definitely inspire fear and respect in your coworkers, plus some of the perks are really cool. (At a minimum, you should get a cool dacha in the woods, a luxury automobile, and all the milk you can drink.) And it will certainly make explicit the ugly undercurrent of political maneuvering and passive-aggressive posturing lurking just beneath the surface of the corporate workplace.
Hey, it worked for 70 years in Russia; surely you can make a go of it for a couple of decades.
I recommend you study the history of Soviet Russia. (I suggest starting with The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union: 1917-1991.) If you don’t have time for that, you can read the abridged and parablized version Animal Farm. Cast yourself as Stalin (or Napoleon…not the French Emperor, the character in Orwell’s novel) and your new officemate as Trotsky (or Snowball). Pretend to agree with every decision your officemate makes, and then publically denounce him as a sabotour and traitor to the cause. Drive him from your department, and then use your political and economic pull to have him pressured out of other departments. Then, when he’s finally esconced himself safely from your powerful grasp hold a show trial in absentia where other coworkers admit to having conspired with them, and then summarially execute them and send a video to your former officemate. Post oversized posters of yourself on all the walls, smiling benevolently, and then deface them with anti-you graffiti and then accuse your coworker for sneaking into your department at night to do this. Procede to blame him for everything that goes wrong, including and especially your own failed plans, and encourage others to do the same in dogmatic displays of anger. Finally, send an El Salvadorian janitor to stab him in the head.
I don’t claim that this is the most professional manner to deal with the conflict, but it will definitely inspire fear and respect in your coworkers, plus some of the perks are really cool. (At a minimum, you should get a cool dacha in the woods, a luxury automobile, and all the milk you can drink.) And it will certainly make explicit the ugly undercurrent of political maneuvering and passive-aggressive posturing lurking just beneath the surface of the corporate workplace.
Hey, it worked for 70 years in Russia; surely you can make a go of it for a couple of decades.
So do something about it. This person is disrupting your work, making things inconvenient without good reason, etc. Go through the same channels this person is and make your own requests. Back them up with numbers about how much productivity is being lost.
It just sounds like this is happening because you’re not doing anything to stop it.
What things did this person throw away? Employee property, or business property? If it were my property as an employee that got thrown away I’d be pitching an unholy fit about it. Is the crowding going to affect job performance? Can you appeal to the higher ups based on that?
Have the confrontation now, before you lose the advantage. This lady will make your work place hell until taken out. Don’t let the other persons in the company start associating her as the head of your section, or you will lose out big time.
Thanks all for the advice. I took positive action, I talked to the head of Facilities, (AKA Buildings and Grounds) and had the paint and carpeting nixed. I really do not have the authority to do that, but ten years making sure people are taken care of pays off. The maintainance crew is now “too busy” with mission critical tasks to address the issue (which is the truth, those guys are seriously overworked). The new person responded by submitting a request to have the carpet in our office shampooed. It really does need it, but she failed to inform the rest of us about the request, hence we had no time to move all our equipment, some of which is humidity sensitive. All is sensitive to improper shut down and movement. We like to do it ourselves. The hard working maintanance staff can get a little heavy handed with thier overloaded schedule. I got that request put off until we are ready. I also called the the new person on the request, and informed then no request goes in before the team has kicked it around and has a plan. I also informed the new supervisor in training that there is an issue here which must be addressed immediatly. It is not just me, she is stepping on the toes of the network administrator, (Doug), and he came out and called one of this persons plans absolute bullshit at an IT meeting this morning. So now it is known to administration this not some sort of personal grudge, the annoyance is department wide. Just not a good fit. I have an meeting with the supervisor to discuss the problem tomorrow, not that I expect a whole lot to happen. By Og I wish Trisha (who piloted this program on a one year basis was not returned to her old job, and we got this prima donna how who has nothing to sing about, and can’t dance.
To clerify a few other points brought up, it has been a group effort for twenty some years, I jumped in ten+years ago. We don;t really need a boss.
There is nothing above a Level 8 Tech in this orginization I am topped out just like everyone else in IT here. Except the new one, who is not even a tech. Lab assistant scale, and then only a level 5. Union rules say no union member can be a supervisor of a union member. That is why IT became such a team. We had to work together because no one could order anyone else about. This person is not following that pattern. It will be dealt with in an appropriate manner.
::huffy:: Well, clearly you didn’t take my advice or you’d have the coworker in the GULAG by now, or at least fearing the approach of your jack-booted personal guard.
However, good job on taking action, even if it didn’t result in spilling blood. This aggression will not stand!
If you’re going to work together as a team, you need to tell her what you need from her. You and the other person in the office need to be part of any decision-making that affects all three of you. Don’t let her bully you and don’t let her make you angry. If nothing else, just keep going back to the statement:
Well, the new person has a whole new attitude. She sent email to Fred and I requesting a meeting about changes to the office. I don’t understand why she didn’t just ask us, we are in the same room. Anyway, we talked about new carpeting, paint and new lighting. We came to an agreement on the lighting, and the carpeting, and even the paint but no decision on color yet. And it will be scheduled for Chrismas Break when we can afford to have our office off line for a few days. It seems the confrontation did a world of good. I think our Manager in training had a little input after I informed her I was spending the first thirty minutes of my shift meditating and repeating the mantra “I will not kill a coworker today, I will not kill a coworker today…” Thanks for the help, I consider this thread closed, at least for now.
