Kellibelli’s post got me thinking. I used to be optimistic about coworkers, but since the following incident happened I’m always on the lookout for those people who want to climb up the corporate ladder by using your dead body as a prop. What other coworker horror stories do you have?
I was working in a small software company. I was doing GREAT the first 6 months or so - 2 raises, and a promotion. About 3 months into the job, I interviewed and made a recomendation to hire the individual hereto referred to as “Mr. F. Dickhead.”
Mr. Dickhead seemed fine at first. He was offered and accepted a Very Large Project that required him to work many many hours of overtime. The whole office was pretty much incredibly busy at the time - we were all really stressed. I had just finished another project, and the owner of the company and my boss decided that I would help Mr. Dickhead with his project. Mr. Dickhead was opposed to this idea from the first, and told the two higher ups this. Nevertheless, they told him that he had to work with me.
The project involved a technology I was not familiar with. In the next few months, Mr. Dickhead proceeded to give me incorrect information about the work to be performed. I finally started writing down everything he told me because I was sick and tired of doing something then having him tell me it was wrong. Sure enough, I found that he was telling me the wrong things. He then started complaining to people that I didn’t know what I was doing. Uh Duh! I told everyone when I was put on the project that it was not my strong point, and I’d have a lot of learning to do (not to mention that being given incorrect information makes it damn hard to do a good job).
Then Mr. Dickhead starts going around to anybody who will listen and telling them how shitty a worker I was. My direct boss knew what was going on, and defended me to the best of his ability. However, Mr. Dickhead did manage to undermine the owner’s confidence in me, all the while sucking up and being a “yes” man to the owners. Eventually, Mr. Owner went on a firing spree. When my direct boss was fired, they got rid of me, too (as well as 4 other people). To this day I believe that if it hadn’t been for Mr. Dickhead, I would still have that job.
However, it turns out I didn’t want the job, anyway. As they say, living well is the best revenge. The Very Large Project turned out to be a piece of shit because Mr. Dickhead screwed it all up. After leaving that company, I found another job at a much better company, where I’m in charge of a very important project. Not to mention I’m making more $$ and have better benefits than the other job would have ever given me. Rumor has it that it’s a sweat shop now - I’ve had several headhunters tell me that more than one recruit has told them never to send their resume to that company.
So any other coworker horror stories? Maybe you’ve worked with Mr. Dickhead, too.