Quote:
Originally Posted by questioner2
One of the worst types of relationships is having to be in regular interpersonal and professional contact with someone at work who we hate. I have a few workplace enemies due to the nature of my personality and work. These work place enemies are not individuals I can ignore or avoid, I am forced to interact with them almost every day. A few of them have been quite active in trying to get me fired. I know they hate me and would be so happy if I just went away, but I am sticking around until they fire me.
What tricks do you have that allow you to remain sane and civil in your personal interaction with workplace enemies, or other people you can not stand, but have to interact with?
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I've had many such relationships. The latest was at a company in Sunnyvale, CA back in '01. I was hired in '98, and walked through the corridors of the company as a bright-eyed, eager new hire. This company had rescued me from the worst company and manager that I had ever had in my entire life. This company was also in Sunnyvale. I would smile and greet people, but there was this one guy who definitely not approving. He would look at me with disdain and look away when I said hello. He never spoke and greeted me. A few times, he would come into the office I shared with another incredible bore and engage in a loud conversation without once saying hello to me. He would yell down the hallway at someone, with some profanity, right in front of my office. He would also talk to my manager late at night to see if I was working out. He had no respect for me at all and I could tell that he was a micro-manager in the worst way. I felt good though that I didn't work for him and thought I was rid of him for good when I was assigned to another project. The man was the anti-me. He appeared very ignorant, abrasive, racist, sneaky, cynical, back-stabbing. A nightmare to work for I imagined.
Months passed and I was shocked to find out that he was coming onto MY project and that I would be working for him. Immediately after I heard that, he comes to my office and greets me as if we're old friends. I found his demeanor and classless nature in great conflict with who I was. I hated to hear the sound of his country-bumpkin voice. His concern for my work or me was absolutely insincere in the highest order. When he came into work, the first place he would go was to me office to see if I had arrived. He would then stop by every 20 minutes to make small talk while checking my computer screen to see what I was doing. Just to make sure I was doing work, he'd ask me plenty of mundane question about my work. Every 20 minutes. Around 11:30, he would come by to see if I had gone to lunch. If I was still there, he'd increase the frequency of his checks to get an actual time when had gone to lunch. He would check also to see when I came back. Every day he did this. In the afternoon, more of the same. Meaningless chit chat every 20 minutes while he checked that I was doing real work. An incredible time-waster. He never believed anything I said either about what I was doing. If I explained a complex technical matter to him, he didn't believe it, and I had to bring in someone else to explain it so he would believe me. I hated the guy, despised him. He was a racist no question and tried to pretend like our initial contact never happened. I realized that I couldn't get any work done while he was around, so I'd come in at 4:30a, 5 hours before he arrived. I got much done during this time, then between 9:30 and 12:00, I just had to tolerate his 20 minute checks. After lunch I left around 2 to minimize contact with him. He didn't like my schedule because it kept him from micro-managing.
Project ended and he was given the task of finding me other work within the company. Well, with him representing me to other projects, it's no wonder that not one project was interested in bringing me on. Months later, I was then laid off. I never felt more liberated in my life.
This imbecile was not the worst manager I had, just the latest.
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