My coworker is a liar (employment, credit, analysis, references)

[jade408]

So I have already complained about this awful coworker of mine. But it really is a sad state of affairs. I'll call him Bob. From day one I was clear Bob was going to be a problem. He started off really sketchy!

So to give a quick recap, we have been stepping on each other's toes because our jobs have basically been scoped as exactly the same. And he doesn't know how to share - because sharing hurts his goal of being the number one superstar. Poor Bob thinks he is ready to be a senior executive, but he needs a lot more coaching to get there. He has yet to learn that the most important thing is to make your colleagues and team look good, not throw them under the bus so you look better.

Since there are political problems in the organization, I am not positioned to solve this problem of role overlap, and my boss doesn't know how to handle it, I have decided to work on other impactful projects. And I decided not to be too helpful towards him since he is a know it all, I'll let him fail on his own. (I am generally a really helpful coworker - so this isn't really in my nature. It takes a lot of extra energy to not be helpful.

So in his tenure at the company, in less than a year, he is actually on boss #5, due to the fact his team has restructured and the leadership changed. So now he gets a new boss and it should be fairly permanent, assuming there are no more personnel changes on that team.

I have a bit of history with the new boss, and he knows I have a ton of experience in the role of my annoying colleague. So he wanted some informal insight into the organization structure and history. He was complimentary since this Bob mentioned his amazing strategic idea. The problem is, that "strategic idea" was launched 3 years before he arrived at the company, and had been the practice of the team for the past 3 years.

So I explained to the new boss, that the idea predated Bob.

But what annoyed me more, than the blatant lie, was that Bob could have easily positioned this "idea" in a way that was actually vaguely truthful. And still taken credit. But he chose to lie outright. It is a sorry state of affairs in my company that the politics and backstabbing have gotten so bad people feel compelled to lie about things that can be verified.

I am ready to bounce! I have some things in the works, and hopefully one closes out soon!

[Liar_Liar]

Working as a teller a few years back taught me to never take a job where your duties will be exactly the same as everybody else.

It was always 3 tellers goofing around, gossiping and pretending to work when a manager shows up while 1 teller does 75% of the work.

The good news is, eventually something bad happen and managers start to do some digging to see who is at fault. Then it typically becomes clear on who belongs there or not...

[ExpertAnalysis]

Sounds like a perfect candidate for senior executive leadership at a financial firm.

[jade408]

Originally Posted by Liar_Liar

Working as a teller a few years back taught me to never take a job where your duties will be exactly the same as everybody else.

It was always 3 tellers goofing around, gossiping and pretending to work when a manager shows up while 1 teller does 75% of the work.

The good news is, eventually something bad happen and managers start to do some digging to see who is at fault. Then it typically becomes clear on who belongs there or not...

Unfortunately when I joined there was only a tiny bit of overlap with the role. The other person and I would have regular syncs and just divvy things up based on our own preferences. It worked out great - each of us had an opportunity to take on whatever was most beneficial, and our skills were a good compliment. That person left and got replaced by this guy, who sounded good on paper, but turned out to be evil!

The org structure is conducive to the overlap since we sit on different teams (moving the role to a different team was an experiment - in my book a failed one. But it could work with proper leadership, unfortunately, we didn't have that since my boss was pretty clueless about the role, and when he got a new boss that meant the next two levels up were even more clueless on this role.)

[jade408]

Originally Posted by ExpertAnalysis

Sounds like a perfect candidate for senior executive leadership at a financial firm.

Haha! Yup completely. Wouldn't mind pawning him off. But I think karma will get revenge soon enough!

[city living]

I've had the same stupid stuff happen at my work. The thing that really makes them look bad is when they lie about stupid things that aren't a big deal and now they're just seen as a liar.

I actually called my coworker out when I caught him lying about something. It was such a STUPID thing to lie about that it just makes me wonder what else he is lying about at times. He doesn't know what I even called him out on, so I just let it fester, because if you're going to be a lying jerkwad about something, IDGAF. Plus it makes me think, if you don't know what you were lying about (I didn't specify) that you just can't keep up anymore with the crap that comes out of your mouth.

[usamathman]

Originally Posted by jade408

So I have already complained about this awful coworker of mine. But it really is a sad state of affairs. I'll call him Bob. From day one I was clear Bob was going to be a problem. He started off really sketchy!

So to give a quick recap, we have been stepping on each other's toes because our jobs have basically been scoped as exactly the same. And he doesn't know how to share - because sharing hurts his goal of being the number one superstar. Poor Bob thinks he is ready to be a senior executive, but he needs a lot more coaching to get there. He has yet to learn that the most important thing is to make your colleagues and team look good, not throw them under the bus so you look better.

Since there are political problems in the organization, I am not positioned to solve this problem of role overlap, and my boss doesn't know how to handle it, I have decided to work on other impactful projects. And I decided not to be too helpful towards him since he is a know it all, I'll let him fail on his own. (I am generally a really helpful coworker - so this isn't really in my nature. It takes a lot of extra energy to not be helpful.

Wow, sounds like the Bob you work with may have an identical twin at my company.

I'm in a very similiar situation.

Decided a while back to separate myself as much as possible from "Bob". Allow him to sink in his own shat.

It's worked quite well for me. Truth be told, if it wasn't for my productivity "bob" would have nothing to show for his 5-6 months on the job.

I've decided to look for greener pastures. Corporate america sucks.