Bully at Work Moody Boss Karma Office Gossip No Picnic Back stabber Plug your Ears Moody Boss

Part I: Why was I booted off customer training?

Dear Office-Politics,

My Business Office Manager has taken the training of our customer service reps from my responsibility and given it to another person. I have been in charge of training for 2 years and have had no complaints from my people or from the Organization and I have been told I was doing a good job. How do I confront this problem?

Sincerely,

Unpleasantly Surprised

OFFICE-POLITICS REPLY BY ARNIE HERZ, ESQ
arnie herz

Dear Unpleasantly Surprised,

You have a few options. You can consult a crystal ball, a psychic, you can run through possibilities in your head, you can ask friends to guess… Or you can ask your Office Manager why you were replaced.

My guess is that the last option is likely to get you the most accurate response. Thanks for writing to Office-Politics.

Regards,

Arnie Herz

Arnie Herz, is a lawyer, mediator, speaker, author and consultant nationally recognized for his practical and inspired approach to conflict resolution and client counseling. Visit his blog at LegalSanity.com

How do you get rid of bad managers?

Dear Office-Politics, Why don't people go to the human resource office and complain? Because they are afraid of retribution. I moved to Florida from Illinois in 2005 because my husband got a faculty position. I had a very successful career in Illinois with excellent job evaluations. I got a job at my husband's college and was given money for relocation dependent on staying at the college for one year. My first boss was a micromanaging misogynist. He ruled using threats, intimidation, embarrassment and putting people on the spot. He had a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde personality and changed his instructions constantly. I took it for almost a year so I didn't have to pay back the relocation payment. Right before my one year anniversary, he was blaming me for another employee's incompetence and I couldn't take it anymore. When I told human resources, ...

Subordinate keeps jumping over my head…

Dear Office-Politics, I am assistant manager in a hospital setting, employed here for 10 years. Get along well with my director. However, this young girl who started here about 5 years ago as a part time person, became very close with my boss. Now 5 years later she is doing special projects for her and this person is going over my head to talk to my personal about issues or changes. I told my boss that I should be included in anything that goes on in this department, and she is only a project person. She agreed. We recently opened a new radiology unit and this person is somehow taking over all the new issues. She has a big head, the girls do not care for her. I don't know how to handle this, my boss thinks she is so smart. She also, tells her all the things that go on ...

Part II: No one else has the guts to stand up…

Linda Kaplan Thaler, co-author of The Power of Nice, and CEO of The Kaplan Thaler Group has answered the letter below. Read the Office-Politics book review on The Power of Nice. Dear Office-Politics, Here's my job situation: I work as a subcontractor for a government agency, who I'll refer to as Alphabet. There are about 15 subcontracting companies on this project, but one is considered the 'prime' since they have the most people here, and I'll refer to them as the Company. Now here's the problem: the top 2 folks on the ladder for the Company on this contract are likely having an affair. They are both around age 30 and are very political, and spend all of their free time together, although the male is married. Most people in the office assume there is an affair going on. Both of these people are quite rude to most of my ...

Part I: No one else has the guts to stand up…

Dear Office-Politics, Here's my job situation: I work as a subcontractor for a government agency, who I'll refer to as Alphabet. There are about 15 subcontracting companies on this project, but one is considered the 'prime' since they have the most people here, and I'll refer to them as the Company. Now here's the problem: the top 2 folks on the ladder for the Company on this contract are likely having an affair. They are both around age 30 and are very political, and spend all of their free time together, although the male is married. Most people in the office assume there is an affair going on. Both of these people are quite rude to most of my coworkers, too. Obviously none of us can complain to the Company, because it's pretty easy to see where that leads: they will just take the complainer off the project. And we can't complain to ...

Dealing with a Queen Bee and a chameleon

Dear Office-Politics, I work for state government in a bureau of about 20 people. Prior to my maternity leave about 3 years ago, there was a woman I was "friends" with up until the time I returned from my leave. She enjoys gossip (I really don't, but I used to vent to her - probably a BIG mistake), but she has a way of sounding very sincere when she speaks, so she comes off as being really caring and fun. In other words, she is very good at trashing someone, but then when she realizes that she is looking bad, she'll make a comment like, oh, well...God love her. The reason I've distanced myself from her is that I've heard her say some pretty mean things about people to the point where she seems to really despise the person. Later, when she is around that person, ...

Part II: Manager and her friends waste time chatting

Dear Office-Politics, I work in a sales office of about 15 people. My question is, how do I sit back and ignore the office manager who is always chit chatting with a couple of the ladies in the office. They go out to lunch all of the time, taking an hour or longer, when they are only supposed to have a 1/2 hour lunch. They invite me to come along, but I feel guilty, because none of us should be taking these long lunches. The owner of the company trusts the office manager completely and he would not want to hear about this issue from me. My question is, how do I ignore this behavior? Annoyed OFFICE-POLITICS REPLY BY FRANKE JAMES Dear Annoyed, That little voice inside you that says, "None of us should be taking these long lunches." is exactly the voice that you should be listening to, not those chatty ladies that are currently ...