Franke James is Editor/Founder of Office-Politics.com and Inventor of the Office-Politics® Game.

Peter R. Garber has worked as an HR professional for over 25 years and is the author of many business books including: Winning the Rat Race at Work and 100 Ways to Get on the Wrong Side of your Boss.

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Dr. Rick Brandon is CEO of Brandon Partners. He has consulted and trained tens of thousands at corporations worldwide, including Fortune 500 companies across a variety of industries.

Dr. Marty Seldman is one of America's most experienced executive coaches. His 35-year career includes expertise in executive coaching, group dynamics, cross-cultural studies, clinical psychology, and training.

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

Dr. John Burton LL.B. M.B.A. M.Div. Ph.D. is an ethicist, mediator, lawyer and theologian. John is currently located in Prince Rupert, B.C., Canada, working with Canada's aboriginal communities.

My concern is a very strong, mostly new boys (30/40ish) network who socialize together, ally together in the office, and direct connect to the top through an old boy who has the confidence of the director...

September 2006

Dear Office-Politics,

I am female and have been out of the professional workplace for 6 years. Prior to that, I was with the same government agency for 15 years.
 
My concern is what I perceive to be a very strong, mostly new boys (30/40ish) network (new to the organization in the past 5 years) who socialize together, ally together in the office place, and direct connect to the top through an old boy who has the confidence of the director.  I am one of two female senior managers out of a total of 10 senior managers who report to the deputy director, who has been a woman.  The new deputy director is a man.  The other female is not that assertive, tends to verbose, and does not carry that much credibility.
 
My immediate challenge is that I have a direct report who is front and center in this network and close friends with the confidante of the director.  His performance is fine, not outstanding.  He wants my job, does only the high visibility actions, delivers mediocre quality, delegates the operational details to other with variable results, is not a team player and does not devote time to developing his staff of 8.  I think he is used to operating as an entrepreneur/solo operator without much supervision.  This less than outstanding performance has just been documented in his performance evaluation.  He can be quite antagonistic when I tried to provide constructive feedback, and have noticed recently that he can be quite passive/aggressive in his behavior - taking things in passively without a response on one hand and ridiculing me privately and publicly at the next moment.  I believe that he, through the boys network, is consciously working to undermine my credibility within the office and stymie actions that I am trying to take.  To me, there clearly is some strong gender bias going on here.
 
I enjoy the nature of my work and have made an important turnaround in delivering results based on focused management feedback.  I have had a strong working relationship with the deputy director and received a very strong performance evaluation in my first 9 months back.  I do tend to avoid conflict and lose sleep over my management challenges.  Any advice regarding the old/new boys network and my employee? 

Not a New boy

Dear Not a New boy,

Please be extremely careful. Instead of losing sleep over your management challenges what could keep you up at night is the threat to your job.

We teach organizational savvy which starts with awareness. It is very important to notice signals, as you have, but then to calibrate how serious they are.

When we read things like "wants my job, undermining, credibility, stymie actions, and public and private ridicule" our signals are flashing "red alert". Especially because he is close to the confidante of the deputy director. This gives him the ability to "manage the airwaves" about you but it may be very difficult for you to "manage the airwaves" about him.

It is tempting to take comfort from the good work you are doing, the strong relationship with the director and the positive review nine months ago. These things are important but unfortunately we have seen many instances where taking comfort from them turned into "false comfort".

The reality of the situation as you've described it, is that your direct report, through this access and rapport with someone who influences your boss, very possibly has more power than you. He can hurt you but there is probably little that you can do to hurt him.

So what are you to do?

1. Maintain your significant contributions because the deputy director maybe objective enough to see your value.

2. Build your network with peers or others who influence your boss. Even though you won't be in the "boys" network you may be able to create a positive relationship with the confidante.

3. Back off the corrective feedback of your direct report. This is probably the hardest advice for us to give and for you to receive. We are not saying to lower your standards but to lower your expectations of his performance.

He has assessed the power balance and knows what he can get away with. If you are too hard on him he may be more motivated to marginalize you and you may inadvertently say something he can use against you.

If he makes an egregious mistake or if other leaders in the organization point out his deficiencies it may make it easier for you to address his shortcomings.

4. Move him if you can. The things we have recommended so far may protect you but daily life will not be that pleasant.

If there is any possibility of transferring him to another part of the organization we would jump on it. An overly political, ambitious direct report who is marginalizing you and has access to your boss, requires a lot of focus and energy.

We think you will sleep much better if he works for someone else. Thanks for writing to Office-Politics.com

Best,

Rick and Marty

Rick Brandon, Ph.D. and Marty Seldman, Ph.D., Co-authors
Survival of the Savvy: High-Integrity Political Tactics for Career and Company Success
www.survivalofthesavvy.com

FEEDBACK FROM READER:

I read about your site in an Atlanta magazine called Skirt. I logged in and checked it out and after reading the response you gave to Not a New Boy, I was really impressed. I thought everything you said to this woman was dead-on, and even though it may have been hard for her to hear, I'm sure it was very beneficial. I worked in Corporate America for over 10 years (for a Fortune 100), and I wish someone would have given me the advice you gave this woman. Great Job.