There is no question that things have gone too far. I have already resigned myself that I will likely be terminated. My relationship with this company started downhill after a false accusation about not following company protocol and sending repair details and specifications to the contractor. In fact I had followed procedure, and produced the emails and correspondence with my senior project manager to back it up. But the Bad Manager kept fighting saying things like he never got the emails, I should have called him directly, I should have made sure he had completed his work sufficiently, etc. I countered with, you did get my emails, you responded to them, just not on topic. I didn't call you because I thought it was better to walk down 4 desks and talk face-to-face. You did review this, here are your markups.
I thought the episode was over, but this particular incident keeps coming back as if I had been found guilty of some gross misconduct. When all was said and done, after witnessing the Bad Manager review my work, he made a minor editorial change. I wouldn't even call it a correction. In the end, there was a lot of turmoil over no real harm. No mistake was found and there was no gross violation of company protocol. Done, right?
Yesterday during a discussion about what projects are ready to go out, I was asked yet again about the "Protocol" job and what was taking me so long to get the report finished. I said the report is done, it's BEEN done. It was put on hold pending a review of an alternate contract that the owner sent to the Bad Manager to sign. It is Bad Manager's responsibility as the PM, author, and negotiator of the contract to review the changes, not mine.
But I offered to review it for him and asked if I was to set aside my own projects and put the contract review at the head of the queue. I am fairly certain I asked without any kind of sarcastic tone. I didn't feel sarcastic at the time. I simply wanted to know what was most critical to them to complete first.
I got YELLED at for asking that question, "You should know this by now, you have enough experience, you cannot ask this question, we don't just fire people randomly for one mistake, etc". I waited for the head spinning to stop I'm sure looking like the OMG cat, then said, calmly, "I take it that you want my contract review before the end of the day, with enough time to look at it before signing it and sending it out. I will put Project Desperation aside for now and will review the contract and you will have it before noon.
The minute I got back to my desk and checked emails, the HR weenie who had been in the discussion had demanded that I make myself available for my 6 month review which is to include the boss, the Bad Manager and the HR Weenie. That's the same lineup that fired our accountant last week, the second accountant since I started working here 7 months ago and the 6th in less that 3 years. I liked the accountant and got along very well with her. She was a straight-shooter and very honest. She never sugar-coated the news and never lied about where the budget was headed. She was my strongest ally and now she is gone.
I asked my brother what he would do and he suggested hiring a videographer. He said something about another human set of ears, a witness around changing the dynamic of the meeting. He also had a list of buzz-words, including hostile work environment.
I can honestly say I have never seen a more dysfunctional organization. And for anyone not familiar with the OMG cat, see link.
"Gorgeous hair is the best revenge." Ivana Trump
![[bigsmile]](/data/assets/smilies/bigsmile.gif "[bigsmile] [bigsmile]")
