Work colleagues

[Derry Alli]

That's a shame Oaksoft got binned. Now his children and grandchildren definitely won't be getting any Christmas presents. 

[Thistle_do_nicely]

mite b something to do with bennettgate going by the heads gone thread (oaksoft's last activity going by his profile was about 3rd june, bennettgate was about the 4th of june)

[GTG_03]

On 23/06/2020 at 19:23, D.A.F.C said:

Ok, asking for advice.

Have got a serious grievance against promotion and interview process that's been going back five years now.
I know that I need to leave but its something that needs talked about.
Upcoming appraisal and I've mentioned what happened in it.

Not mentioned in review document
Colleague was borderline alky on a warning for timekeeping. Wouldn't do his job and was a square peg in a round hole. Tried to apply for job and got blocked by manager who wanted to keep him in our department.
Next thing he gets given lots of extra roles and responsibilities and some taken from me and others depsite doing nothing wrong.
All of a sudden a job is announced (that hes been groomed for). Interview process goes wrong because they need to justify it to HR. Two week delay in selecting him.
Very dodgy reasoning given to me why I didn't get it. Completely contradicted what supervisor had told me a week before.
He was also told to apply for the role by the interviewers.
Told that if the role came up again I would be fast tracked and no need for interview just informal chat.

For context this supervisor is notorious for picking yes men and favourites who back his schemes of failure and lots of overtime.

Mentioned in review document
Next role supervisor is off sick for a few months. He pre selects his two juniors by telling them they should apply in advance.
One is his pal he sits with at break. Other one seems odd but has been sychophantic and two faced behind the scenes. (Not mentioned obviously)
I apply for it, its completely informal. No job description and knocked back.
Smoke blown up arse and told my skills are actually much higher technically than the two new supervisors. It is true actually in terms of what we do. I'm also more qualified than both put together. Neither has excelled at leadership but one has little experience before. The other was actually moved for causing issues with staff and tried to bully a female colleague.
Again told that thanks for stepping up and this time the top of the business has been made aware so if any job comes up you will be in line.

Next step, few months later (two/three) the first job comes up again because the original guy is leaving. I ask the supervisor what's happening. He tells me he doesnt know. At the same time another colleague tells me that hes told someone else if they still want this job. (He also applied for first role, we were both close)
Next thing email comes out last thing on a friday saying that the colleague the supervisor asked if he wanted it has got the job. No interview, no discussion, nothing said to me.
I know that I'm more qualified and can output twice what this guy does every day. Hes been called lazy by quite a few colleagues.

Spoke to supervisor asked why I wasnt even spoken to. He tells me it was another department that made the decision.
This seems to be a lie considering the history plus hes a notorious liar and bully.
He threatened me once and I mentioned this to his boss. So.....

And that's pretty much present day, this is where all my moaning comes from. Sorry it's a long read and if anyone can bear reading it all can you advise?

Appraisal coming up soon from one of the junior yes men so I'm assuming they will be told to sweep it under the carpet.
Should I push it with hr?
 

I'd be downing tools in this job. Reduce your output/work ethic enough to make life difficult for your manager but not enough to get HR involved. Use your new time during work hours to polish up your CV and apply for jobs. 

If you're working hard and they're taking the piss out of you and promoting others then where's the motivation to work hard? 

[welshbairn]

4 hours ago, MixuFruit said:

Huh, what did he do?

It was way more than his usual Dickensian cabaret act, digging up stuff from the depression thread for ammo against people who'd opened up there.

Edited June 24, 2020 by welshbairn

[Sergeant Wilson]

1 hour ago, Thistle_do_nicely said:

mite b something to do with bennettgate going by the heads gone thread (oaksoft's last activity going by his profile was about 3rd june, bennettgate was about the 4th of june)

mite!

It's just as well you're good looking, because you're not very bright.

[Fullerene]

On 23/06/2020 at 19:23, D.A.F.C said:

Ok, asking for advice.

Have got a serious grievance against promotion and interview process that's been going back five years now.
I know that I need to leave but its something that needs talked about.
Upcoming appraisal and I've mentioned what happened in it.

Where are you going to be in ten years time?  Still in the same job complaining about the interview process or complaining about something else?

Maybe you will manage to say the right thing to the right person and the whole place will be transformed and it will suddenly be the best job in the world.  Seriously.

On this occasion you mention the interview process.  Just another symptom of what is wrong.  You and the job are a bad fit - even if you pretend otherwise.

I walked out my first job and my second.  Instantly got my sense of humour back.  On reflection, neither offered any career path or long term future I would care to be part of.

You need to stop thinking about your job (and the incompatible difficult people that you work with) and start thinking about your career.

[Thistle_do_nicely]

2 hours ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

mite!

It's just as well you're good looking, because you're not very bright.

it's a pretty obscure thing to pick up on tbf in that you either know it or you don't, but I was b*****dising a wee internet phrase ("mite b cool")

You may file me under good looking *and* familiar with obscure internet culture, a'thankyou.

 

Edit:

Anyway - the email we got confirming an extension of furlough mentioned they're carrying out headcount and redundancies at the moment, but reassured everyone currently furloughed that they'll stay paid through the scheme until the end of August. Gut feeling is they'll either punt me outright after that or maybe slash my hours, just can't see there being enough demand to justify our department keeping the same staffing levels.

We've also been told to make sure we take holidays over the next couple of months on a pro rata basis (so we've used 2/3 of our holiday pay by the end of August), which sorta leaves me (perhaps cynically) thinking "oh yep they're gonna start getting rid soon" so they won't have to pay out accrued holiday pay when they get rid. 

Gives me a bit of time to build up some more cash in the worst case scenario, at least.

Edited June 24, 2020 by Thistle_do_nicely

[Fullerene]

8 hours ago, GTG_03 said:

If you're working hard and they're taking the piss out of you and promoting others then where's the motivation to work hard? 

I have had good bosses and bad bosses.  The most important factor is whether or not they understand the work I do.  If not then do they have the honesty to admit it.

With a bad boss I could be working hard and they would not know it.  Accusations of messing about.  Inevitably they prefer somebody more familiar and somebody who makes the right noises.

Not sure why DAFC stays there.  Sounds like some people have taken against him regardless of what he does.  In my experience that sort of problem never gets fixed.

[bishopburn boy]

On 23/06/2020 at 19:23, D.A.F.C said:

Appraisal coming up soon from one of the junior yes men so I'm assuming they will be told to sweep it under the carpet.
Should I push it with hr?
 

Ok 2 things to think about 

1 HR , don’t work for YOU , they are there to Protect the EMPLOYER , expect nothing of them and you will not be disappointed

2 this seems like an ideal opportunity to turn it round , and at least get some sport and enjoyment out of it - assuming your stellar performance will be leading to a good and positive review , wait till they give you your shot and go in with  can I get some mentoring ! , really admire your style , want to get on , see the others progressing and want that to be me ( never question why it isn’t you ) 

just play them for some sport ,at least get some enjoyment , rather than misery out of it all 

[D.A.F.C]

Ok 2 things to think about 
1 HR , don’t work for YOU , they are there to Protect the EMPLOYER , expect nothing of them and you will not be disappointed
2 this seems like an ideal opportunity to turn it round , and at least get some sport and enjoyment out of it - assuming your stellar performance will be leading to a good and positive review , wait till they give you your shot and go in with  can I get some mentoring ! , really admire your style , want to get on , see the others progressing and want that to be me ( never question why it isn’t you ) 
just play them for some sport ,at least get some enjoyment , rather than misery out of it all 

1 agreed, 100%.
2 It would be so disingenuous because they know that theyve done f**k all to gain promotion. One actually came up to me and said he didnt know why the supervisor was picking him to lead people when he couldn't do x,y,z.
Then you see him laughing and joking with the boss and putting others down.
I wouldn't waste my energy with them. As said need to leave.

[Derry Alli]

Think yourself lucky you have HR. The guy who owns my company thinks he can run HR himself. Refuses to be present for any meetings and most certainly isn't impartial. 

He has a payroll of near on 100 people. 

[D.A.F.C]

Think yourself lucky you have HR. The guy who owns my company thinks he can run HR himself. Refuses to be present for any meetings and most certainly isn't impartial. 
He has a payroll of near on 100 people. 

Do you work in downing street?

[Derry Alli]

Just now, D.A.F.C said:

Do you work in downing street?

I wish. Their uniforms are much nicer. 

[Dee Man]

We have two guys at our work who keep getting overlooked for supervisor positions that they keep applying for when a vacancy comes up. They would probably be good at the jobs but unfortunately for them they have zero self-awareness of how their attitude and constant moaning rubs people up the wrong way which is why they never get further than the obligatory interview stage. Both of them are at a complete loss as to why they never get the positions while everyone else knows exactly why. 

Make of that what you will. 

[Hillonearth]

3 hours ago, Fullerene said:

I have had good bosses and bad bosses.  The most important factor is whether or not they understand the work I do.  If not then do they have the honesty to admit it.

With a bad boss I could be working hard and they would not know it.  Accusations of messing about.  Inevitably they prefer somebody more familiar and somebody who makes the right noises.

Not sure why DAFC stays there.  Sounds like some people have taken against him regardless of what he does.  In my experience that sort of problem never gets fixed.

He said earlier on it was essentially due to the fact that he'd be unlikely to get the same money elsewhere but yeah, just for his own peace of mind I reckon he'd be better moving on.

It has to be said though going by his posts here that while where he works seems pretty dysfunctional, where he now finds himself is probably not entirely their doing... if I was interviewing him I can think of several red flags that would be causing me concern solely based on what he's told us on here.

An example: prior to an interview they took work off him and gave it to a less experienced candidate...it might well have been the stitch-up he reckons it was and evidence of grooming someone for a job, or it might have been something as innocent as them knowing fine well he was able to tackle something he'd been doing for a while and decided to give the less experienced one a chance to fly with it for a period in advance of the interviews to see how he'd do. Exactly which one of those scenarios it was would be something for later discussion.

Either way, being territorial and defensive about "my" work would be a negative indicator, and I'd instantly want to hear a lot more about their ability to work collaboratively.

 

[D.A.F.C]

I guess that some people have never really experienced a truly toxic and dysfunctional workplace judging by the comments.
I've also already explained why the colleague was given tasks. He applied for a job in another department, was blocked and then given roles in ours to make up for it.
It does sound arrogant and self centred to say that was my work. But I had worked really hard to get to that stage and took on more and more roles. The guy that was given new tasks was a borderline alky who made mistakes all the time, stole others property, was hours late even slept in for backshift yet still got these roles. It wasnt just my roles either there was a group of us.
In the first few weeks he managed to break two pieces of equipment and then the next time simply missed that part of the job and forged documents to prove he did it. Then when caught nothing happened yet another temp was let go for doing nothing wrong.

Is that a big enough red flag or reason to moan?

To me it is.

[Dee Man]

1 minute ago, D.A.F.C said:

I guess that some people have never really experienced a truly toxic and dysfunctional workplace judging by the comments.
I've also already explained why the colleague was given tasks. He applied for a job in another department, was blocked and then given roles in ours to make up for it.
It does sound arrogant and self centred to say that was my work. But I had worked really hard to get to that stage and took on more and more roles. The guy that was given new tasks was a borderline alky who made mistakes all the time, stole others property, was hours late even slept in for backshift yet still got these roles. It wasnt just my roles either there was a group of us.
In the first few weeks he managed to break two pieces of equipment and then the next time simply missed that part of the job and forged documents to prove he did it. Then when caught nothing happened yet another temp was let go for doing nothing wrong.

Is that a big enough red flag or reason to moan?

To me it is.

How did such a fucked up person manage to get the position ahead of you?

[The Moonster]

Just now, D.A.F.C said:

I guess that some people have never really experienced a truly toxic and dysfunctional workplace judging by the comments.

If it is "truly toxic" then get the f**k out of there. The overwhelming advice here for you is to leave that job as it's clearly no good for you. I don't know why you keep replying with reasons to continue moaning about your job.

Moan all you like, but people will stop listening to you if you don't do anything about it, and you haven't done anything about this situation for years.

[Derry Alli]

I'm very much against going at people personally with 'alky' jibes. Perhaps your work instead of apparently overloading him with more tasks could try and help the guy out? 

Maybe they have, I don't know. The character assisinations aren't a very good look though. 

[D.A.F.C]

How did such a fucked up person manage to get the position ahead of you?

Because the manager blocked them and he threw a strop and then was taken off the role because he was shite at it.
Another factor was that there was a support function and the people that ran it couldn't do their jobs well either so they used him as a gopher and he got rewarded.
Eventually he calmed down and did better at it but it was all on a plate.

Trying to reason with it or looking objectively just makes it look like I'm terrible or that it's just so fucked up that theres no point in actually reasoning with it.
Others have left reviews on glassdoor saying exactly the same things both here and abroad. The entire company is messed up.

I do admit that moaning doesnt help but I've barely complained ever to any boss even at appraisals. I did query the alky guy thing and used an analogy of winning a race and losing and was then treated even worse and that's when the bullying started.
Given a great review at the same time as being physically threatened and threatened with the sack. That says to me I hit the nail on the head, I'm not doing anything wrong and they cant look at themselves and admit they're shitty people who are completely out of their depth when it comes to management. All of them were promoted from non management roles without training. Go figure.