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| How to deal with manipulative coworker |
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| james_s:
Yeah it's a small world. Multiple times I've been asked about somebody I used to work with somewhere. I've also bumped into several people that happened to know other people I've worked with. |
| Nominal Animal:
--- Quote from: fourfathom on September 28, 2022, 04:37:34 pm ---I guess it depends on your definition of bridge-burning --- End quote --- Quite. If it matters, I'm not sure I've ever burned any myself –– figuratively speaking; I'm quite sure I have never burned an actual physical bridge. There are some people (half a dozen or fewer) whose presence or even incidental involvement will make me nope out right quick, because I do not like how they treat other people and their work. (They're also from jobs almost a quarter of a century ago.) That is basically the extent of my bridge burning, I believe. I've only discussed the details with friends when talking about horrible work experiences, and even then avoid naming names. Mostly. It is not like withdrawing from a project or moving on from a job is that big a deal, really. "I do not believe I would be a good fit in this particular project/task/job" is a pretty complete but polite explanation to anyone who asks. Funnily enough, I have one kinda-sorta inverted case: there was a software project long ago that I had to maintain/support for a few years as a paid job, written by people I actually like... but the software was so horrible copy-paste spaghetti I developed a serious dislike of Perl that still afflicts me today. |
| fourfathom:
This conversation reminds me of one employee I had to work with. He talked the talk for a while, but became incredibly disruptive, non-productive, and actually unethical. Once we managed to fire him he next turned up as a founder of a competing startup, with $2 million in venture funding (which is another story). He had claimed that our company's big success was largely due to his brilliance (nothing could have been further from the truth.) His new company quickly crashed and burned, with him literally (!) being dragged out of the building by armed guards. On topic, after that he sent out an open letter to "the networking industry" where he blamed his many failures on other people and a general industry conspiracy against him. The letter was broadly circulated for it's "WTF? You've got to be kidding me!" value, and it made him look like a deluded sociopath. I'm not saying that the "letter to the CEO" being discussed in this thread is anything like that, but this story might still be helpful if anyone is considering something similar. I don't know where he is now, but if you run into someone who describes himself as "First ever Telecom Eagle, a networking & telecom visionary" take my advice and run away as far and as fast as you can. |
| Someone:
--- Quote from: james_s on September 28, 2022, 07:30:59 pm ---Yeah it's a small world. Multiple times I've been asked about somebody I used to work with somewhere. I've also bumped into several people that happened to know other people I've worked with. --- End quote --- When chatting to colleagues socially: colleague found out who their new direct manager was after re-organisation at company A, "I moved here [country] to get away from that person" working at company B, talking to another ex-employee of company A, "I remember that person, everyone avoided dealing with them" Some times a good company can have some really terrible people inside them, so much that people will leave the company for that single employees presence. Those are the people that management need to know about, as the turnover/exodus may not make sense when the normal reporting lines aren't going to mention it. |
| fourfathom:
--- Quote from: Someone on September 29, 2022, 06:25:10 am ---Some times a good company can have some really terrible people inside them, so much that people will leave the company for that single employees presence. Those are the people that management need to know about --- End quote --- Which is why a company should conduct an exit interview, at least when someone quits. Even then, during your exit interview don't go on and on with a long litany of the problems and insults you've suffered. Keep it short and sweet. |
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