What happens at your job if people behave terribly?

[Anonymous]

The most obnoxious colleagues I ever had (mean, bad teachers, gossips) ended up spending relatively little time in the classroom and were rapidly promoted to admin. Two are now principals.

[Anonymous]

Men who bully women? And by bully I mean office door shut and him SCREAMING so loudly that people 2 hallways away could hear. Oh, and the female subordinate was right re the legal answer; he was incorrect.
What happened? Reported, investigated, and then when lay offs came he stayed and the target along with a women who reported it were both let go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At my federal agency, it depends. For terrible non-supervisory employees with diligent supervisors, the formal discipline process can progress to the point of removal after about a year. For employees with leadership who aren't that diligent about getting them out, it can take forever.

For people in positions of leadership where the situation becomes intolerable (multiple EEO complaints, investigations, etc), they are usually pushed out into "retirement" or reassigned into a non-supervisory "senior adviser" position where they sit in a corner and do basically nothing. My colleague jokingly called these reassignments "the land of the lost." These upset me because they're still collecting a big paycheck, don't have to supervise people anymore, and have little to no portfolio. Sounds like a good gig for being terrible.

By terrible I mean a variety of behaviors to include harassment, bullying etc.

Same at my agency. Though we do have one lovely adviser who stood out for stunningly clueless behavior related to diversity and inclusion and is now a big spokesperson for…diversity and inclusion. It is nauseating.

Yeah I’ve seen that too. The offenders that are all of a sudden so “caring”.

The Senior Advisor is often a role for a crappy senior manager or someone who got in trouble for something. It is infuriating to see these arrogant useless people collect a big paycheck for doing almost nothing. We have one at my agency who makes so much more than I do it’s insane and no one knows what she does. Another was moved due to what was a stupid but highly visible mistake and I very much like them. No ego, takes whatever work is given and jumps in. Occasionally they’re the result of a reorg that ended up with too many managers and those people are usually okay. More often than that …..it’s the mark of something negative having happened.

Private sector and we have something similar…we put them in “special projects” as directors or senior managers and they collect a paycheck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, can you give examples of what you mean?

There are attorneys in my (fed govt) office who behave terribly (yelling, nastiness) particularly the litigators. There are no consequences.

There are attorneys throughout the agency who behave inappropriately in other more "mild" ways (microaggressions or straight up aggressions in meetings, particularly towards women and minorities, talking over people, taking credit for their work, dismissing their ideas, etc.) and generally it is ignored. I know of at least two individuals who had something escalated to their management because it was so bad that other staffers felt uncomfortable and said something. I don't know if there was a PIP, but eventually one did leave for another job.

A prior poster said something about how people may not know there are PIPs and that someone is leaving of their own accord due it one. I suspect that is often the case but I am not in management/ HR. But there are also some awful people that stick around.

op - it's so many things so many times a day.
people getting fired off pieces of biz via group email intro-ing the new person. everyone throwing everyone else under the bus all the time. people refusing to recognize someone else's role or job title, or just refusing to work with them bc they want to build their own thing. people being told whole teams are moving out from under them bc someone else 'wants them'. it's like high school but so much worse.

This sounds like a cultural issue. Does management think that competition/ aggression results in better work product?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At my federal agency, it depends. For terrible non-supervisory employees with diligent supervisors, the formal discipline process can progress to the point of removal after about a year. For employees with leadership who aren't that diligent about getting them out, it can take forever.

For people in positions of leadership where the situation becomes intolerable (multiple EEO complaints, investigations, etc), they are usually pushed out into "retirement" or reassigned into a non-supervisory "senior adviser" position where they sit in a corner and do basically nothing. My colleague jokingly called these reassignments "the land of the lost." These upset me because they're still collecting a big paycheck, don't have to supervise people anymore, and have little to no portfolio. Sounds like a good gig for being terrible.

By terrible I mean a variety of behaviors to include harassment, bullying etc.

Same at my agency. Though we do have one lovely adviser who stood out for stunningly clueless behavior related to diversity and inclusion and is now a big spokesperson for…diversity and inclusion. It is nauseating.

Yeah I’ve seen that too. The offenders that are all of a sudden so “caring”.

The Senior Advisor is often a role for a crappy senior manager or someone who got in trouble for something. It is infuriating to see these arrogant useless people collect a big paycheck for doing almost nothing. We have one at my agency who makes so much more than I do it’s insane and no one knows what she does. Another was moved due to what was a stupid but highly visible mistake and I very much like them. No ego, takes whatever work is given and jumps in. Occasionally they’re the result of a reorg that ended up with too many managers and those people are usually okay. More often than that …..it’s the mark of something negative having happened.

Private sector and we have something similar…we put them in “special projects” as directors or senior managers and they collect a paycheck.

Yes at my non profit they got a big office, no staff, and title of manager of special projects.

[Anonymous]

My company fired two high performers after separate instances of harassing junior employees. I’m proud to work there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, can you give examples of what you mean?

There are attorneys in my (fed govt) office who behave terribly (yelling, nastiness) particularly the litigators. There are no consequences.

There are attorneys throughout the agency who behave inappropriately in other more "mild" ways (microaggressions or straight up aggressions in meetings, particularly towards women and minorities, talking over people, taking credit for their work, dismissing their ideas, etc.) and generally it is ignored. I know of at least two individuals who had something escalated to their management because it was so bad that other staffers felt uncomfortable and said something. I don't know if there was a PIP, but eventually one did leave for another job.

A prior poster said something about how people may not know there are PIPs and that someone is leaving of their own accord due it one. I suspect that is often the case but I am not in management/ HR. But there are also some awful people that stick around.

op - it's so many things so many times a day.
people getting fired off pieces of biz via group email intro-ing the new person. everyone throwing everyone else under the bus all the time. people refusing to recognize someone else's role or job title, or just refusing to work with them bc they want to build their own thing. people being told whole teams are moving out from under them bc someone else 'wants them'. it's like high school but so much worse.

This sounds like a cultural issue. Does management think that competition/ aggression results in better work product?

I can only assume. It totally baffles me

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My company fired two high performers after separate instances of harassing junior employees. I’m proud to work there.

What kind of company was this? Large/ small/ sector? I looking for something new but want to find a place with this kind of culture.

[Anonymous]

When I worked for the fed gov really bad behavior, including things like sexual harassment and really messing up the work, weren't addressed at all. It was shocking, really.

Now that I'm an independent contractor, people who behave terribly aren't asked back pretty quickly (except if we are really, really short staffed, which happens sometimes).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They get promoted.

x100000

No education, no expertise? You're the ONE! You are promoted!

[Anonymous]

One got promoted, narc to the bone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, can you give examples of what you mean?

There are attorneys in my (fed govt) office who behave terribly (yelling, nastiness) particularly the litigators. There are no consequences.

There are attorneys throughout the agency who behave inappropriately in other more "mild" ways (microaggressions or straight up aggressions in meetings, particularly towards women and minorities, talking over people, taking credit for their work, dismissing their ideas, etc.) and generally it is ignored. I know of at least two individuals who had something escalated to their management because it was so bad that other staffers felt uncomfortable and said something. I don't know if there was a PIP, but eventually one did leave for another job.

A prior poster said something about how people may not know there are PIPs and that someone is leaving of their own accord due it one. I suspect that is often the case but I am not in management/ HR. But there are also some awful people that stick around.

op - it's so many things so many times a day.
people getting fired off pieces of biz via group email intro-ing the new person. everyone throwing everyone else under the bus all the time. people refusing to recognize someone else's role or job title, or just refusing to work with them bc they want to build their own thing. people being told whole teams are moving out from under them bc someone else 'wants them'. it's like high school but so much worse.

This sounds like a cultural issue. Does management think that competition/ aggression results in better work product?

DP here. In my office, the one in charge is not qualified or available, and tends to blame other people and definitely never (ever) takes responsibility - so, I think that is what she wants in the office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One got promoted, narc to the bone.

+1

Always. Never recognize the good workers, the qualified people who are good (usually great) at what they do, and the healthy personalities - reward those who are just as psycho as the top person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nothing. I work at a school.

Yup do-nothing admins and they all stay... often get promoted or put in district offices.