Didn't hire a managers niece; now he's turned on me
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Anonymous
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Would you go to Hr or how do you solve this without losing your job?
A senior manager in my department asked me to hire his niece for an open entry level position in my sub department. He even arranged to get her put on as a temp to get her through the system. While we were arranging the logistics of the position, I was able to "test" her out by giving her some work. Her work was awful. Didn't finish any assignments. Showed up late, left early and was uncoachable. I told him that I needed to interview a minimum of 3 candidates, per company rules. I hired a more qualified candidate with a stronger portfolio and more experience. My direct supervisor agreed with the decision. Since I passed on his niece, he's turned on me. He used to be an advocate and mentor.He now is impossible to work with. He spoke ill of me to another department. Purposely missed deadlines for joint project and got furious when I had to go to another manager for last minute help. He even lodged an unfounded complaint to my bosses boss about me being insubordinate and incompetent regarding handling a client assignment. Luckily, my boss was with me for the interaction in question and was able to counter it. Along with a glowing letter from our client. This guy never says anything to me directly or even to my boss - he always goes two steps above. I feel like I'm being bullied. I used to love my job but now I'm scared to do anything. My company is very hierarchical and they always take a senior managers word over a junior. My boss "doesn't want to rock the boat" and wants me to just take it. What would you do? The soonest I can look for a job is early 2016. |
Anonymous
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Did you properly "coach" him when you decided to pass on his niece? Meaning you gave him very concrete details before hiring someone else?
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Anonymous
| If all that you've told us is documented in writing, this seems like the perfect case for HR. |
Anonymous
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Sorry you're in this position, OP. What an awful person!
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Anonymous
| The guy probably assured the niece she was getting the job and is now embarrassed that he can't pull that off and taking it out on you. that sucks. |
Anonymous
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I'm for one glad that you didn't hire her. She basically came into your area and showed her behind and how she would work under you.
Crazy how some people would have hired her to keep the peace with her uncle. Keep documenting but at least start looking for a new position. |
Anonymous
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since your boss won't help you, I think it's fine to go to HR. Hopefully you have some documentation of the facts as you state them here. If nothing else, it will be on HR's radar and if he escalates to more complaints or tries to get you fired.
You can broach it as trying to get some help in navigating the situation versus trying to get this guy in trouble |
Anonymous
Don't leave your job - it's your job - fight for it. When it come to workplace bullies, I've (almost) always taken the direct route. Go talk to the uncle. Explain (again?) why you didn't hire his niece and confront him about his retaliatory behavior. Tell him point blank you expect him to stop. Like all bullies, he will say one of two things - 1) deny he's doing anything wrong, or 2) ask you what you're going to do about it (i.e. he doesn't fear HR). In both cases, you must do one important thing - stay calm. Then you look him straight in the eye and tell him that you're not going to HR, since that would be a waste of time. Rather, you're not afraid of his actions against you and will do whatever it takes (i.e. make something up about him) to ensure that he feels the same pain he's putting you through. He has a lot more to lose, especially if your accusations would be something that regulatory authorities would be interested in investigating. Follow Kevin Spacey's lead in American Beauty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJVXg1AHQTY |
Anonymous
| I think you are fried. |
Anonymous
Look, when you rely on others to fight your battles (ie HR), you're setting yourself up for failure. HR won't do anything against a powerful employee. YOU will be labeled a problem employee and the manager will make sure that he finds something you've done to get you fired (and everyone has something). If HR would actually do anything, then the manager wouldn't behave the way he is. I knew a guy who had a manager like yours. He made sure to make the guy's life miserable until he stopped. The manager's files mysteriously disappeared. His computer stopped working for mysterious reasons. Etc... Nothing the boss could do about it, since the employee was careful about not getting caught and had plausible deniability. When his manager confronted him, all he did was deny, deny, deny... He explained that the manager had several people in the department that didn't like him and offered to "keep an eye out" for anyone who might be messing with the manager. |
Anonymous
In that case, why not give as good as the OP gets? |
Anonymous
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Follow Kevin Spacey's lead in American Beauty:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJVXg1AHQTY I'm NOT the OP, but GREAT!, now I'm sitting here (at work) watching the entire movie! |
Anonymous
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OP - here. I'm considering both professionally taking to him and talking to HR. It's just crazy behavior. He actually does this to others, I'm just the low man on the totem pole so I get the brunt of it.
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Anonymous
| it will probably pass in time. Just take it for now. If you go to HR, it'll just linger. |
Anonymous
I'm NOT the OP, but GREAT!, now I'm sitting here (at work) watching the entire movie! Aren't you going to feel depressed at the end of the day from unproductivity? |