OK - now I really don't know what to do (RE: "Why is everyone afraid of her?")

[Lexophile]

Maggie has now dropped the hint that she wishes I would go to management with what happened yesterday (see my original post entitled "Why is everyone so afraid of her?"). This is tricky, as my own role in this company is sort of in linbo right now, and we all recently heard that the management wanted to fire all of us and start with a new admin team because of all the bickering that was going on about Connie. I have been very careful not to get involved with management about this whole thing, as I think it compromises my professionalism to participate in all of the cat-fighting. I do, however, feel obligated to help Maggie, as she has stepped in for me several times and stuck her neck out to help me. Further, it's starting to affect everyone's work and Tim needs to know what's going on. How do I word the email without it sounding like I'm getting involved in a problem that doesn't really have anything to do with me?

[ShadesOfGrey]

can you clarify exactly what Maggie wants you to do? There's so much in the OP I dont know what to address.  It does sound like you are getting involved in something that shouldnt involve you, though it does affect you.  I cant imagine Maggie asking you to do something that would tarnish your reputation, especially since you say she has fought for your reputation too.  Thanks.

[behindbj]

So - they would rather fire the lot of you than deal with the one person causing all of the trouble?

Why do you want to work there?

behindbj

[Lexophile]

Long story short, I wish I didn't have to work here. But I've worked so hard for so long to get them to put me in this highly specialized role (that doesn't exist in many companies), so I've decided to stick around for awhile now that they are paying some attention to me. I can't really leave now after I've put so much effort into getting where I am.

I refer to the story about Sandy, the PM who called and tried to bully me into cleaning up Connie's mess rather than taking the matter into her own hands and talking to Maggie about it because she's afraid to lose Connie's cooperation. I have to say something. I spent time arguing with Sandy yesterday that I should have been spending on work that was scheduled ahead of time. I just have to be careful how I word it so it doesn't look like I'm taking sides. Maggie asked me to relay the information because she feels as if she's just being ignored now.

[Xanthia, Maker of fine Tin-foil hats since 2007]

So - they would rather fire the lot of you than deal with the one person causing all of the trouble?

Why do you want to work there?

behindbj

This has happened to me.  I worked with someone and shared a space with her who threatened to hit me if I called her ma'am (it was an accident, I really tried not to), tried to get me fired for how my lunch smelled, because I coughed when she was near me and it might get her sick, because I told her that her Saint candle was smoking a lot and was bothering my eyes, because I listened to talk radio on headphones so she felt she could not listen to her music without headphones (she played the same 3 Cd's over and over and over).  We shared a space and I had seniority (she had left the company 2 times before, and made everyone miserable while she was there, but the boss took her back because he felt sorry for her because everyone else kept firing her).

When I finally had enough, she was making me so miserable that I cried and was getting nosebleeds at work she was upsetting me so much with her behavior that I went to the boss to ask what I could do to help the situation.  My boss told me she was jealous of me, and that I should suck it up, but if I caused any more trouble by complaining, I would be fired.

They took away an examiners office and put the examiner in with me and her in her own office (which is what she wanted all along).  The examiner found another job, I switched to another position and then to another company and later found out that I was about to be fired if I had not changed positions.  AND WHY WAS THAT, it was because I was so much better at my job than her and so much easier to get along with that my old boss knew I could easily get another job, but the PITA had been fired from every other company in the industry that was in a 30 mile radius and had no place else to go.

Yeah for "right to work states", you can be fired at any time for any reason, even it it is because you are good at your job and the other person is a lousy PITA.

[audrey1962]

Redleo - It sounds to me like Maggie wants you to go to management b/c it happened to you and therefore they may take it more seriously than if it went through her. Did you document the incident? If so, you may only need to make a print-out and hand it to Tim saying, "I thought you would want to know about this."

I don't know what line of business you're in, but I used to work in advertising and spent five years in New Business. All I did was re-format documents and it was incredibly stressful. We rarely had them proof-read by editors b/c there "wasn't time" despite the fact that I was at a major full-service agency and worked on pitches worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Instead, the account exec's would start proof-reading WHILE we were printing and binding, then bring individual pages over, "oh, add a comma to page 12." It was infuriating! My boss did nothing to stop it.

The good news: after I moved to a new position HR opened an investigation on her and she was eventually fired for incompentence, despite the fact that she had over 25 years seniority.

So I understand the battle you've been having convincing your workplace that editing is necessary.

[Lexophile]

And Colorado falls into that category. I had absolutely nothing to do with any of the bickering. In fact, I have yet to get involved and say ANYTHING to management. So if I decide to say something, I feel I have to be very careful abotu how I present it.

Does anyone have any advice on what to say?

[ShadesOfGrey]

Redleo12, I sympathize with your difficult situation, I really do. What I am about to say is going to sound harsh, but it is not meant harshly, it is just my honest opinion. 

Honestly, I dont advocate saying anything, because what happened to YOU isnt really a big enough issue to go to management about.  What is happening with Maggie is, because she is responsible for Connie's conduct.  But the truth is that, if Maggie is the manager, she has to come up with a constructive way to deal with Connie's insubordination, without going to management herself (until it is to recommend Connie's dismissal, backed up by poor written reviews, write-ups/disciplinary action, and iron-clad evidence of her sabotaging/lying).  If she is currently being ignored, perhaps she could begin documenting Connie's actions and try again.  I know you dont want to leave her in the dust on this one, but you 'sticking up' for her in this case is not the same as her advocating for you professionally (IMO, with my limited knowledge of the situation).  As far as how you dealt with Sandy, it was very professional, and EXACTLY what you should have done.  SANDY now needs to speak with Maggie about Connie's behavior, and it needs to escalate from there.  By getting involved, you will only damage your reputation, and you wont lend Maggie any credibility (as a professional or as a manager) by your actions either, especially if management has already considered firing everyone because of the bickering, you would only be entering the fray, in their opinion.  

I spent time arguing with Sandy yesterday that I should have been spending on work that was scheduled ahead of time.

That being said, it looks like you have clearly made up your mind to say something, and if so, I think you should use the above quote as your angle.  It is very difficult to tell you who to go to and what to say, because, really, this situation doesn’t involve you directly, other than a co-worker pressuring you to work on a project that you clearly stated that you did not have time for.  You could theoretically address Connie’s lies about using you as an editor, but I wouldn’t unless you have written proof that she has done that (which you mentioned in a previous post, which was the correct and professional way to go about it).

Go to the appropriate person and tell him/her that your time is being invaded upon by others in your department and that you would like to focus your work to be the most efficient possible, but if you keep being interrupted, that wont be possible.  Could the [appropriate person] please speak with the team to ensure that everyone understands their respective roles and what the duties of those roles are.

That’s about all you can realistically do.  My guess is that they are going to see it as you ‘entering the fray.’ and as Maggie not being able to handle her superior position. 

I hope it works out for you. Let us know what happens. 

[Lexophile]

I think the best thing for me to do is to be completely non-committal and non-emotional about the whole thing. I really do have to say something because this problem is escalating on a daily basis and it IS starting to affect my work and that of the entire team. More and more project managers are trying to bully me into cleaning up Connie's messes and I have to let management know that this is happening. Until they "officially annouce" Maggie's new authority, her hands are tied and she can't do anything about it.

I have come to the conclusion that a short, clear email to Maggie's manager saying simply, "Hey, I found myself in an odd situation yesterday. Here's what happened. I'm experiencing this more and more frequently. What is the best way for me to handle this in the future?" They cannot be angry at me for simply asking for clarification. I plan on only relating the facts and leaving the personality issues completely out of it. I'm not even going to tell Maggie that I'm doing it.

The crux of the matter is that, ultimately, it does affect me. The situation has escalated to the point where the entire team is running around in damage control mode because Connie refuses to be a team player. Until my new role comes through, I am a member of this team. If something isn't done about it soon, it's only going to get worse.

[ShadesOfGrey]

I have come to the conclusion that a short, clear email to Maggie's manager saying simply, "Hey, I found myself in an odd situation yesterday. Here's what happened. I'm experiencing this more and more frequently. What is the best way for me to handle this in the future?" They cannot be angry at me for simply asking for clarification. I plan on only relating the facts and leaving the personality issues completely out of it. I'm not even going to tell Maggie that I'm doing it.

sounds good. good luck

[hobish]

Hey Redleo, sorry you are stuck in such a rotten situation. rdge's post (reply #7) covered everything i was thinking, except she said it better. Be very careful in going to management. This really should be Maggie's issue - as previously stated, if she wants to make the team leader $$ she needs to make the team leader decisions & take responsibility for them.
The e-mail sounds ok, just be very careful what you say if drawn into anything. And if HR gets involved be even more careful what you say.
 I am really not clear on why Maggie can't reprimand Connie herself. If she knows that Connie is off-site without permission isn't there some sort of write-up that she could give her?
In the company i work for you get a write up that stays on your record for 6 months before it is erased. If in that 6 month time you are written up for the same thing it starts the whole 6 month cycle over again AND you get to have a happy little meeting with the soulless ghouls of HR (no offense to any HR folks out there - y'all scare me & that was Dilbert humor). A third instance of the same offense is likely to get you fired. Doesn't Big Company have anything like that already set in their guidelines?

[JoyinVirginia]

I think the best thing for me to do is to be completely non-committal and non-emotional about the whole thing. I have come to the conclusion that a short, clear email to Maggie's manager saying simply, "Hey, I found myself in an odd situation yesterday. Here's what happened. I'm experiencing this more and more frequently. What is the best way for me to handle this in the future?" They cannot be angry at me for simply asking for clarification. I plan on only relating the facts and leaving the personality issues completely out of it. I'm not even going to tell Maggie that I'm doing it.

I think this sounds perfect! Be objective, unemotional, and just relate the behaviors that affect you. This sounds like a good solution.
Joy in Virginia

[Lexophile]

Yeah - I should clarify something here. The current setup is that each of the admins have a project manager as their direct supervisor. The problem is that there is so much work that we also have a team leader to coordinate the work, run interference with difficulties, etc. Maggie was placed in the role earlier last year when smaller company first merged with larger company. As it stands right now - today - she is the senior member of our team, and is responsible for fielding requests for administrative help, but is not our official supervisor. So - while she is responsible for knowing where Connie is and what she is doing, she has no official supervisory authority; therefore, she cannot write Connie up, call her on her behavior, or do anything in an official capacity but go to the office manager and convince him to do something.

HOWEVER - The company is undergoing a reorganization, and the team has been reorganized as well. The NEW setup is that Maggie IS our supervisor, and we all report directly to her (I only know this because my role is going to change and I was told by Tim in confidence. Except for Maggie, the admin team per se has no idea that this is coming down the pipeline.). So, when the reorganization is finally officially rolled out, she will be in a position to discipline Connie for her rotten behavior. The problem right now is that the situation is escalating on a daily basis, and for some reason, the announcement of the new power structure has been inexplicably delayed. Tim was suppsoed to come to our admin team meeting today and break it down, but the final word giving the ok to announce everything hasn't come from the higher-up brass. So Maggie is frustratedly chomping at the bit to start taking action, but her hands are tied until she is officially acknowledged as our supervisor.

Hope that clears things up a bit.

[sammycat]

Is it all possible that the higher ups are waiting to see how Maggie handles this situation before they finally give the okay for her official promotion (or whatever it is)?  This of course would be very hard for Maggie to do as she is not yet actually in the capacity to be officially overseeing Connie's work/behaviour.  Kind of like catch-22.

[hobish]

Yeah - I should clarify something here. The current setup is that each of the admins have a project manager as their direct supervisor. The problem is that there is so much work that we also have a team leader to coordinate the work, run interference with difficulties, etc. Maggie was placed in the role earlier last year when smaller company first merged with larger company. As it stands right now - today - she is the senior member of our team, and is responsible for fielding requests for administrative help, but is not our official supervisor. So - while she is responsible for knowing where Connie is and what she is doing, she has no official supervisory authority; therefore, she cannot write Connie up, call her on her behavior, or do anything in an official capacity but go to the office manager and convince him to do something.

HOWEVER - The company is undergoing a reorganization, and the team has been reorganized as well. The NEW setup is that Maggie IS our supervisor, and we all report directly to her (I only know this because my role is going to change and I was told by Tim in confidence. Except for Maggie, the admin team per se has no idea that this is coming down the pipeline.). So, when the reorganization is finally officially rolled out, she will be in a position to discipline Connie for her rotten behavior. The problem right now is that the situation is escalating on a daily basis, and for some reason, the announcement of the new power structure has been inexplicably delayed. Tim was suppsoed to come to our admin team meeting today and break it down, but the final word giving the ok to announce everything hasn't come from the higher-up brass. So Maggie is frustratedly chomping at the bit to start taking action, but her hands are tied until she is officially acknowledged as our supervisor.

Hope that clears things up a bit.

In my experience, reorganization is the time to keep your head down & do a good job. If you want to be recognized for something it's the quality of your work, not your involvement with office politics. That is coming only from my experience in the last few years working for a small company that became part of a big company that was sucked up by the corporation that owned big company. Your position may be completely different.