Since I left working in the Laboratories and moved into processing, it has really highlighted what a cesspit of petty behavior, working in the labs really was! The constant need of one-upmanship by fellow co-workers was at times, beyond belief! I am not saying it doesn't happen in processing/manufacturing areas, because it does! I'm sure it happens in all areas of work! But nowhere near the levels I had become accustomed to in a certain QC department where I once worked.When my sister worked in the same department she was subjected to some victimisation and backstabbing (enough to warrant a career change and become a nurse) and now my brother who works in this department has also just been at the hands of some backstabbing son's of bitches!
Let's remind ourselves what backstabbing is according to it's dictionary definitions:-
To attack (someone) unfairly, especially in an underhand, deceitful manner
treacherous actions or remarks that are likely to cause harm to a person
So two people from his department had words with the boss and said that he (my brother) and two other colleages that he works with are lazy, rude, nasty to people and unhelpful! (all of which, I can personally say, could be directly attributed to one of the people that we suspect, may have reported my brother) The boss raised these issues with my brother and the other two accused, as was his duty as area manager, but knowing my brothers personality, he chose to believe him! As I do, even though he is my brother!
My brother thinks he knows who reported him by eliminating certain persons who were not there at the time or people he would choose to trust, and so managed to narrow it down to the two people he thinks are the culprits, based on character traits and past histories! I guessed who he suspected straight away, but the truth of the matter is that you never really can tell what any of your colleages are thinking and/or plotting behind your back!
I think I know why this has happened, a short time ago, the previous area manger (as useless as she was) took a liking to my brother and he subsequently became her 'blue eyed boy' and could do no wrong, and this new course of backstabbing has come about due to envy, jelousy and a petty, self righteous feeling of giving my brother his 'just deserts' for being favoured by the previous manager!
5 comments:
Kev, as far as workplace politics are concerned there are at least 2 sides, though my own experience tells me it's a multitude.
Your post provoked me to write my own article which touches on the issues you raised and my own experiences.
Personally, I think there's a cancer going around the world at work, it's the performance review in conjunction with people's pay rises, bullying, managers who shouldn't be manager's in the first place, the competitive system which sets employee vs employee and in my own experience finding that my father had to die before my then manager would accept me as a member of the human race.
Such is life!
This sort of thing is absolutely the opposite of the way a healthy company should work (and I have worked for some of the biggest companies in the world), doing the "blame game" is an absolutely brain-dead approach for management (for the obvious reason that this is their easiest path to a stress free life - "No, it wasn't me, it was this lower person, see!" and then, without understanding the situation, just pick the victim)...
However, in any large successful company (GE for example), everyone feels like they are part of the machinery and integral to the functionality of the whole, then loyalty will peak quite naturally and everyone will be working towards the same goal to the best of their ability...if a problem occurs then the managers job is to pick *everyone* up and make sure everyone is motivated to find the solution "Right, so we have ourselves a problem, what do we have to do to get ourselves out of this and stay clean?"...well, in my long (global) experience it's certainly not to bloody moan/whine/complain"...upsetting everyone, that's just lame...
Fear is a shit motivator...and frankly directly destroys loyalty...
It's the idiot managers path direct to failure (without passing GO and with no £200)...
Obviously either paranoid or very poor management exist where you work, I am afraid...I'm really sorry dude! :(
the sad thing is sometimes it is the people you least suspect who turn out to be the back stabbers. it really is sad when work is like a playground and people act like small children.
This is one of the reasons I have always chosen to work for smaller companies - much easier to watch your back and see whose trying to get you.
It is only fair that your brother now has the right to physically attack the persons whom have said this just to sort of prove them wrong!
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