Thrown under the bus first thing this morning by the office manager.

[lunchbox]

On Friday, Boss tells me to do something one way, and the office manager says no, that's not how it's done. Boss isn't around to ask. I tell her again that it's what he wants, and she says no. Having been here only 7 months I don't want to start a war with the office manager, so I say ok, whatever works for your needs, thinking if there's a problem later I can blame her.

This morning, boss calls me in and berates me for not doing what he told me to do. I tell him that the office manager said that it wasn't how she wanted things routed. He calls her in...she denies ever saying that. Berating continues....

****ing bitch.

If she thinks I'll ever forget that, she's very mistaken.

 

[Kamen_Kaiju]

meet her in the parking lot after school and kick her ass.

..or use your phone and record all your future conversations with her,...just in case.

 

[MaceRider]

Office bureaucracy man. Get everything on paper if you can. Instead of discussing something by the water cooler, send her an email instead. That way if shit hits the fan, it's not you who takes the blame.

This is one of the pleasures of working from home, for me. My coworkers and I literally only talk via Skype chat.

 

[Barcham]

If someone countermands your boss's orders, ALWAYS get it in writing. If not, follow your boss's instructions and no one else's.

 

[Howard2k]

Email. I don't issue instructions or approvals over the phone or face to face. I do all that stuff by email.

 

[artis_xe]

pm me

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wIEGCnHEgg[/ame]

 

[H.E.L.Shane]

That happened to me once.. But this cost the company a few thousand dollars because it was to do with building something...and I built at least 20 of them wrong after reading the specs that the OWNER gave me...after the supervisor telling me me to get the F out if i didnt do it his way. (The supervisor and I had history anyway.. he liked a girl i was dating in high school.. when he was 20 something)

so there I was, tearing apart these frames for cabinets that were all F'd up, not getting paid for it until I was finally able to produce a witness at lunch when he came in for his shift...

Drug the supervisor in the office with the witness and got him stammering and stuttering..

I then told the boss that he had better stop hiring feltchers like that, that i quit, and then i punched the supervisor in the gut, and walked out the bay doors to the sound of raucous cheering.

That was 23 years ago..

Damn.. time flies

I heard that the supervisor was fired a few weeks later for something else but i haven't been by that place since

I wonder whatever happened to that place, owner was actually cool guy, smart as hell and i liked him.
(guy could have fired me instead of letting me fix the problem.. and i probably would still have had a job if i hadn't gut checked the dude.. but.. I was 19.......)




Sorry there's no immediate retribution for you.. cause i know it would bug the shit out of me until i finally got even some how.

 

[Kamen_Kaiju]

I then told the boss that he had better stop hiring feltchers like that, that i quit, and then i punched the supervisor in the gut.

this is why guys like us get denied corporate jobs.

 

[acstorfer]

Tough situation. I would have just did what my boss said most likely, but it's tough going against the office manager. They definitely have power trips. He who controls the paper, tape, staples, toner, new chairs, and pens, control the universe!

Still though, if I went your route and after only 7 months I probably would have just sucked it up and took the ass-chewing. In an office you have to carefully choose your battles. Seven months in, you get the ass-chew no harm, no foul, you're new and sh*t happens. In the future, when you're entrenched and established, if you have a "I'll take care of it immediately" attitude, and you're known to take on your responsibilities and lickings, you'll have much more clout for future issues when it really counts. It sounds kiss-ass I know, but office politics are more strategical than chess.

CHOOSE YOUR BATTLES!

Even if the office manager fessed up, your boss would be pissed off that you chose to listen to that person instead of him/her. It was a battle you couldn't win in any circumstance. Take the bullet, jump on the grenade, fall on your sword, when you have to. The respect will come. Now all that happened is your boss thinks you can't do your job, he/she thinks you're a liar, and you made an enemy of the office manager.

 

[CodeMonk]

If someone countermands your boss's orders, ALWAYS get it in writing. If not, follow your boss's instructions and no one else's.

This.
Chain of command. Follow it.
If the office manager is above your boss in YOUR chain, then she's a major chicken shit bitch for denying giving an order.

 

[Rich]

Welcome to office politics. That sucks, man, and I know what it feels like. Take comfort in knowing that even the most connected weasels and vipers always get washed out eventually.

 

[mudfinger]

Always, always, CYA.

 

[Kamen_Kaiju]

Office politics sounds like a special level of Hell.

 

[mudfinger]

Office politics sounds like a special level of Hell.

If you've never worked in an office, consider yourself blessed.

 

[H.E.L.Shane]

this is why guys like us get denied corporate jobs.

Tell me about it dude.. I had a suit and tie job for a couple years, was the assistant director for the state of PA in the agency I worked in..

and swallowed so much anger and took so much shit without being able to give some privileged politically appointed asscrack the beating he so richly deserved that i eventually had to quit and take a break from state service for a few years before I really hurt someone. I realized it the day I made a guy piss himself in the elevator for stepping on my balls during a meeting because he assumed that he knew more about field work than someone who actually worked in the field for five years before hand.

That probably cost me a couple hundred thousand dollars in lost wages over my career if not more.

When you get right down to it.. I'm a caveman with a geeks brain... in some ways it works... in other ways.. its a disaster!!!

 

[acstorfer]

Office politics sounds like a special level of Hell.

Depends if you're winning or losing. You can climb without stepping on people. There is one rule and you can climb without fear of backstabbers (and yes, there are always backstabbers). There is one rule when you work in an office. Your ONLY job is to make your supervisor look good. If your boss looks good, the whole team looks good.

 

[Kamen_Kaiju]

I don't feel blessed.

 

[acstorfer]

If you've never worked in an office, consider yourself blessed.

The movie "Office Space" was written by Mike Judge. It was dead on accurate. MJ never worked in an office. I have no idea how he knew.

 

[lunchbox]

Always, always, CYA.

And that's exactly what she did.

 

[acstorfer]

And that's exactly what she did.

She had the clout. You could never have won on that. Earn the clout and you'll never lose.