So, I have a bit of a complicated issue with my supervisor. He is constantly saying negative and derogatory comments about other people in front of me, calling our VP a bitch, complaining about people messing with spreadsheets and calling them stupid or ignorant, he has shown limited interest in coaching others or helping them develop into better works. Now I learned that he is saying negative things about me in front of other people. Basically said that I get overwhelmed, and implying that I am not as organized as i could be. Which I completely disagree with. I work at a health plan and produce clinical data reports, including studies, dashboard reports on our performance, and developing ideas for Quality Improvement strategies for a series of clinical measures just to name a few. On top of that, I work with an antiquated database tool which constantly crashes, moves slowly, and is very complicated to accurately return outputs. He knows this, but seems annoyed that it takes a while to complete these reports. I have tried everything to speed up my processes, but I just feel at a loss because I'm trying as hard as I can, but its just not acknowledged or appreciated.
I believe he is genuinely a good person at heart, but this constant need to criticize and complain about people has made me extremely uncomfortable. The odd thing is, when you go in and ask for feedback, he has given me and others glowing reviews. But it is really irritating when he says one thing to your face, and then talks about you badly or, more accurately, with condescension behind your back. I am torn about whether or not to say something. My wife is telling me to just ignore the noise and do my work as best as I can, but I really feel I am deserving of a raise this year and this makes me less confident that he agrees that I deserve this. I really just want him to stop talking about people, including me, to colleagues and co-workers and to acknowledge the work that I and others are doing.
Or, you can talk to the guy and tell him that you don't want to hear his complaints and bitches about other employees; It is distracting and with faulty equipment in use, you don't have time for his rants because you heard that he was complaining to other employees about you.
Sure it is a bad trait for someone in his position but I'm not sure it is your place to try and fix him. It would be one thing if he was giving you unfair bad reports or treating your horribly but it doesn't sound like that at all.
IMO if you learn to accept him, flaws and all you will probably feel more pity for him than anger or frustration.
Just don't allow yourself to get sucked in to where you go along with his negative talk about others.
Since you want to stay there I wouldn't make an issue of it unless it starts to affect you reviews, etc. Just continue to take the high road. I'm sure most others are aware that he does this. If someone says that he said something about you just laugh it off and just say something like, "ha, that's just John, you know how he can be". Just be the bigger person and understand you are dealing with a smaller person who by your own description is basically a good person at heart, but has some issues. I have found understanding others flaws makes it much easier to empathize with them and what they go through and then it's easy to just roll with it and not allow it to bother you. It's his issue not yours.
Good Luck
You dont have to make any threats or call any names to put this fuck in his place. Once he knows his shooting his mouth off made it back to you he's going to have the oh shit moment and start to drive himself crazy wondering not whether, but how much, of all the awful shit hes said made its way to the person.
That he gives you good reviews doesn't mean he likes you. It means he's too much of a pussy to say what he thinks to your face. Literally the worst kind of supervisor. Find another job.
Sometimes money, convenience, comfort, and commute are so good it helps cover up some of the other stuff, but that only last a little while.
tons of links on this topic, I work in a field that deals with HR, so I'm fairly confident I know this stuff pretty well. One link is provided below.
Now, I'm not suggesting you leave. There are a lot of factors to consider such as do you have a family to provide for, do you have another job, are your current skills marketable, etc.
I'm not quoting science here, just personal experience from a hiring standpoint...it's much easier to get a new job when you have a job vs when you are unemployed.
And I would advise against going to HR with this depending on how big your company is. Nothing worse for HR than having an employee complain their boss is mean. if he's not breaking any laws or putting the company in a legal spot, HR more likely than not (in a big company especially) won't care.
If you do have performance reviews still (they're disappearing rapidly in corporate America) that is a good time to "voice" your concerns, they're usually anonymous and they provide a company a documented record of questionable (or worse) performance. That is actionable. Your hearsay about a manager who talks behind people's backs and doesn't provide adequate coaching or constructive feedback isn't really or at least isn't likely to be acted upon.
Link - ( New Window )
Unfortunately after a number of years it started to affect my professional standing within the department. I ended up retiring earlier than planned. However by staying above her tactics I sleep much better.
Good luck and follow some of the other suggestions about improving your technical knowledge.
Tell your boss (in private of course) that you heard that there may be issues with your performance, specifically x, y and z.
Don't accuse him of saying something or even imply that he's directly responsible for the complaint. "I heard that you said..." would be perceived as a challenge and is totally unnecessary. Stating that you heard there might be issues with your performance, without attributing it to a specific person will diffuse the situation and allow your boss to address it, without being defensive.
Follow your initial statement with something like, "This concerns me because none of this came up during my performance review and in fact you gave me a good performance review."
Finish with, "Do you have concerns about x, y and z... and are there specific things that I need to do to improve?"
This approach makes you look like an employee that only wants to improve his performance and it gives your boss a less stressful way to discuss any issues he might have with you.
Good luck!
And there will be zero blow back on you for calling him out.
/sarcasm
Unless this is a company you love and can't imagine working elsewhere or your skill set is so narrow there are just not a lot of other job opportunities for you beyond this company I'd keep my head down, do my job, and look elsewhere.
Promotions can be more political, and you may have a problem there.
Your wife is right. Ignore everything that doesn't pertain to your actual work.
Good luck
He said I did the right thing and he's very appreciative with my candor. But he also said he has never talked badly about people behind their backs which I know is not true, but I didn't call him on that.
I am angling to get a raise so I wanted to get this all on the table at once and he said we can talk about that next week. He was nice about the whole thing, but I'm sure he's pissed at my co-workers, but he said he won't say anything. Besides the person who was telling me this stuff sounds like she is abou to leave
he's joking, he's saying strapped, pack heat, aka carry a firearm.
I probably wouldn't have brought it up.
What makes you think the guy that talks behind your back and then denies (lies about) it isn't going to "say anything" about you being a bitch about it?
And really you should never term down a job that offers you more money --
Keep your head down, do your work and look elsewhere.
Just document everything... and I mean everything. Send him an e-mail fully explaining the issues with the system and estimate how many working hours it costs you in a year.
Then, print out copies and keep them at home just in case the company decides to go "Hillary" on you and wipe the server clean with a cloth.
If you're having problems everywhere you go, it might not always be the other guy.
Just sayin'.
Unless there is prejudice or some other type of illegal activity, there is nothing his boss is done that having email proof of will help him in any way that I'm familiar with. Am I overlooking something?
Maybe that's a good practice to begin with, but now you're advising him to go down a path with his manager, the person who has the most direct impact on his work life, that pits them as adversaries.
If after an ill-advised (by me at least) conversation he now follows it up with an email summarizing everything, unless the manager is just not very smart it will be obvious the employee is "making a case against him"
Why even introduce that, it only makes his job more of a hassle and things could get worse.
Not sure how blastin' the boss in the butt helps here... But it probably can't make the situation any worse.
The gun to work idea is good. Since I can't bring a gun to work I'm more of a shit on the boss's desk kind of guy.
1 year stays are not really jumping around especially if you're in a tech related field where years are like dog years - 1 year = like 7 years and you have experienced a lot in that year, if you leave a place on bad terms or have gaps in your resume it looks bad, but staying somewhere a year and moving on is no longer thought of as "job hopping" like back in the day when you had GE or Pratt and Whitney lifers (for example).
That is absolutely not true, nowhere near reality.
Probably not anymore
(just kidding)
Quote:
if your boss sucks that much then you will out last him/her.
That is absolutely not true, nowhere near reality.
+1000000
You probably just fucked up your relationship with your boss.