The Glade 4.0

A guy at work loves to play superhero, wants to be "the go-to guy" to everyone. He has great skills and if I have a problem he's the first guy I go to for bouncing ideas off. He and I are both contractors. I happen to like the guy. He's not really a team player, but divas aren't in short supply at the level I work at, so it's not a big deal.

Problem is, he wants my job (lead for storage) so bad he can taste it. I'm not sure why, but he does...as I've recently found out.

So, the functional manager retires and one of the employees we've both worked with for years gets slotted for the job. I get asked if I want to be systems lead in addition to storage, but I turn the job down. I'm really too busy at times to even think about being systems lead too. I suggest that the hero get the job, and they give it to him. (I'm not a hero. I come from the school that says the IT guy is doing his job if you DON'T hear about him. But, I digress. Back to the story...)

Thing is, the systems lead also manages the job queue, and this guy has taken to assigning the storage jobs to himself. Things are slack at the moment because additional storage gets paid for and starts getting allocated after the first of the year, but some small jobs are getting queued up, and I noticed what he was doing. It isn't a big deal, it could be that he knew that I like to rewrite my tools during the yearly lull, but, well, it's not the first time this guys made a power play.

So I go to the manager and ask if I'm still the storage lead. No biggie, it could be that with the management change I'm not. I'm pretty sure though that I'm safe... I have never made a mistake that prevented me from delivering on time and within budget, and I'm ultra meticulous. The hero... not so much. He just misses dotting an "i" or crossing a "t" occasionally, and he makes performance promises he can't keep... and that's one of my specialities, I always hit my target. So I figure I already know the answer, and sure enough, I'm still storage lead.

So, no harm, no foul, right? Just a misunderstanding, and I ask the manager to touch base with the hero and it will all be fine. The new manager talks to the hero, tells him that all storage tickets get assigned to David, no biggie. Well, unfortunately, the hero wasn't misunderstood, he really does want to lead storage as well as systems. "No" says the manager. From that point on, it got ugly. Higher level management gets involved, drama ensues, feelings get hurt. Talk about getting rid of the hero is rumored to have been talked. I don't get involved with any of that, my contribution ended after I was told that I'm still lead.

The hero comes to me, all butt hurt.

"Why couldn't you have just come to me if you had a problem" he says.

"First", I say, "I needed to know if there was a problem. Since I was told that I'm still lead for storage, I don't have a problem... but I'm not sure the same applies for you".

The moral of the story is, the right question at the right time beats a full house...or something like that. All I know is, this drama crap makes me uncomfortable. Consultants shouldn't ever engage in politics.

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In time, this too shall pass.

I'm thinking that it might not be so much about him wanting your job, but that he's pissed off that they offered to let you be both the systems and storage lead but they won't let him do both.

Hmm... whereas I think in some ways that's actually all they do.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

Don't know many political consultants huh?

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Latest update - the hero went 2 managers up the chain and threatened to quit if he doesn't get his way.

The functional manager tells me to be prepared for more work.

Llamas don't like dramas. I've left this company like 4 times now for various reasons... I wanted more pay, there were announcements of layoffs, stuff like that. I'm a consultant so they don't owe me ... but I don't owe them either. We've been able to work it out. This "I'm going to quit" crap...WTF?

Has anyone on this planet EVER heard of that working out in the long run?

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In time, this too shall pass.

How subtle.



Rarely.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

This is frickin bullcrap. Of course they love drama. That's why we call them drama llamas. The fact that the words rhyme make it true.

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The Dude abides.

Sadly, I have...

For this one special little snowflake

Well, ok... true, but camelids are the ONLY ones that can get away with causing drama. It's 'cause their charm and animal magnetism can get them out of any trouble.

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In time, this too shall pass.

One of the best managers I have ever had was famous for accepting the threatened resignation on the spot and walking them to their desk to get their stuff. He only had to do it twice. Never happened again.

There may be jobs where that works, but government doesn't tend to be one of them.

One of them took him up on walking out and was never heard from again. The other begged forgiveness and left anyway for another job a couple months later. Neither of the players was missed. They were just nowhere near as indispensable as they thought they were.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

I was once offered a 2 year stint in hell doing work that I loathe.

I stated that I would happily accept the job without complaint, perform above expectations, and provide a minimum of two weeks notice if I found another position back doing the work that I am passionate about.

It worked, and there hasn't been any <noticeable> fallout. They sent someone else, who burned out and quit, and then sent someone else, who burned out and quit.

I've never even seen it work in the short run. The only time I've seen someone try that, they were fired on the spot on general principle.

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

I got a raise out of it once, but I didn't threaten, I quit because the boss was being entirely unreasonable. Expecting me to know the warehouse mangement system as good as the warehouse manager who was out and I was covering for them and shown basic function only. He apparently thought smart people could just know what arcane commands to type in to do stuff because well just because. VC-1518 and stuff like that.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

I'm honestly not sure what the "correct" way is to try and finagle more money out of your current employer if they don't want to do it willingly. Everyone says that doing some interviews and getting an offer somewhere else for more money, then using that offer to negotiate with your current boss is also a terrible idea.

The correct way is to leave for a higher-paying position elsewhere.

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It can be, but it doesn't have to be a 'terrible' experience.

In my line of work it happens all of the time with varying success.

QFT.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

Real gangsta *** niggas don't flex muscles, 'cause real gangsta *** niggas know they got 'em.

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The Dude abides.