Dear Aunty B,
You brighten my day and I always look forward to reading your blog when I get back from lunch.
My problem is this. I have a GM who is bullying me. He expects me to work long hours but won't give me a job description. I think I am doing about five people's jobs! He belittles me and calls me "blondie" and yells at me in front of others. Lately he has excluded me from meetings although I still attend the fixed meetings. It is no good telling me to ask him what is wrong. I did and he told me "I wouldn't understand".
I am a hard worker and always do a good job and had no trouble with my previous GM. But if he won't tell me what's wrong how am I to fix it?
The guy who owns our business is a real people's person and I am sure that if I explained it to him, I would get a response. It's just that he is not around a lot and doesn't know how bad this GM is. I have also asked for a performance review but was told we don't have time.
My question is, if I do that will it make my situation worse?
Hate my boss,
NSW
Dear Hatemyboss,
Heard the expression: Talk to the head not the arse? It's a good one. It means bypass your bullying GM who has no idea how to manage and complain to the top. Make sure everything is well documented with a list of what you want - ie. performance reviews, KPIs, etc.
Don't whinge and talk too much. Keep it factual and simple. It is likely you are not the first to complain. Make sure everything you say is to help the business run better and does not turn into a personal attack against the GM.
Good luck,
Your Aunty B
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Email your questions, problems and issues to auntyb@smartcompany.com.au right now!
I recognise the text book strategy and set up.
I have been there.
Read Joycelene Scutt's 'Work place Mobbing'.
Your boss does have an issue and you know it. Why doesn’t he name it up? He would if he could, obviously. How can he name up professional jealousy? Take careful note of Scutt's advice on going over his head. He is more experienced than you, and has known this would be your last resort, in response to his covert tactics, long before you did.
What has he done to prepare the ground? I am 99.99% certain he has already gone to the owner/CEO to undermine you, overtly or covertly shaping perceptions, in a very objective, factual, sincere way of course.
Even pointing out that you are a whinger likely to complain....and guess what: you validate, before you even get in the door, by making the appointment. The unknown quantity is, the CEO is more likely to depend on the GM.
Australians are notoriously inept and untrained at conducting performance reviews. In this climate if you insist upon one, from my experience, you are naively insisting upon being set up. This process requires integrity from all stakeholders. It is apparent from what you say trust in your GM's professionalism is, appropriately, absent. The most glowing performance can be written up negatively, faults magnified or invented and positives minimized or ignored. I know. I have been there.
The next bit is the team. They get the message from the boss, overtly or covertly, that if they want to get on, then any dirt on you is welcome, and will be well supported. If there isn't any they are bound to eventually, 'remember' something, and by the time it is massaged a bit with mind games it is just a matter of time before there is a complaint.
I could continue on with the spiral downwards in all its horrific detail, I could not have imagined happening. I should have got out at that stage. Indeed some friends said so. I thought this is my career, it is my effort that has created this department and all the jobs in it, and it is my superannuation. I could not for a moment comprehend that justice would not prevail. In the last stages my union rep. said ...do not think that there is any point of arrival where truth, integrity or justice will prevail.....' But I thought there was a principle at stake as well as my reputation (I had been moved sideways from my role without reason or natural justice).
What happened next: there was an extreme witch hunt in the guise of a '360 report'; then a false performance management report (no prior criteria of course, and no instruction or capacity to 'improve').
From being pointed out as a role model to others by management, from being an organisation star performance on every aspect of the Balanced Scorecard, and winning the respect of every manager except one, I found myself sacked on the basis of the above fabricated reports, with no recourse. I was tricked and manoeuvred, by claims and counter offers to confuse the issue, out of taking it to the Industrial Commissioner and did not realise it until too late. That was 3 years ago. I am now 58. Guess what? My ex-managers best friend went straight into my old job.
It is usual for every prospective employer to ring the last manager. Even though some of my referees are my prior managers, prospective employers do not go past the last employer.
If had known that they will go to extremes to blacken you, and break you financially, just to ‘save face’, I would have left with some reputation, and gone elsewhere where my skills would be appreciated.
If this painful episode in my life is a help to anyone I will be pleased:
Have courage, and leave.