He raised his voice and said "LET. ME. FINISH"

[Yomuma]

I have worked with his chap for a couple of years. We are at a similar level and have the same line manager.

I have had ongoing issues with him, as have numerous others. A few colleagues have come to me in tears over the way he has spoken to them (harshly and aggressively). I personally think he is borderline incompetent at his job (I have been in the company for 18 years so would like to think I can judge this). I keep raising it, but my line manager has just retired, the new one is only just getting up to speed and our HR partner has just left. So it is not getting much traction.

The last few days I have had a very specific challenge that I don't know how to deal with. Yesterday, on a call with a new client (around 8 of us in the teams meeting) he launched into a bit of a rant / reasons why we should do this or not do that (none of it correct / he had his facts wrong). I had some really valid points relating to what he was saying (answer to his issue / question). I tried to jump in by saying "ah, on that point..." to direct the conversation in a useful direction, at which point he leaned in to his camera, raised his voice and said (slowly) "LET...ME...FINISH". I just mumbled sorry and shut up. It was really awkward and I felt like I then couldn't contribute. By the time he had finished speaking, we were on to a new topic, and time was up so I never got to make my points. This or something similar has happened a few times. Last week on a meeting he said / shouted "LIPS STILL MOVING" when I tried to interject.

I am frustrated that I don't have a response to him or way of dealing with it, other than to just 'shut up' and do as I am told.

I'm really keen to know who you would deal with it, or what response I can give in the moment?

Who told you to speak up more?

Record all meetings.

As another poster said - raise hand and say
‘going back to the point raised by x, my take on this is ….. ‘

and the end of the meeting email him and say

meeting etiquette
Exactly as another poster said

If it's in Teams, you could use the raised hand and write something in the chat - so at the time of raising hand also type, 'I can help with the point about x'. So then there is a reason to go back to it

I've worked with someone who would do 'let me finish' (not as aggressively as the OP is describing but getting close). There are some people who will ramble on for ages, often saying incorrect information, and there is no option but to 'interrupt'. In my experience this tends to go hand in hand with someone who thinks they are so brilliant there's no way other people would understand the point they're making quickly.

The way the person has responded suggests that this isn't OP's issue. There is no would where this is appropriate behaviour at all but even more so on an external call. It's a reputational issue for the company.

OP - keep a record and ask your manager whether they want you to pick up with this guy directly, or if she would prefer yo manage.

Hard to know what is happening. If he goes on and on, talks shite, and never gets to the point, then THAT is the problem, and in the long term interrupting him is not the answer. There is a competence issue and his manager needs to manage it. Or, from his perspective he would say he was making a valid point and you have a pattern of interrupting and attempting to detail him.

You definitely need to speak to your (and his) manager, because you can't be having those interactions in front of clients.

If on Teams put your points succinctly and professionally in the chat. Others may well like or add their support to your comments which would give you some confidence. He might not like it but if others are agreeing with you or picking up your points he will have to accept that you make a valid contribution.

As long as you are professional about what you write he has very little cause to complain to management.

I would let him know in a passive aggressive way that he’s mightily pissed you off. If he says it again on a teams call say ‘well I’m frightened to death now in case Michael bites my head off!!’ Or say ‘Michael I was just going to say, if it’s alright with you?

And maybe in private just be incredibly fucking frosty. I’d be inclined to say ‘You do realise we’re the same level don’t you Michael, because on teams calls you speak to me like I’m shit on your shoe. It’s pissing me off’. And trounce off.

You need to snap back. “Your lips may be moving but it’s nothing we want to hear” or “ I would let you finish if you were talking sense”. The. Apologise to the group for your rude colleague. Publicly shaming him is the only way as he is a bully.

My main concern here is how your team must be coming across on front of the Customer. I'd raise with your LM the need for better meeting etiquette when engaging with clients and establish use of pre-meets, raused hand discipline and group chat to ensure everyone is aligned and working toward a common objective. As things stand, as the new client I'd run a mile after such an introductory meeting.

He won't give a shit about pissing her off. That's probably the best bit.

Can you mute him on the call or kick him out 🤣

Shocking the line manager isn't dealing with this, he needs serious training in professional skills, maybe a personality transplant.

Can you put in a formal complaint, keep a diary and if it's not actioned within a certain timescale, escalate!

People berating the OP for interrupting- it is good meeting etiquette to glance around sometimes to see if others wish to speak. If he isn’t doing this and he is saying incorrect things, and is likely to ignore a raised hand emoji, what is OP supposed to do?

Personally I would be more mortified by someone typing “actually, the sky is blue not green” into chat vs interrupting me to clarify my understanding- both could be seen as rude but I actually think the first is more undermining and less collaborative

Oh don't be ridiculous, they're not remotely comparable.

I'd be making a complaint, utterly poor behaviour and he needs disciplining.

If your point is pertinent put your hand up, wait till he is finished and say "i want to quickly circle back to xyz and add...." Then go back to where the conversation was up to.

This. With 18 years experience you should know these strategies OP. It is rude to interrupt but sometimes people do bang on and on.

Sympathies. On interrupting, I certainly think I'm guilty of this. But on the other hand, if women wait for the right time to speak, you tend to find that there isn't one. A good meeting/conversation enables everyone to get their turn. If that isn't happening, it's often down to one person/man who thinks their thoughts are gold dust that everyone else should be lapping up. That is much ruder than a colleague politely interjecting.

It's an external call so OP absolutely can't do this.

It would have been much more effective in that meeting if you had just noted down his points, and then calmly gone through them one by one showing why he was wrong

This would be fine if it was in house meeting but not one that is with the client. He’s making the whole company look incompetent. Better to interrupt in those circumstances so the client knows it’s not the company that is the issue it’s just that particular person. Having recently had a similar issue (the talking nonsense bit not the rudeness bit) the individual in question, has value in other areas, but is no longer taking part in the calls to clients because continually having to interrupt and correct him was making us look bad.

I am not sure if you have a 'Chair' who is in charge of the meeting and if there is a full agenda circulated.
If it is an internal meeting you need to challenge at the time. If involving clients, do you have to include Mr Big Mouth? Try without then tell Manager what you have done. Forgiveness is easier than Permission!

I can't see why on a call with a client you all haven't got your standard presentation and message all agreed well before the meeting.

He sounds awful and unprofessional but I hate when people at work interrupt or talk over me. It’s so disrespectful.

Yes. These meetings clearly need proper strong chairing.
Some of the suggestions have been very unprofessional (especially for a client meeting). Only the 'chair' should be able to actually mute anyone else.

"Apologies for my colleagues outburst, he seems to be coming down with something. We're going to close this call now and will be in touch with a future time and day." End the team's meeting (not leaving).
Then email your colleague CC'ing your line manager with what happened.
I closed the call today as you were acting extremely unprofessionally. Comments such as lips still moving is both unprofessional and unacceptable. Until you have liaised with our line manager and I have received confirmation from them, I will not be participating in any future teams meeting with you.

This way you're not dictating that your line manager disciplines them but you are ensuring that your line manager is fully aware of the behaviour.

You also stop the tit for tat behaviour that is likely to follow if you challenge over teams. It would be best to go through the line manager.

Awful that he would say that, especially in front of a client. Not ok.

But also, you shouldn't interrupt him. If you sent the suggested earlier email you would just get into a ping pong of 'you did x', so please don't do that. The chair of the meeting shouldn't have allowed that and I would hope they are reprimanded.

Two things I would do:
Jot down the points you want to make (that he doesn't give a chance to be made), then when he has finished, make sure you come back to them, one by one, don't allow the conversation to move on until they are made. E.g. 'before we move on, I would like to add x,y,z'.
Give him, or the meeting chair feedback that when multiple points are discussed, it would be helpful if breaks to invite comments from others are introduced. He needs to learn to say for e.g. 'i'll pause there for a moment for any comments?'.

All the best.

It can be hard to get a word in edgeways on Teams. Could you not use the "Raise hand" function though? Or type what you wanted to say in chat?