nightmare colleague

[susia]

Hi, I jointly manage a small team at work. Until 2 years ago I didn't do any management but was on the same grade as a colleague who did because I was new to the job and only working 3 days per week. However my colleague is totally lazy, takes any excuse not to come in and have 3 hour long lunches etc. Everyone knew it and a couple of people left due to his attitude. (superiour, officious when he does come in..). Most people think he job shares he is there so little!

During this time he had serious health problems totally beyond his control and being a local authority was able to take months of sick leave. Everyone was very sympathetic about that but during this time my boss suggested I take over the management of the team whilst he dealt with the budget etc. She said that a number of complaints about him had been made but her hands were tied due to his illness.

Since that time he has been intolerable towards me. He goes into a strop with me, doesn?t talk to me for days/weeks/months and then eventually decides to ?forgive? me. (When someone else returned from maternity leave he didn?t speak to her for nearly the entire year due to some throwaway comment she made). It took,a year or before he made up with her and started on me.

He is currently on a phase of not talking to me and I am finding it intolerable.

e.g I had to find a temp alternative work in another team for the short term. I didn?t consult my colleague as he wasn?t around, I line manage the temp, I consulted with my manager... he just hasn't spoken to me for about a month, only emails me although he sits opposite me...

Basically he does everything he can to undermine me, to do whatever he knows I won't like etc.

For example, he was in charge of a recent office move - about 20 feet. He said he'd organise office movers for the desks. But he didn't, he just got in around 7 am himself, moved his and some of the team's desks and then disappeared. So when I got in at 9am, I had to move the other desks.

I never confront him because basically I'm scared of him, he is so horrible. I have spoken to my boss but because we are all under threat of redundancy I decided that I didn't want at this time to be involving HR.

The most recent thing he has done is decide to pinch one of the team onto a project he is doing without consulting me meaning that we have noone to cover this person's work...

Start keeping a diary. Write down everything he does and says. Why shouldnt you involve HR? Especially when everyone is under threat of redundancy. I also work for a local authority and I know first hand that this kind of behaviour goes on a lot. I take it that your Boss is his Boss? Surely its your Boss's responsibility to at least say something to him before involving HR? You keeping a diary will work in your favour once you do decide to go to HR with this problem. I'm off on maternity leave at the moment. The thought of returning to all the 'office politics' similar to your problem is making me sick. Hopefully someone will come along with some good advice for you

thank you, the reason for not wanting to involve HR is because I feel like I have enough stress of keeping my job without something else...It's hopefully not too long before we know one way or the other and if we don't lose our jobs then we will be part of a bigger team, neither of us hopefully will be managers ( I really don't want to be - just want to do my job!!) and won't have much involvement with each other...

thats what I'm hoping for although I have no timescales.

Susia

Have you spoken to him directly? I assume that would be impossible from what you say, but you might need to explain why you havent.

I think you should involve HR, if direct approach or approach to your line manager doesnt help. You should do that "more in sorrow than in anger".

He sounds as if he has a problem with maternity leave/working mothers etc. HR ought to know about that.

If he has had serious health issues, then he might be counted as disabled for employment purposes. That might make your employer tentative about dealing with him. However, even if there are "mitigating circumstances" it doesnt mean you should have to put up with this.

Agree with Snuffle that you should keep a good diary of the incidents including attitude, comments etc.

Hope this helps

around a year or so ago when I had a different manager - the one who suggested I manage the team, we did all talk together. But both of us went to her many times and she got sick of it although she did nothing to resolve things. Now we have a new manager who is too worried about his own job to do anything.

Since then I admit I am scared of him and his moods and so don't speak to him about things, I just wait for the next thing to erupt.

by the way, I don't think his problem is maternity leave/working mothers although it was very strange about the other team member.

I think with me it is because he thrives on being seen as important and he didn't like the loss of responsibility. I think it is as simple as that although I think he also doesn't like me personally as well.

I still think you should involve HR. You should talk to them but also follow up in writing but not in a threatening way.

This shouldn't affect you if there are redundancies - to be blunt, either it makes no difference, so do it anyway, or if you are in a "pool", if you are targeted for redundancy you will have an argument that its unfair if you are picked because you've raised the issues.

I think your other manager was rubbish, it was her job to resolve things not to see you as being the problem. Managers are paid not to get sick of things.

thank you, yes my manager was rubbish. My current manager is just always talking about how he won't find another job if he loses his job so really isn't interested.

Re HR - I just don't know. There's only 5 of us left in the team which was 10 as no staff are being replaced when they leave and I worry that the atmosphere will be worse for them.

I would love to leave but there are no jobs around in my field at the moment. I suppose I feel if I just put up with it for some time longer then the problem will go away.

re - the redundancies - I think the worst case scenario and most likely one is that our posts are deleted. Fewer new ones are created that are slightly different and we all can apply for them.

Thats a horrible situation to be in. A lot of the time with local authorities especially, you get the impression that some people are in jobs they wouldnt be in if they had to work in the private sector. Hopefully things will work out for you and they will see him for the bad employee that he is. Knowing that you might not have to work with him for much longer must be something to look forward to. Its not nice having to put up with that kind of bullying at work. Dont let him drag you down to his depths with him. I agree with tiger, if you do go to HR, go in sorrow and not in anger. I kept a diary at work before I went on Maternity leave. I used to write in it before I went for lunch and before I went home at night, just got into the habit of doing it. It makes for interesting reading!! I might use it someday

Susia

I am new to MN. I haven't worked out the CAT thing, and am in no state (see the wine drinking thread) to sort that out now.

But if you would like to CAT me, then let me know, I will sort it tomorrow and we can speak but not too early! I may be able to give you some tips.

Thank you tigerdriver. I haven't looked into the Cat thing either. It's definately true that in local authorities there are people who should not be in their jobs. My colleague is one of them. The trouble is it is virtually impossible to sack anyone. There are also tons of loopholes to avoid working - for example my colleague has now become a councillor for another council.

This entitles him to paid leave of I think about 20 days per year on top of the 29 days he has already. The days that he does 'work' he frequently works from home so he is never there. He also still has hospital appointments because of his illness but rather than come in before or after them he works from home on those days. His hours are also 7-3 (he chooses that) so as everyone else works 9-5 noone knows if he is there at 7 or not! but he does leave at 3 (after a 2 hour lunch break!)

Really he averages about 2 days per week.

Gonna say goodnight now Susia but will sort out CAT tomorrow and we can do something. Try not to stress over this.

You should not have to put up with this and there will be a way forward.

Spk 2mrw

(can't do txtg)

Tiger

I work for a local authority as well, and it is unheard of in my experience for managers to exercise performance management relating to whether you are capable of doing the job. One deadbeat in our department was even promoted to management to keep him away from working with vulnerable people - it worked, but also sends the message that laziness and incompetence is rewarded.

The only way I have seen to bring staff to account in these environments is to make a complaint about harrassment and request a disciplinary - most councils will crack down on bullies quite hard. But you will need to have it all written down with dates etc. He is probably subtle about his bullying (silent treatment for example is easily explained away as 'i was busy'), so make sure you have a good case in terms of evidence.

Then inform you manager you intend to make a complaint and ask HR for a meeting to lodge a complaint. You will have to be brave to do this and you must stick to your guns. This could work, though don't say anything that could be perceived as mudslinging - eg discussing his hours of work even though you know he is skiving. Good luck

Mitford, yes I agree with you.

Sorry Susia, failed sorting out CAT. But let us know what you decide to do.

He is also always muttering under his breath about the fact that I smoke which I find offensive and personal. This morning as he walked past me when I arrived he made a face, and muttered under his breath 'yugh, smoke'. I had had a cigarette outside of work hours before I came in this morning.

This is not the first time he has made comments such as these and I find this personal and unprofessional.

in fact I have decided not to talk to him again either! I am fed up with always being polite and feel like muttering something of my own as I walk past!