True Co-Worker Stories: 2 of 3

I used to work with a guy, let’s call him “Mike”, who had powerful and effective skills for making himself look good by making other employees look bad.

This principal technique was to avoid me all day, and wait until I was at lunch or at an offsite meeting, then he’d leave me dozens of voice-mail messages and urgent emails asking numerous questions. Then he’d forward his unanswered emails to the company owner claiming, “See, I tried to reach Sam dozens of times and he refuses to answer the critical questions. How am I supposed to move this project forward without his participation? Not much a team-player if you ask me.”

No matter how right I was, when I went to my boss and try to explain what was happening, I sounded whiny and pathetic. After months of this, sure enough the owner associated “unresponsive” with my name. Evil won out again.

A second technique Mike had mastered was confident making up of stuff combined with blatant lying. The boss would ask “Which of polymer is best for this job?” Without hesitation Mike would blurt out “ Polybutylene, of course.” Then the boss would look at me and ask, “What do you think, Sam?” And, foolishly, I’d answer with the truth, “I need to review the customer requirements and polymer characteristics, do a cost analysis, and get back to you.” Mike would respond with, “Isn’t this your area of expertise? Isn’t that what we pay you for?”

We’ll, about an hour later I’d return to him and the boss with the answer, which was Polyethylene. Mike would say “That’s the material I recommended! Why did you waste all of our time like that?” I responded with “You said Polybutylene, the correct answer is Polyethylene” Then he’d look me in the eye, and right in front of the boss he’d and say “By lying you’re only digging yourself a deeper hole.”

Mike was again successful 1) making me do all the work, 2) taking all the credit for my work, 3) making me look incompetent, 4) making himself seem valuable. Evil 2: Sam 0.