Re: Challenging and oppressive SME situation

["Hutchings, Christa" <cwhutchings -at- HOMEWIRELESS -dot- COM>]

Dear "Name withheld upon request" -

You have already received much excellent advice. I agree that you need
to bring your manager in on this, but do so in a professional manner so
he doesn't think you are "whining." Don't do it immediately after a
confrontation with the SME, or on the spur of the moment. Be sure you
are calm and composed when you talk to him. Have your ducks in a row and
cover all the points you feel are important, but don't go into the
meeting carrying your stack of corroborating evidence - you don't want
him to think you are on a witchhunt. Mention at an opportune time that
you have been documenting the situation, but don't make a big issue of
it.

Also, as already suggested, try to make sure someone else is present
when the SME snipes at you. I know from personal experience how
important this is, as I had a team leader once who took an instant
dislike to me for some reason and never missed an opportunity to try to
put me down. This woman had a reputation throughout the company of being
extremely rude and nasty to people from time to time (never to
management, though), and she had apparently been called on the carpet a
few times over the years because of her ill-treatment of others. She had
been with the company for many years, however, and no one was willing to
give her the axe. (The tech pubs group at that company had had over 50%
turnover for several years, and word was that she was part of the reason
- how she got to be a team leader is beyond me!)

During the year I worked there, I endured at least four highly vicious
verbal attacks from this woman, luckily in front of other TWs. The last
time it happened, another TW who overheard the incident from his office
took it upon himself to report the episode to our department manager.
The manager called the team leader in and told her that the next time he
heard a complaint about her, he was going to terminate her. (He was
pretty new to our company - less than 6 months - and didn't feel nearly
as obligated as his predecessors to hang onto this troublemaker). Well,
the team leader exploded and told him off, saying that she didn't think
she should have to justify her actions to him and stormed out of his
office. This was on a Friday morning and she went home at noon, came
back the next Monday and turned in her resignation. (As you can imagine,
the whole TW team danced for joy at the news!)

So the morale is - make sure management is aware of the situation, but
don't try to appear vindictive or angry in any way so management doesn't
perceive *you* as the problem. People like this eventually do themselves
in, but it may take a while. You can hurry the process along by gently
bringing the situation to management's attention. If your manager won't
help you resolve the situation and you want action, go to Human
Resources, but also start exploring other job opportunities in case
nobody is willing to do anything or in case things backfire on you.

Good luck!

Chris Welch-Hutchings
Senior Technical Writer
Home Wireless Networks, Inc.
mailto:cwhutchings -at- homewireless -dot- com


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