A difficult situation.

[2careless]

I've been working within a team and the lead was a very difficult hand-baller from Procurement on a deadline project. The project has been signed off, delivered and after 3 months things started to have issues due to the incompetency of that lead guy. It's a contractual IT issue with the vendor and the lead say it's my problem because I'm the IT guy on the team. I told him this is his problem because he negotiated a shit contract and there's not much I could do. So we had a very fiery exchange. In the end I snapped and told him I would be filling in a very bad customer satisfaction survey for his department (every year we have a customer sat survey and I'm just one of those selected to mark on his department. I'm in very good terms with the other guys in his department).
So afterwards, he left and within 5 minutes his boss went to see my boss banging on his door and soon after that my boss asked me into his office
My boss asked me what happened and I told him I snapped at that guy. He said that I should have taken a deep breath and escalated the matter to him instead (I had kept my boss informed on every dealings with this guy as I know he's a slimmy bastid but the exchange happened too quickly I lost my cool). He also said that we as a company needs to sort this out with the vendor or the company will lose out and that's not good, however, he said that he concurred with me that that lead guy should take lead in resolving the problem and not bouncing to me, and my boss said he would call a meeting between all the stakeholders internally to resolve our differences and then talk to the vendor. BTW my boss is good mates with the other guy's boss.

So, have I done a career limiting move? Should I mark them down in the survey?

[Tools]

I don't know......... are you going to mark them down because you lost your cool, or mark them down because, overall, they need to be marked down..

Is the survey for the entire year and their performance has been down all year, or is this one isolated incident...........

[TimeToGo]

It should be a normal practice to document "performance issues" on contracts. Remember you are a representing a company and protocols are in place to address these issues.

Good luck!

[jayong]

2Careless,

It sounds like if you fill out the survey harshly, it will harm the other guy's career. In my many years in a large corporate environment, I've learned one important thing: never, ever make enemies. You can despise someone, but never let that other person know it. The world is much too small, and you never know when, months or years or even decades down the line, your "enemy" might be in a position to do you serious harm - he may be a future boss, a key decision maker for a major client of yours, who knows. And you can be sure that he will remember all the crap that went on between the two of you and use that against you at the worst possible moment. I've been a fireball in my younger days, made my share of enemies, and it came back to bite me every time.

So my recommendation is this: kiss and make up. Feel free to hate his guts and maybe in the future try your best to avoid working with him again, but always be cordial and professional with him face to face. It can't make the current situation any worse, but at the very least it will reduce the tension in your every day work environment, and in the long run you won't regret it.

Jay

[allanofcalifornia]

I think you should let it go for now and then look at the survey later in the future when you are calm to determine how to fill it out.


Allan

[unclesallie]

Originally Posted by allanofcalifornia

I think you should let it go for now and then look at the survey later in the future when you are calm to determine how to fill it out.


Allan

i agree with Allan's advice. later. cool head, cool hands.......

[Taffi Abernathy]

I don't know enough about your situation to advise you but I think waiting to make a decision until some of the emotionalism dies down might be a good idea. Also, if you are uncertain whether or not to write this up, might it be prudent to elicit the feedback of your supervisor so as not to further inflame the situation? Good luck.

[2careless]

Thanks guys for your inputs.
1. The survey is on this guy's whole department for the performance over the past year, and that's why his boss was so incensed, as it's directly related to everyone's year end bonus. Honestly they have done this to us on a veiled threat previously and the bosses had to do a lot to smooth things down. I do think that I have stirred a hornet's nest but I'm just human.
2. What I will probably do is that I'll do screen captures of the survey I filled in, and give it to my boss. I will most likely do it at the last possible moment as I would like to see how this whole thing pans out.
3. The only thing I didn't do properly was making a threat to him (and his dept). All the other actions I have taken were approved by my boss so kiss and make up would be the best bet.

Well, let's see. Many thanks for your inputs again. Much appreciated.

[R1@160@alltimes]

Originally Posted by jayong

2Careless,

It sounds like if you fill out the survey harshly, it will harm the other guy's career. In my many years in a large corporate environment, I've learned one important thing: never, ever make enemies. You can despise someone, but never let that other person know it. The world is much too small, and you never know when, months or years or even decades down the line, your "enemy" might be in a position to do you serious harm - he may be a future boss, a key decision maker for a major client of yours, who knows. And you can be sure that he will remember all the crap that went on between the two of you and use that against you at the worst possible moment. I've been a fireball in my younger days, made my share of enemies, and it came back to bite me every time.

So my recommendation is this: kiss and make up. Feel free to hate his guts and maybe in the future try your best to avoid working with him again, but always be cordial and professional with him face to face. It can't make the current situation any worse, but at the very least it will reduce the tension in your every day work environment, and in the long run you won't regret it.

Jay

x2 I couldn't have said it any better

[East Bay Rider]

Originally Posted by 2careless

I've been working within a team and the lead was a very difficult hand-baller from Procurement on a deadline project. The project has been signed off, delivered and after 3 months things started to have issues due to the incompetency of that lead guy. It's a contractual IT issue with the vendor and the lead say it's my problem because I'm the IT guy on the team. I told him this is his problem because he negotiated a shit contract and there's not much I could do. So we had a very fiery exchange. In the end I snapped and told him I would be filling in a very bad customer satisfaction survey for his department (every year we have a customer sat survey and I'm just one of those selected to mark on his department. I'm in very good terms with the other guys in his department).
So afterwards, he left and within 5 minutes his boss went to see my boss banging on his door and soon after that my boss asked me into his office
My boss asked me what happened and I told him I snapped at that guy. He said that I should have taken a deep breath and escalated the matter to him instead (I had kept my boss informed on every dealings with this guy as I know he's a slimmy bastid but the exchange happened too quickly I lost my cool). He also said that we as a company needs to sort this out with the vendor or the company will lose out and that's not good, however, he said that he concurred with me that that lead guy should take lead in resolving the problem and not bouncing to me, and my boss said he would call a meeting between all the stakeholders internally to resolve our differences and then talk to the vendor. BTW my boss is good mates with the other guy's boss.

So, have I done a career limiting move? Should I mark them down in the survey?

It seems very common that the lead guy is also the incompetent guy. Is that because he is not good enough to be a valuable contributer, so they put him in the less technical role of leader instead? Just an observation.

I agree that cooler heads prevail and I'm sure that you can get your point across in your survey without burning bridges.
Another observation. Sometimes, after a blowout, the individuals involved have a clearer view of each other and what the boundaries are. You may find that you get along better now. Here's hoping.

[theloxmyth]

Originally Posted by allanofcalifornia

I think you should let it go for now and then look at the survey later in the future when you are calm to determine how to fill it out.


Allan

Originally Posted by unclesallie

i agree with Allan's advice. later. cool head, cool hands.......

Sleep on it, brother.

The answer will become more apparent to you in a day or two, I know.

[Gedanken]

My two cents:

Making the threat was a mistake, but it's not the biggest issue here. As I see it, the real problem was that your threat went off like a shotgun, hitting the whole team instead of just this one turkey. Because of that, you didn't put yourself up up against one guy, but the whole mob instead.

Now it's probably just because I'm a cantankerous, bloody-minded old curmudgeon, but I wouldn't back off completely. What I would do is make it clear to this jerk's boss and team mates that he's putting all of them at risk at the rate he's going. In short, divide and conquer.

Give it some time, but if you get in contact with this guy's mates, just make it part of a causal conversation where you explain to them how he's a major liability to the team's reputation and the team members' bonuses, and then let them hang, draw and quarter him in their own interest.

It's called performance management.