Drama at work- ever happen to you??

[pamela]

Hi everyone!

It has been a while since I've posted here. I tend to check in on a daily basis but havne't posted until now.

There has been quite a lot of drama at work lately for me so I thought I'd share a bit then ask you to share your stories!

Last week, I told my boss some things that some other people were complaining about related to a big project that he and another co worker are responsible for. My purpose of telling my boss was to see if he can put out the fires before they start since the information being passed around was wrong and could influence the attitudes of others.  Well, I've never seen my boss that MAD!

He just LOST it and started chewing me out and swore quite a bit at me.  I was shocked at his reaction and tried to clarify some things and make a few suggestions while trying to stay professional but his final response was why should he tell others? It's none of their business, etc.  He finally cooled down after a while and apologized for his reaction.

He left and within a minute, another co worker stopped by my cube and asked if I was okay. I was still in shock so I just laughed and asked why. She said that she could hear him yell/whisper from 3 cubes away. At first, I was like how can you say yell/whisper?! That's a contradiction for me (I'm deaf) but after she repeated some of what he said, I knew that she definitely heard him. Later on, 3 other co workers said the same thing- that they all heard him so that was not good for my boss since most of the co workers do not like him and felt bad for me.

Well, today we had a meeting about a big project and my boss "K" was supposed to show but he didn't so we went ahead and discussed things. my boss walked in just as "R" (co worker who was already upset with how "K" has treated me lately) left for another meeting so I ended up having to explain what happened in the meeting to him. He got a bit upset with "R" since he said "Wait- she's dumping a script that's not finalized on us to finalize?! That's her responsibility to have the final document ready with all the correct info before submitting to us to change into a script!" so he told me to set up a follow-up meeting.

Within a minute of me sending her a meeting request, she stormed over to my cube towing HER boss along and told me that there was NO WAY she'd come to this meeting since HE (my boss) didn't show up for HER meeting!  She has so many meetings already and doesn't have time for extra meetings. 

There was more to it but basically I was put in a very awkward position since I knew "K" and "R" have bad blood between them and I ended up being in the middle of the whole mess. I knew if I told "K" what "R" said, he'd get upset and if I push back at "R", she'd get madder at him. 

*sigh*  I'd love to hear your dramas so I'll know I'm not the only one with drama going on at work!!!

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Oy.  Sometimes working for small companies means less people to be stuck between with things like that!  Since I'm a stay-at-home-mom now I don't have so much of that to deal with.  Just Mommy stuff 24/7. 

We once had some nice drama at a job I was eventually laid off from.  My program was struggling (eventually was closed) to get enough participants.  My boss was a person I had loved; when she was my co-worker.  It seemed like she became boss for the title, not because she was really ready for it.  She had been great at her job.  We had problems from her not being in the office when we needed her.  At least twice she was actually caught at home asleep during work hours.  She would check her e-mail from home and consider that "on the clock" and THEN make the commute to work.  She did have work to do on the road; but she fooled no one in our office with that.  If we saw her before 10:30-11 she was like a walking zombie and would go straight to her office.  Basically she just wasn't there when we really needed her.  And it got to all of the staff.  So it eventually got around to all 5 of us that we were ALL upset with her.  So we decided we would talk to her about it together at a staff meeting.  We were trying to save programs after all!  You'd have thought she would be more concerned.  I used to write her reports for her... and proofread the ones she did write to put them into proper English!!  Then she'd proofread mine and have me change irrelevant words.  Or she'd say "Say ______, but make it good English!"  (Do we have a face palm smiley?)

Well "someone" (I'm pretty positive who that someone is, there was only 5 of us!) decided to tell her ahead of time that we were upset with her.  So she was on the defense and decided to call us all to her office individually.  Which was fine with me.  She taught me how to play the mean girl.  So I was bluntly honest with her.  I can still picture the look on her face when I told her my clients would see her and ask who she was!  Her ego deffinitely took a bruising.  But it got the point across.  It helped a little. 

A few months later the big boss' decided to close my program and I was laid off.  I talked about this in another thread the other day; but they also planned to lay off my mother (we worked for the same company in different jobs), who had pulled in some good money for them.  It made no sense except that it was in retaliation.  My Mother is NOT confrontational so I know she did no ego bruising in her one-on-one with the boss.  Who had been her friend for a good 10 years prior to working for this company together.  Mom had even been in her wedding.  Unfortunately for them; my Mother had already handed a resignation in prior to this because she decided to go into semi-retirement. 

But it all came around because rumor has it that this boss of mine eventually quit because they were going to fire her.  Time has made me less bitter; but none of us have had the friendship with her we once did.  My Mother and one other co-worker knew her since I was a teen.  Sad.  It COULD have stayed a great place to work.  And I still miss things about that job.

 

[rafm]

Yeah, one thing I learned really early on in my career, if it doesn't involve YOU, stay out of it. Don't be the messenger that tells the boss what everyone else is thinking/saying. If you have an issue, then by all means address it but only as it relates to you, no one else.

I keep clear of drama and focus my concerns on issues regarding me and my performance. It's the only way you can stay above it all.

Drama does not belong at work. I make sure that if it's there, I'm well clear of it. :nod:

 

[luvmyparker]

My last job...nothing but drama. I was a housekeeper at a motel. The manager was a homosexual who found great pleasure in treating women (his employees) like sex objects (I think as a cover-up). One of the other housekeepers was a huuuuge suck up to him and he let her get away with anything. I lost count of the number of times I would check her rooms the following mornings only to find garbage, mismatched towels and even unwashed bedding (sometimes with urine stains) and dust everywhere. She done even worse than that but I won't go into detail. Any time we mentioned it to the boss, he would snap at us for "picking on her". She didn't do her job, she talked about us, she told random lies about the rest of to the boss, which lead to 2 people quitting within days.

The whole situation was so frustrating and odd. She got away with everything and he got away with being a pervert. Me and another employee filed a complain against him and lost because his little favorite denied everything for him.

The work place can be as bad as high school sometimes. 

 

[calico2222]

The work place can be as bad as high school sometimes. 

That's the bottom line. Some people are stuck in high school and the "he said, she said" and the vindictivness is still there.

I used to listen to the drama in my first job (restaurant service), and after 2 years knew full well that my manager, age 34 was sleeping with the delivery driver, age 18 at the time. How did I know? I was told by my manager to "cover" for her when her husband called because she and the delivery driver were in a "meeting". I seemed to always be scheduled to close with her and the driver so I told her husband whatever she told me to (she was at the bank, went to get gas, in the bathroom, etc). I was 22 and, while I didn't think it was right, I didn't know what else to do. The kicker came when her husband showed up 2 minutes after calling...with their daughter...he told me to watch the daughter and he stormed into her office and caught her. Filed for divorce and got custody of the child. The manager was fired, along with the delivery driver but last I heard they were still living happily ever after.

The thing is, I was called in to corporate offices and questioned why I didn't report this. I explained, I kind of knew what was going on but had no proof. It the manager has a meeting with an employee behind closed doors you only interrupt them if there is an emergency. And it wasn't my business to interfere with her marriage or report her since the delivery driver was of age (although he WASN'T when this started, didn't tell him that). But that whole situation has always rubbed me the wrong way. If I had been older, like my age now, I would say "hell NO I'm not going to cover for you!! But at 22 and needing money, yeah I made a stupid decision.

Now, I just keep my nose to the grind stone and leave work when I can and go home to my husband and animals. Don't get me wrong, I'm friendly with my co-workers and chat and share stories, but I DON'T get into the drama and try not to cause any. 

 

[calico2222]

Oh, don't get me wrong, I don't think you did anything wrong! You were completely professional explaining to your boss why the team was upset, and that is you job as a team member. I the the drama came from the co-worker that "dragged" her boss over. I think the problem is between R and K and you should refer them back to each other. I things are good (for now) between you and your boss, let her know to take it up with him about the script. If not, talk to your boss one on one and stay out of their drama. You didn't ask her to stand up for you so you don't owe her anything.

God, now I know why I'm the last one to know anything at work. I just really stay out of everything!

 

[krazy kat2]

Working for the cab company was like being back in elementary school. It was constant gossip and lying about others, and the men were much worse than the women. The boss usually told us to work it out or go to the owner of the company, and she would handle it. There were are a few really nasty women that were doing extremely unacceptable things, prostituting, smoking crack in the cabs, buying alcohol for underage Marines, and the other women, including myself, were unmerciful in messing with them. It made it hard on the ones of us that were doing our jobs in the manner that they were supposed to be done, and caused one of our female drivers to have to endure an attempted rape. The owner of the company said she could do nothing without proof, so we tried our best to get some, but were never able to get the MPs or police there on time. There was one in particular that was the worst, and we made it our mission to try to run her off. Last I heard, she was still there.

 

[nurseangel]

I used to have a boss who would just yell at people out of the blue.  I mean, you wouldn't even know you had done anything wrong and then all of a sudden she was in literally screaming in your face.  Sometimes over something taken completely out of context or not true at all.  (We had a co-worker who would tell on people and/or just make something up, and she seemed to be the boss's main source of information.)  Very, very unprofessional.  I am sorry for what you are going through...I know how it feels. On an average of about once a week, any one of a number of co-workers would come into my office crying over something they'd been jumped on about.  (I wasn't a boss of any sort, just someone with a private office and a sympathetic ear.  The whole place would have probably been more productive if the boss had just treated people decently.)