Hello,
I am posting this message in great distress and am in real need of
some sagacious advice as it looks like I might lose my job in my bank
because of some quiet but formidbale office politicking that has been
working against me.
I work as a system analyst for the credit risk management team (CRM)
of my bank. The CRM department is itself split into 2 units - the
technical team and the analytics team - the guys who work with the
business data to get out information. I am in the technical team, and
our job is mainly to maintain systems (create user ids, troubleshoot,
download and process data files etc) and keep the systems up and
running and make the required data available to the analytics team for
timely analysis.
The analytics team and tech team re****t to the head of the department
(HOD). Now, the head of the analytics team (Mr A) has a long and cosy
relation****p with HOD. I was earlier working in the analytics team
with him, but got transferred out to the tech team because I had a
well-do***ented case of his high-handed behaviour against me. The HOD
knew Mr A had done wrong, and couldn't defend him because I had all
the emails where he had said a lot of questionable things about me.
Luckily, because my work was first-rate, HOD could not fire me.
The tech team has 3 people re****ting to the head of the tech team (Mr
T, who was appointed 3 months ago). The 3 people are a Ms G, Ms F and
me. Now Ms G has joined the department only 3 months ago, whereas I
have been around for 2 years in this department. Mr T is very impresed
with my work and he even persuaded HOD to give me my long overdue
promotion. Mr B realised that historically Mr A has been a bully and
crooked guy, living under HOD's shadow. Mr B has been playing a
beautiful role of keeping Mr A's politicking under check.
It so happens that one of the job functions has been divided in a not
so clear manner between Ms G and me. According to the organisation
structure, I do the job, but I was asked to train Ms G as a backup and
when I got busy with another function that has been assigned to me (I
do two jobs), Ms G started handling most of this job. Subtly, she has
been cutting me out of the action as far as this function goes - not
copying me on mails, keeping her information secret, hiding papers
etc..Besides, Ms G has also told me that she has discovered that Mr A
is more powerful than Mr B and it makes sense to align herself with Mr
A. I told her this was up to her and waited for an op****tunity to
raise my isses with Mr B.
Now, Mr B has gone on leave and he put me as his stand-in in his
absence. HOD had asked another unit manager to invite me and Mr A to a
meeting. The other unit manager did this. However, behind my back,
without informing me, Mr A told Ms G about the meeting and they
consorted and worked out an agenda for themselves. I sensed what was
going on and confronted Ms G - she said she did not ask to be invited
to the meeting and did not know why Mr A had invited her !! I told her
she could attend the meeting instead of me - she refused. And then,
she turns up at the meeting according to Mr A's instructions !! In the
meeting, like dancers having rehearsed in advance, they drive the
agenda and dominate the meeting with no role for me to play - my
preparation for the meeting has gone waste. Next day, I send a mail to
Ms G summarising how she kept me in the dark about her position
regarding the meeting and making sure she will action whatever action
points Mr A had assinged her during the meeting. I copy this mail to
Mr B. Now, Ms G throws a tantrum at me and says I should have spoken
to her instead of putting this in a mail. I tell Ms G how she treats
the mail is up to her and my intention was to make sure she would take
care of the action points.
Ms G complains to HOD - but HOD does not call me for any discussion.
Then Ms G sends me a reply saying I should not waste her time by
sending such mails. She does not copy Mr B, but I forward the mail to
Mr B.
Mr B wanted to hold a meeting with a couple of other department heads
once he comes back from leave. Now, Ms G collaborated with Mr A and
arranged for that meeting and fixed a time for the meeting and then
invited me, when I joined after a weekend. I replied by mail, saying I
was surprised by this invitaiton as this was the very meeting Mr B
wnated to hold on his return from leave. Now, Ms G reacted by
explaining she had some clarifications with other department heads and
so organised the meeting. I replied telling that is fine, but my
schedule is not free to attend and inasumuch as she has arranged this
to meet her personal job related issues, she does not have to present
this as a meeting for the entire department.
Lastly, Ms G has ingratiated herself with HOD and now HOD has sent a
mail to Ms G and me, where HOD has assigned a part of my to Ms G for
no good reason. I have writtent to Mr B that though I will follow
HOD's instructions I am not comfortable with fragmenting of work
without my consultation.
I put everything in writing and stick to written do***ents like job
descriptions and balanced scorecard. Mr B is resuming duty tomorrow (
I work in the Middle East) and when I spoke to him about all this
during his holidays he appeared to understand my position.
Any of you got any ideas of what more I should be doing?
Thanks,
Muthu
Post a follow
|
