I've known about an all staff meeting at the office set fot yesterday for a couple weeks now. They happen at the end of every quarter. And the office politics had gotten so bad recently that during dinner a friend said I had better stop channelling Samuel L Jackson before I got into some of his fun movies, like Pulp Fiction. After the troubles Tues morning, I boiled completely over.

Nobody could accuse me of being insubordinate, of being disrespectful or being out of control. I made sure to begin every statement with "In my opinion" or "correct me if I'm wrong". And I completely demolished everything that was said. Including calling management out on an award the company was awarded, asking who were the "presenters" and then showing on my Xoom a complete inability to find any trace of them. In an attempt at mollification, the manager stated there were already plans to include the technicians in long term planning of the corporate direction. And specifically to include me on this committee", which earned an internal "not on your life" comment in my mind, and the meeting ended. We all left management in the meeting room and went about our day.

Today, however, I got a bit of information from one of my "little birds" that remained with management after we left. Apparently our HR representative pulled the manager to the side and told him in no uncertain terms there was no way I'd be allowed to participate. Mind you, our manager out-ranks the HR rep by a couple levels. Not that I believed him anyways having embarrassed him several times since he took the position, never mind what was said during the meeting. So here are the questions:

Who thinks I need to start looking for a new job immediately?
Is it possible to to turn this to my advantage?

They cannot fire me without cause. We're a union shop so if there were layoffs they'd have to fire half the office to get to me by seniority. They cannot fire me for performance. Based on our performance metrics, I'm #4 out of 60+ technicians. I don't believe they can create a reason. I chose that time and place specificsally because it was very public. And because everything I said was everything everyone had already said to everyone but upper management...

But I know I made some powerful enemies. The HR rep was already an enemy because I don't allow her physical characteristic to influence my evaluation of her merits.

 

I say NO to both options (unless your particularly want a new job).
1st off, there is nothing wrong with voicing your opinion when a policy or practice stinks, if you stated why it was so & come up with a more sound option, then your manager SHOULD respect your opinion (or why else would he have you guys at the meeting) unless it was to just rubber stamp it. As long as you didn't attack your boss or anyone else on a personal level. As for the HR rep, your not at work to make friends (although there is no reason why you can"t) you already said he was offside with you anyways. In every work environment there is always 1 or more people that will denigrate a fellow worker for their own advancement or to enhance their position. If your boss is half way decent, he will be able to spot a brown nose from 50 ft away. Just the same, watch your P's & Q's & be prepared for some flack. I say that if you discover that you are definitely on a slippery slope out the door (And I mean definitely), have some fun & run with it, maybe settle a few scores, I mean if your going to get the sack, your getting a sh*tty reference anyway.

 

The real question is, how much do you like your job?

In my opinion, if you had problems with management, you should have handled it behind closed doors. There's no need to be calling people out in a public forum for something that could have been voiced directly. That just puts a target on your back.

How close are you with your manager and was your manager aware of your concerns before this meeting?

If you believe it's going to be that big of a thorn in your side, I'd start looking for a new job. If it's something you can resolve, and you love your job, then I'd try to resolve it.

Conflicts in the work place suck. You spend more time with the people you work with, then you will at home with your s/o or kids, so it's best to avoid or solve such matters because you are the one who has to deal with the ramifications on a daily basis.

 

Yeah...conflict at work sucks but for those who wants to lead, advance forward must make their comments heard. If you are speaking on behalf of majority peoples there, no need to shy away. It is what it is....and the HR rep seems to be using you as stepping stone to get themselves ahead. Stay true to your work & co-worker there and you'll be fine. A wise manager will take your comment into consideration to improve the company. Let your actions speak louder than words....whatever rumors that mingles its way to your ears, does not necessary mean it's true. But let me tell you this...the true competition(enemy) in life or work, are those whom you don't see? Or don't seem to know about. They may be your friends...

Your performance shows itself...so don't worry about getting other jobs...company will be stupid to let top tech go...just work on getting ahead & lead the pack, earning the respect you deserve.

 

Praise in public.... counsel in private... can't go wrong with that one. In my opinion, taking this up on a "public forum" was a punk move. In my opinion Unions are for people to hide behind nowadays; so they can "voice their opinion and then hide behind the union contract/bylaws". In my opinion it sounds like you are jealous that you aren't in management.

What was the point of "calling management out on an award the company was awarded?" Don't be a hater! Who cares about an award. Management will always make stuff up or twist things around to make it appear better; it's their lame justification to keep their "status".

 

you won the battle but unless you choose your fights wisely, they will win the war. you wont get anywhere if you argue with every little thing management does or says. make sure you have a good reason, a strong purpose, and something actually worth fighting for. good luck!

 

Umm... isn't there something in your signature about haters, legit criticism and weak minded individuals?

Good example of things is this: in nearly 5 years I've only been written up once. It was for "the organization" my work truck. My truck isn't dirty, just disorganized (for anyone but me). The write up bypassed my sup, being generated by the HR rep mentioned earlier and authorized by a regional manager. Yet today I had to leave a customer with no internet service because nobody wanted to do their job.

Brand new customer. Nothing was wrong with the hardware or signal. Her account was setup wrong. Nothing I can do with accounts. I spent an hour on the phone trying to get someone to fix her account. I requested the issue be escalated 15 minutes after I got there. The first person (who half the techs have complained about) refused and left for the day 10 minutes after being told to escalate it (her job). The second person said it was equipment and refused to escalate it until I swapped the equipment, during which time he left for the day. The third person actually did attempt to escalate it and was denied, being told the dept responsible for fixing these issues "would not work on a single account issue unless the request came from upper management". Upper management meaning above area manager level.

Of course I have the regional manager's cell #. But I couldn't use it until I attempted contact with my depts and another dept's management. And the regional manager would not like being disturbed today as he had tickets to the MLB playoff game today. Had to leave things unresolved with an understanding but absolutely livid customer. And its still unresolved as nobody in our management responded to calls / emails 3 hrs later when i finally left the office (2 hrs past my normal stop time).

Our issue is there are greater problems, with larger consequences, like this one getting ignored while minutia like truck organization and paperwork not being filled out completely getting techs in trouble.

 

In my opinion, Yes. It was a reference to you. I am glad you are observant. Don't hate on your management because you aren't there. That is what I was getting at.

In my opinion you should talk to your union about all of those problems you are whining about or is your union just for you to hide behind????

This is all IN MY OPINION of course.

 

As one of the top techs in both the office and our area, there's little about me that management can criticize legitimately. Guessing by your statement, you have a problem with unions. Don't worry: our union isn't keeping you out of a job. Its # sham, required because we cover Center City (including City Hall and other govt buildings). And they require union labor. Our office workers actually make less than non-union workers in other offices doing the exact same job. For example when i finished training, which I did with techs from other offices, I made $5 / hr less than they did.

The "whines" as you call them are actually legit criticism of the company, shared by middle management (the supervisors). Any bullchit we have to do, they have to verify we're doing it which gives them more bullchit work to do instead of their actual job. Or you don't think my supervisor didn't know what my truck looked like? He doesn't care because he knows its organized for me .

And intenrionally kept disorganized for other to dissuade them from borrowing my truck when I'm off

 

In my opinion, Why doesn't middle management "Question Authority at the Office?" Do they believe "Authority" is accurate? In my opinion, They do.

Correct me if I am wrong, Who cares if your truck is disorganized as *****???

In my opinion, Authority at the office has you .