Hey guys I need some advice. At my work there is a coworker who is a shameless two faced gossip spreading *****. Upfront with the boss he is extremely respectful, his tone and manner are first grade. However, once the boss turns away the guys does a jeckel and hyde.

It is non stop gossip spreading and making jokes behind people's backs. So now I feel like his attitude is spreading amongst my other coworkers. He is the manager of a division and yet he has a rude to thing to say about anyone that passes by. He's got a group of "friends" that he jokes around with once the boss is not looking, but he is even fooling his "friends".

Do you guys know a two faced jerk like this? What am I supposed to do? It makes me sick how he treats people behind their backs. I am much younger than this person and that has stopped me from confronting. He is 30 and yet he acts like a high school boy.

I would fire him if I was the boss but the boss doesn't know.
Guys is this life? Every where I go will there be people like this and so should I just live with it? This is my first job and it is making me a bit cynical about people.

Please I could use some advice.

Thanks

 

My advice is to ignore his antics, do your job and leave work at work. Unless his BS affects you personally, then I would confront him directly, one on one. I had an individual similar to what you describe and upon invitation to a one on one "chat" the behavior ended.
People are like that in almost every job. Stay out of the workplace politics if you can.

 

Yep. Just do your best to avoid him and don't get dragged into it.

 

Yes, unfortunately too many people are like this ... keep away from gossips it's a negative thing and not healthy and don't try to change him, you can't ... they have to wake up to themselves one day, if they ever do ... keep your head down and do your work, then forget all about him, do not give him a second thought ..with practise it is amazing how you can filter negativity out of your life :-)

Good luck :-)

Jules

 

time will serve justice on him - hypocritical people will usually get caught unaware at some point and reveal themselves unexpectedly.

 

Key "gossip hoe" on his car hood that should fix the problem LOL

*p.s. I'm not responsible for your actions :P

 

I agree with everything above.

Everyone here probably knows exactly the kind of person you're talking about.
Just ignore him as well as you can, and don't play into the gossip bs.
However, if it gets to the point where he's jeopardizing your job (ie: being untruthful about work related things at work), you have to stick up for yourself.
This kind of person will more likely than not also be someone who will lie to get ahead.
I've had this happen. The gossiping a-holes are usually the lazy asses that also turn on you and place blame when they're caught being a slackass.
A couple of weeks into starting this job, I got a call from the upper management about how two of my co-workers were complaining that I didn't do any work. (yep, they planned the whole thing and went in together). I was pretty pissed because I was busting my ***. Luckily, my boss knew what was up, apologized to me, and had a talk with them.
Just do your job and don't even think about it. It's gonna happen at most (if not all) of the places you work.

 

Hahahha if he had a car I would like to write 'gossip hoe' on it.

Well, the guy plays the same game with me but I dont take it personally. I am SURE he talks behind my back because Im one of the few that refuse to play along with his rudeness.

Thanks guys for your words, it is good to know that this is actually normal and that it is up to me to decide how it will affect me. I will solider on.


One last question:
Can a business be successful with an employee like this? Later on in my career I hope to be the CEO of a business one day. I know I can't have the perfect group of workers but I am worried about one employee ruining the whole enterprise.

I think of big companies like Microsoft and Google. I think about CEOs like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. I bet they are full of scumbags and yet they seem highly functional. I wonder what they do and how they deal with this. Do they fire people like this on the spot? Or do they just take the good with the bad.

If you were the boss what would you do?

 

Ever heard of the Peter Principle?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle

Also take into account the fact that as long as someone is technically doing their job, they can't really get fired for just being unlikeable/gossipy. Sad but true.