The Escalation

Have you gotten to work with someone that just really bothered you so much that you eventually alerted their boss?

I've been working in the space that I'm at for quite some time. Years, though I won't say exactly how many, but years. I'm not arrogant about it, but I am confident in my knowledge and my abilities with those years of experience. True knowledge, not fake shit. I really love helping people if they ask me to help them understand something or if they are confused, or don't get a particular topic. That stuff is very exciting for me!

With this experience in the field comes a lot of exposure and meeting a lot of people. There are lots of personalities that one encounters throughout our lives and our professional lives. Some people we get along with really well, while others we don't get along so well. I thankfully have far LESS people I don't get along with than I have people I do well with.

I'm working with an individual, let's call him Dave. I've been working with him since sometime last year and he is supposed to be my counterpart on the other side of the project team. That's about where the commonalities end. I've had the worst experience with him than I've had with anyone else, and that's saying something!

I put in hours of work every single week to get things going, keep my team on task but I am also determined not to let this project fail, so I have been doing HIS tasks like reminding his peeps of what they need to do, ask for updates and just be a team player. I'm at the end of my rope with this fool though, because there are a lot of things I can't, nor should be, help with on their side. Sure enough, this dude completely dropped the ball on something that I reminded them about for MONTHS and things went south.

Of course in those situations I keep my leadership team well aware of the situation. I'm also very good because I've got extensive documentation, so much so that it's almost like a lawyer compiling evidence for a court case. I have ample ability to defend myself given the needed circumstance. Sure enough, the circumstance arose and I was all over this dude like white on rice.

We had a nice chat with my leaders and theirs, I had ample evidence and points, and slammed him five ways from Sunday with facts and clear evidence of what was being discussed. The funny thing is that he was trying to say he's been participating all along, when my entire team knows that's a load of horse shit, and he knows its horse shit but he's trying to save his job, or at least his spot on the team.

I'm not sure how things are going to unfold with the dude but this is one of the most egregious examples I've had to deal with in which someone was blatantly not doing their work, not paying attention and then getting upset that I'm calling them out on their bullshit. HA, but that shit ain't gonna fly with me. I've got zero sympathy for the dude. There have been no attempts to pull me aside and say "let's work on this, or I've got something going on and I'm sorry".

It's a cutthroat world out there, and I have no time to deal with complete liars and people who refuse to do work.

What about you, have you dealt with people who have tried to feign they were working when they really weren't doing anything of the sort? Let me know in the comments!