Monday, May 22, 2006

Differing levels of caring.

Progress towards my migration out of The Bank's Help Desk to another Help Desk is proceeding swiftly. At least, The Corporation seems intent on keeping me informed every step of the way. I had a short meeting again today with the Site Manager and Operations Manager wherein they told me who would likely be contacting me from The Corporation to set up an interview.

That's it. The whole meeting took less than a minute. I don't believe they are lavishing this attention on me because they care about me in particular. I suspect they are motivated by the pressure to put on a good show for the new client.

At the end of the micro-meeting, I mentioned so they might pass it on that I was going to be out of town after work on Wednesday to begin a bicycle ride to Washington DC. The conversation that followed was longer than the meeting. "Are you going to carry all your supplies to came or staying in motels?" "I'll be carrying it all. I bought a trailer for my bike." "A trailer? I've never seen a trailer for a bike." "Sure, just like a trailer for your car, it distributes the weight better and it's easier to tow it behind than strap it to the bike." And so on.

When I returned to my desk, I sent a pop message to the Site and Operations Managers with a link to a picture of me, my bike and trailer to show them what I was talking about.

When I immediately received a copy of the message I sent, I realized that I had made a mistake in addressing the message and had sent it to everyone at the Help Desk. I sent another message to that effect with a simple apology.

One coworker responded, "Nice legs" but otherwise it was a harmless mistake. Or so I thought. What I didn't know until it was pointed out to me at the end of the day was that Team Lead D**** had sent out a message immediately following mine:

". . . . like we care."

Of course, he edited his addressing carefully so that I didn't receive a copy of this juvenile sniping. As a manager, he should know better than to behave in this sort of harassment behind the backs of employees. Of course, this is not the first time that he's done this and he still hasn't learned his lesson and it really pisses me off that I am going to again take this up with Management.

In an odd way, I hope that he does this sort of backstabbing with everyone because then he would just be a bullying and small-minded tyrant of a manager. If he doesn't do this to everyone, then he has some sort of personal vendetta against me and this is workplace harassment.

In either case, what bothers me most about this is not the crap itself, I've been taking this shit from him for years, it is in the abysmally bad timing. Just as I'm looking to get out of this situation and I need to put on the best of impressions to my new clients, I have to go into the office and point out what sort of ass they continue to harbor in a management position. In so doing, I don't believe I will jeopardize this opportunity. I have not pulled any punches over the years and have issued some very harsh words about the goings on at the Help Desk and yet my competence still earned me the highest recommendation for this new position.

But, damn, why couldn't he just keep is fat mouth shut?

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