Reply #18: I worked with a guy like that [View All]

[TlalocW]

He would tear down other people even though he has no real skill. When proposing a new idea, it would always come from him and someone else so if the idea was rejected, he could say something like, "Yeah, I told 'the someone else' that I didn't think it would work, but he wanted me to propose it anyway." If once in a blue moon it was a good idea, then he would make sure the manager knew it was really his idea, and the someone else had just helped on something minor. He would constantly steal other people's ideas - even in meetings... right after someone said something. For instance I might say, "We should develop a tracking database for that." He would then jump in and say the exact same thing literally right after I said it. He worked support but thought he was a programmer, and depending on the manager he had at the time, he wouldn't answer the phones like he was supposed to but pretend to program stuff. He was constantly pissed off whenever he was passed over for a management position. He tried to cheat at a company golf game designed to raise money. The one time I went out with him in a group from work to a pub (coincidentally for St. Patty's Day), he kept trying to convince people to buy pitchers so he could mooch off other people then tried to convince us to leave without paying because he supposedly knew the owner.

Just 3 weeks after I had started working there, he was taking over duties from someone who had gotten promoted, and our department had had more than enough trouble dealing with him in my first 3 weeks. These duties involved our hand-off meetings for new programs we developers had written. It was also my first one, and I told my supervisor who was coming with me to let me handle that guy. So when we walked in to the conference room, I said, "Oh, look here's Pam and her new trainee Matt. We're going to have to get him a paper hat that maybe says Scooter or Skippy on it so he can wear it for a few months and afterwards, we might give him a badge if he's come along... " etc. It pissed him off so much (plus he wasn't good thinking on his feet for comebacks) that he was always quiet in the meetings while he held that position. My manager complemented me on a job well done.

After I left, I would run into a former co-worker a lot in a gym, and he was constantly tearing his hair out over that guy. I told him he needed to have fun with him, and I suggested making up technical-sounding words, using them only around him, and then waiting for him to use them in meetings. I even gave him an example. Next time I saw my ex-co-worker, he told me that the guy had been using my fake word a lot to seem smart.

TlalocW