THREATENED WITH THE SACK 24

[28021973]

Recently I was in the office with my immediate manager.One of our company's highly regarded directors stormed in on our meeting and quite rudely started bawling and shouting at my boss.

Basically it was over an incident that happened 2 days ago; which has no relevance to this thread.

My boss, with all best intentions stayed calm, never spoke out of term and answered all mitigating questions fired at him, the director stormed out.

We were shocked but carried on our meeting, an hour later, another director came and requested my boss apologise for being rude and agressive towards another director. Do this or face the sack, I intervened and tried to explain the situation but I was given the same option as my boss.

I dont belive we should need to apologise, we didnt do or say anything out of term, but it's our word against a director....what do we do..!

 

[EngJW]

Consider that you are not really apologizing. An apology at gunpoint is meaningless. You are just telling them what they want to hear in order to protect your paycheck. You would still have your dignity while those twerps will be dumb enough to think you meant it.

John Woodward

 

[TheTick]

recommended reading:

Thick Face, Black Heart : The Warrior Philosphy For Conquering The Challenges OF Business And Life

<

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0446670200/102-8154016-5790568?v=glance>

There are probably better books, but this one rang true with me.

By now, I imagine you have either apologized, left, or been sacked. Any updates?

Due to illness, the part of The Tick will be played by... The Tick.

http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

 

[JPatten]

Why not just talk to the person. I would sit down with the person and talk about the issue that created the problem and try to understand what they are so upset about. Also, during the conversation try and see if you can get them to see your side. If your both reasonable about it than in most cases you will both be apologizing to each other.

Quiting without trying to work it out in a professional manner seems like running away from the problem.

 

[jmw]

What is missing from this thread is to know what your boss is doing, if only to know how much time you have.

The director broke into the meeting and his primary confrontation was with your boss.

Your intervention has now brought you into the front line but it is a good idea to find out what your boss is thinking and doing, not just for himself, but on your behalf. He may not have thought of your situation because he is in the same dilema, but much worse, in his eyes as he is nearer the volcano's rim.

What will he do?
(a) he appologises and is back on track and you don't... he may just cut you loose.
(b) he doesn't appologise... it doesn't matter what you do, just get your CV out there.
(c) he appologises and inetervenes on your behalf...then he is suddenly gone and it didn't matter what you did.

Frankly, these are none of them very appetising scenarios and you have, by your well meaning intervention, put yourself squarely in the same court as your boss and his fate may be yours.

Even without the intervention, things may not be good. A colleague of mine was recruited to a leading international company as sales and marketing manager. he was an outstanding success. Then he was made redundant. Why? because the director who hired him had a falling out with another director and his director lost. The victorious director systematically rooted out all the ex-directors recruitments and made them all redundant.

We are not talking about logic, reason or rationale. We are talking about emotive issues. Once tainted never clean. What you do and how valuable you are has nothing to do with it.

You have two issues:
a) the short term; you need to be employed at least for as long as it takes you to get another job
b) the long term; same answer as (a)

The only question is if your boss buys you any time. When you confront arrogance, un-proffessionalism and ignorance you will not win.

The temptation is to see what your boss does but be warned, he may adopt a short-term expediency approach (grovel) to buy himself some time to look for a new job and he won't want you rocking the boat and that leaves you thinking all is well. And then, one day he will be gone, jumped or pushed, and leave you out on a limb.

In an ideal world we would live in a meritocracy (ideal for those that can do, not for those that can't) but in the real world life is unfair and unreasonable and in a moment everything you have worked for is in the trash.

As a footnote, none of this should figure in your "reasons for leaving" in your CV/resume. However pure you are, it will never read well. Be very positive about your present employer and very forward looking in your reasons for wanting to go e.g. to improve yourself, broaden your horizons etc but never because the last employer was an idiot or worse. See some of the advice in the thread on resigning gracefully.


JMW

http://www.viscoanalyser.com

Eng-Tips: Pro bono publico, by engineers, for engineers.

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

 

[etch]

Wait until its dark, then beat the crap out of him, when you wake up from you dream.

you have two choices.


one apologise and start looking for new work, or get sacked and both of you go to a lawfirm and sue his ass off for unfair dismissal.

 

[TheTick]

...go to a lawfirm and sue his ass off for unfair dismissal.

Riiiigghht...

Best do a lot of homework before you attempt this one.

 

[etch]

Must be different over here, its quite common to sue for unfair dismissal, and having two people say there were no provocation against his word it pretty strong case

 

[Latexman]

Get another job lined up, type up your resignation letter which says you will use 2 weeks vacation as your notice, buy a dozen donuts, spit on them (or worse), give your apologies to Dir. #1 and #2 along with all the donuts they want, just to show no hard feelings. Hand your boss the resignation letter and go directly to your new job. ;-)


Good luck,
Latexman