I would like to request your assistance with a specific situation I am facing. This may be related to office politics, but not entirely.

I have a coworker who is talking behind my back to my friends and senior management. I found out about this through some of my friends. It was unbelievable to me because he appeared to be a good friend in front of me. Lately, I have been observing him and have noticed a few instances that have made it difficult for me to understand his behavior.

He takes credit for work that he did not do and writes diplomatic messages to my manager indicating that he is helping me with my work, which is never true. He also lies to other teams about things related to work or about me, portraying himself as someone else.

I I have tried highlighting some of it to my manager, but he has not taken any measures or confronted him. I have a good professional bond with my manager and I believe he trusts me too. I don't want to come across as a complaining guy to him, so I am refraining from outright confronting him about this guy.

Avoiding him at work is not possible as well, because we work on the same projects, and we are in the same positions. He will get really weird when my colleagues praise me for my work and stuff.

I am stuck on how to deal with such a situation and person.

Usually our company allows us to post anonymous questions during company events. I posted few questions which were very critical and not liked by the seniors. They cannot make out if it was posted by me but they might have a hint. Should I be doing this or this is not the right way to find solutions or tell people that something is wrong and instead just keeping nodding yes.

So I started a new job about 5 weeks ago. I’ve been making mistakes a lot due to attention to detail and being new. I’ve noticed micro aggression such as embarrassment in front of others, being excluded, and someone walking past my desk saying “paying attention to detail is important” but of course they’re kind to my face and acting like everything is normal.

This role is a contract, I am not allowed to directly communicate with my manager, I can only contact my agency. I pulled my trainer into the office to have a one on one, my trainer said we only hired you because we were in a rush we wanted to interview more people. My trainee asked how do you think you’re doing? What am I working on? And some helpful advice. I really want to be hired permanently.

Advice? Should I look for a new job? Tips on paying attention to detail.

This coworker has been trying to show his “seniority” over me ever since he joined, but his behavior is starting to devolve even more day by day. Here are some of his unhinged behaviors that have driven me up the wall:

1. Asked me to share a presentation I was working on, and then proceeded to tell my manager I shared it with him for feedback. He then setup a meeting to give me “critique”, and basically tear down my work. I ended up presenting the same presentation to 40+ people with minor changes and it went great.

2. Asked out loud in front of my team if I am really going to be the one facilitating a meeting with the VP out of “curiosity” since all of us are well equipped to present.

3. Mobbed up with my manager to provide unfair and untimely criticism on a project he joined midway. Held up a deliverable because he just “didn’t understand”.

4. Took over said project while I was on PTO for a couple days.

5. Kept mansplaining me about how the professional world is different than academia. I am a mid-level employee with work experience who just finished grad school.

6. I have been doing pm work now for an event segment which is outside my area of expertise/what i was hired for. I have been leading and planning in-depth. He sees my plan document and sends a message that he looks forward to seeing a different format because he doesn’t “understand” this.

7. Went on to criticize me again in front of clients saying my plan is “too complicated”.

8. Barked orders at me during an update meeting with the VP to make it seem like he has been giving me direction on this event work all along. Saying “You got that scorpiorising” after everything my VP said.

9. Went and created an alternate formatted version of a plan I had already approved with my manager and shared with the client.

He is in his 50s and I can’t imagine how insecure he must feel to keep throwing his weight around unnecessarily. I find it extremely difficult to respect someone like this. Unfortunately, he is providing “communication coaching” to my manager who doesn’t have expertise in my field so has to rely on him and they are both teamed up. He is zero help with his own history of abusive behavior. My anxiety is triggered, but I am unsure how to curb this? I am actively looking for a new job, but anticipate being here for at least a couple more months.

I changed my field of work about 3 years ago and joined the NGO I work for. It’s great but I just realised that I’m underpaid by over 40% from other colleagues who joined after me and are at the same level. It would’ve been fine but lately one of these folks has been pressing it in, saying mean things being mean. I talked about this with my boss (this guy being mean not the salary bit) and they asked me to give them feedback. It’s just too much. My boss hates talking about $$$.

How do I slide this in a conversation? Would you have a conversation about this if you were in my shoes?

For context, I was given double promotion and fastest ever in the organisation.

Okay so… there’s not much else to say. I work with an asshole and I need advice on how to proceed. Warning for the long post now.

I work in a medical office as a receptionist/technician. This is my first real job, not to mention my first office job.

My coworker, who was the only other coworker I was working with for three months, would never jump in or coach me through things I needed help with, even when I was out of my depth of understanding with insurance or helping a patient. This coworker knew I had no experience in the industry and I would ask lots of questions whenever something new came up, but even after doing everything I could to show them I’m eager to learn and open to guidance, they would still sit back and watch as I would misinform patients unknowingly while they were scrolling on their phone. Afterwards when I’d ask them what I could’ve done better, they’d tell me the right way and basically just say “it’s alright, I did it too when I was new.” More often, though, they’d only jump in to “correct” what I said by completely contradicting me in front of patients, without telling me prior what the “right” way was. Although, in most cases, I would have to seek them out for constructive criticism.

Unsurprisingly, I had a very hard time in my first few months because I’d constantly be getting undermined, and whenever I needed coaching, they’d never do it discreetly.

This brings us to now, though. It’s been a month after new owners took over, and I love my new bosses. They go out of their way to take care of their staff. They’re truly the best, and while I love them… I don’t know how to deal with my coworker.

Just today, when a patient came in at the end of the day asking about an appointment, this coworker put them on the schedule and asked the doctor if we could see them. By the time I was setting the patient up for a later appointment, they came back out and announced that we’d see them now.

So here’s my question; How do I work with someone who won’t communicate and constantly makes me look bad when I’m still learning?

I'm an IT project manager for a med/small sized firm.

My boss (Director of Ops) is a great boss for my working style and I will do anything to keep him from quitting, but our previous CEO and his "sidekick" were rather difficult to deal with, a lot -- in part -- because of the "sidekick", and my boss has, over time let it slip, he's not sure how long he wants to be around.

Nonetheless my boss seemed to be pretty good at dealing with the CEO and so he often inserted himself as the communicator of all things IT (even though he's not always as clear on the details), even for troubleshooting help, which was usually fine by me.

Now the "sidekick" is the new CEO, and I know he is stressing my boss quite a bit, but I get the feeling that he's a bit less difficult and more understanding when dealing with me. Probably bc I'm a girl, but whatever. I'm not sure if I should or how I might suggest that he let me work a little more directly with the new CEO. Would love some thoughts on that.

Thank you!

Hi - long time lurker here. Currently having a bit of a tough situation at work. My company “technically” requires a 3 day in office policy.

My team has been entirely remote since I joined (nearly 2 years ago) and I know nobody in my group follows this rule. I used to go into the office frequently, but after realizing nobody on my team is even there, I have stopped going unless I have to for a meeting etc. the vp for my group refuses to show up and has threatened to quit if he is required to go in. My manager, who I have met in person twice, also never goes in. None of the other vps or associates of my group go in. When I last talked to my other coworker (lives in another state) he said “oh yeah don’t tell (manager) that I’m not going in regularly, nobody is there.

In the past 6 months my group got a new director that has changed the dynamic of my coverage group at work. He is a hardo, and does not like me as he knows that I work from home all the time. He is pressing my manager to go in as well as entire team to go in 3 days a week. My manager keeps asking if I’m going in 3 times a week and making sure that I am despite not going in themself. Why am I getting pushed to go in despite nobody being there? I don’t find this fair and need help navigating this situation. Thanks!

Hey everyone,
I'm thinking of developing a tool that I believe could be a valuable addition to our collective arsenal in navigating these challenges. It will be an AI bot designed to offer insights and strategies tailored to the unique challenges of corporate politics and human interactions. It's not just about survival; it's about thriving and outmaneuvering your competitors in the corporate jungle.
It encourages us to think with the few and speak with the many, to adapt our style and language according to the person we are dealing with, and to express admiration for others' achievements to subtly highlight our own.
Would you be interested in such a tool?

I started a new gig a few weeks ago. And I was being trained and sat between these 2 trainers. 2 weeks of training and my boss moved me to a new desk because they hired a new person. Of course I’m still asking questions because there are new things that come up that didn’t get covered in training. Well, I had a question on something and asked one of the gals, then the next day the 2 trainers were talking about me seemed like it, and the gal told me that that I was “struggling” with an order - which I don’t call it struggling . I had a question. They told me they think it would be better for me to move BACK to the training desk once the new person gets trained. wth?

If my boss tells me to move back to that desk I’m going to tell her no. From day 1, my boss told me I was going to be moving anyway, because that training desk was specifically for new hires.

Starting today, I’m going to stop asking questions . Seems like asking too many questions makes it appear that I will get fired. Oh well , I make an errror so be it, the trainers wont have anything to do with it because they dont assign errors

I work in a fairly small office of 8 people and things have become quite salty even before the recent incident. Our boss is my brother, and he's pretty disorganised and here there and everywhere. I've been in the business for over 4 years now as a graphic designer and I've been asked to take on an operations manager role to help the boss out with scheduling in work etc.

Basically a lot of staff are fairly annoyed with the lack of structure the office has, work will just come in and get done when ever it can, and which ever client shouts the loudest gets their work done first. Or, more frustratingly, if we have a meeting that's about to happen in 2 hours time to discuss work, it's all hands on deck to get that project rushed just to prove that something has been done, even if it's been done wrong because it's been rushed.

So I've stepped in to help, trying to organise people's workloads, so they can just log on, crack on through their work list and log off for the day. There's only one person in the office that absolutely hates this change and refuses to adopt any new implementation. For example using a new CRM system that logs work, time spent on the projects, the status it's at, etc etc. And everyone loves it apart from this one person.

It's my task to tell everyone what they're working on each day and we have a mix of people in the office and working from home. I messaged this guy to see what he's on and suggested he starts a new project. He went all in calling my boss / brother every name under the son, and regardless of whether it was my brother or not, there were some pretty horrific things he messaged. Because my boss wanted an update as to what people were on, he asked to see what this colleague had sent me, and without thinking of repercussions I just screenshotted it to him.

I guess my question is two-fold... firstly, should I have sent the screenshot to my boss, knowing that it was incredibly disrespectful to my boss and my brother (which I fully understand the brother side of things shouldn't mean anything), and number 2, now that's happened, how can I fix it to get this guy back in the good books?

My boss recently gave me an increase in vacation, as we had been discussing since I was originally hired on many years ago. Now 2 months after the vacation boost, he says our whole team is getting a 5% rate increase, but he's reducing my increase because of the vacation. Would have been nice to have been informed of that at the time rather than after the fact. I feel like he basically gave me no chance to negotiate or even make an informed decision about the vacation vs raise.

That was upsetting but I was trying not to let it bother me too much. But then....he sends me the list of increases (I'm the one making the pay adjustments) and low and behold, he straight up lied to my face about "everyone's getting 5%". Some are getting 10-15% increases. I want to confront him but I honestly don't know what the point would be. Clearly he's comfortable lying and he has full control over this situation. I just want to quit at this point. I feel totally disrespected and undervalued. I'm trying to be happy with the small raise (literally pennies!) but honestly, wtf. If he really thought I was worth that much less than my coworkers and didn't deserve the same raise as them, then say so.

In our annual review he said he was happy with my performance and couldn't think of anything he was unhappy with.... how does that even add up?

Working at a startup which, to save costs, leveled up a entry-level engineer as a team lead. He is inexperienced and so ego-bruised. Whenever I am trying to improve a process, solve a problem at work or simply self-market, his self-esteem is so bruised that he invalidates me without even listening. He then proceeds to implicitly point out that my ideas are worthless or that I am a less of an engineer than himself. How can I naviagte such level of insecurity?

Hey world- I would love some constructive advice:

I just left an awful position at a marvellous company.

It was a new leadership role for an expanded team but my direct leader was an awful micromanager that never communicated goals clearly. 2 months in decided they were done with me and just dragged it out for 5.

My team was amazing and we made great progress. Our KPIs had really turned around, however the workload assigned by my leader was 12hr days/7 days a week to keep up.

Basically it became all encompassing in my life. When I realized my boss was going to toss me regardless of what I did, I scaled back my hours to steal back my “life”. However I still had a lot of anxiety over it.

At last I got my walking papers and severance (which is why I stayed- sucks- but I needed that severance) and am now FREE!!!! I just need to get my head on straight so I can move forwards.

My mind just keeps circling back to 1/2 finished projects, reports coming up and other unfinished business…

I need suggestions to get unstuck!

I am in therapy (obviously) and I do art, I am taking time to do things that didn’t get done while I was in “the fog of war”… like visit with friends, catch up on TV shows, sleep….

Ideas?

The characters here are Andy, James and Jack. James and Jack are both seniors in my existing team, where James is slightly higher than Jack. Andy is a very senior VP in another department.

Andy has a lot of power, but has a reputation across the business to 'get in the way'. A few weeks ago, Andy said he wanted someone with a specific skillset to help with "unspecified tasks". He came sniffing around my department. All the senior managers in my area got together and decided who'd be best to work on this, and my name came up. I was told it was immediate, I had no choice, and I had to go. I asked for how long and they said "a couple of weeks". I asked if it was performance related and if I was being shifted out of my team, to which both Jack and James said absolutely not, and I was a 'vital' part of their team, but their hands were tied.

It's been two months now with no end in sight.

I've struggled with working for Andy. I have no sense of direction with the work and there's no set time limit to come back. When I do a task, Andy tells me it's not quite what he's looking for but offers no suggestions on how to improve it, so I go away and try another version, but ultimately it feels like I'm going round and round in circles.

I've tried talking to James and Jack, who both sympathise but say they don't have the power to pull me back. They assured me it should be over 'soon', but I have no clear idea of when 'soon' is.

I feel like if I go to Andy and tell him how unhappy I am, it'll damage my reputation and cause problems. I'm trying my best to complete the work but the sheer lack of direction is flatlining my motivation, so the work becomes total drudgery.

Do I have any options here? My current plan is to just suck it up until either Andy gets bored of my work, or James and Jack need me back urgently and fight harder for me to return.

Any thoughts welcome, this whole situation is really getting to me!

The situation is - a work assigned by manager A was known by manager B because part of the data was provided by manager B. Now manager B requests to review the result before release to manager A. How would you deal with this case without offending both parties?

Hello everyone,I'm reaching out for some guidance regarding my current job situation, which has been quite challenging for me.

This is my first job, and I've been with the company for over a year now. When I joined, I was new to the field, which meant a significant learning curve. Unfortunately, my workplace is known for its toxic office politics and unsupportive environment, which only added to the difficulty.My struggles with adapting to the job were compounded by the negative attitudes of my coworkers. My mistakes were constantly highlighted, and criticisms were made even outside of work, affecting my self-esteem.

Additionally, there's a colleague at my level who, backed by another team member, often puts me down in group settings. This has led to unfair comparisons from my manager, who expects me to perform at the same level as her.

Amidst this, I gradually isolated myself, a decision I now regret. After realizing this, I've tried to re-engage with the team, but the toxic behavior, including inappropriate jokes and comments, continues to affect me.

Recently, I discovered an email from a higher-level manager that mentioned me in a negative light, which was sent during my period of isolation and overlooked by me at that time.I've come to the conclusion that it might be best to seek a fresh start elsewhere, as the established opinions about me in my current job seem hard to change.

I've learned a lot during my time here, but I feel it's time to move on.I would appreciate any advice on how to handle this situation, especially:Tips on how to cope with the remaining time in this job while I search for new opportunities.

Advice on how to approach applying for new positions, considering my experiences and the lessons I've learned. Any suggestions for rebuilding self-esteem and confidence in a professional setting after such experiences. Also, I’m on a visa so I need to stay here as long as possible until I find a new job. Thank you in advance for your insights and support.

Hi Reddit,
I'm seeking advice on handling a situation with a coworker, "Amy," who I believe perceives me as competition. Despite our roles focusing on similar areas (topic X), my approach has been to concentrate on my work, often staying late to ensure quality. My dedication has not gone unnoticed by our boss, which may have sparked Amy's actions.
Here are the main issues I've faced:
Unwarranted Comments: Amy often remarks on my English skills in a way that feels unnecessary and possibly undermining (her English is as good as mine).
Privacy Invasion: Despite my lack of interest in her work, Amy goes to great lengths to hide her monitor from me. She even attempted to move to another room to keep her screen from my view but eventually returned to her desk. Funny enough, I have caught her looking at my screen while I was using the restroom.

The look she gives when I dress nice: Often I catch her paying attention to how I dress and she has bought shirts that are very similar to mine (in terms of the style).

Server Shutdowns: She is in charge of the server I use. The server has shut down unexpectedly several times, interrupting my work. Although Amy quickly "fixed" these issues, the timing and frequency raised my suspicion.
Access Issues Post-Server Update: After an update, I (only me in the whole group) was unable to access the server. Amy's offer to help felt insincere, involving basic, ineffective troubleshooting and unexplained laughter. Suggesting we involve higher-ups led to her abrupt departure. It was later revealed by management that I had been removed from the access group post-update, a change possibly made by Amy.

These incidents have not only impacted my productivity but also my ability to focus solely on my work without getting involved in office politics or perceived competition. I do not want any competition with anyone at work. I just want to focus on my work and have a positive work environment.
How can I navigate this situation effectively, emphasizing my interest in maintaining professional conduct and focusing on my responsibilities?
Best regards,
topnotchspinach

The characters in this story are the VP, the Director, and me. (There's also my Manager between me and the Director, but he's not in this story.)

Today the VP (we have a skip-level every quarter) told me that the new Director (he started last week) is already talking about my team, and how "weird" it is that we have 3 whole people, etc. He hasn't even learned what we actually do yet. She said that she's told him this is his team, and she will roll with his decisions about it.

But: she wanted to give me a heads up that it's possible he might reshuffle/restructure the team. She doesn't know if that will actually happen, or whether it will affect me, or when it might happen, but she flat-out told me it wouldn't be a bad idea to start looking for something else. She also encouraged me to be proactive about teaching the Director what I do, what I know, and what repercussions there are if I don't do my job (in other words, show him how deep the shit will be if I'm not here).

Now before anyone jumps on the VP for unprofessionalism or whatever: I am one of the most tenured people in the department, she and I have a good relationship, and I had asked her over a year ago to be up-front with me if I needed to worry about my job. The company overall has been struggling, and our department in particular has had an unusual amount of turnover. I sincerely appreciate that she wanted to be honest with me that something like this could happen, so I have as much lead time as possible, just in case.

On the other hand.

She basically told me "The guy I just hired might fire you, and I'm not going to do anything to stop him." And that sucks so much to hear that I was really shaken up after work today. The funny thing is, I was already looking. I started looking vaguely after the last layoff when they canned my closest (and highly effective) teammate, then immediately replaced her with someone cheaper. I started looking in earnest after my performance review at the start of this year (because it was frankly insulting). But I'm still stressed out and sad.

And it could all come to nothing anyway. Though tbh I think the "best" outcome would be that they fire my replacement teammate (who doesn't deserve it) and try to give me all of her work without any pay increase, and obviously I don't want that either.

Every job I've ever had has eventually become toxic. I hate it.

Is it considered a HIPPA violation to throw away a list of names(clients)? There is nothing health related. Just a 4×4 handwritten list that was disposed of in trash.

A manager of the other group claimed in a meeting that he called me but I didn’t answer the phone in response to an urgent request during off hours when I was on-call. As the result, it caused a serious issue.

That really hurts my reputation, the organizer of the meeting raised her voice and questioned me why didn’t I answer the call. About 10 people in the meeting all believed what the manager said.

The fact is that not only there was no such call on my end, but also there was no such incoming records on my iphone showed he ever called me. Further, I volunteered to share my calls log from Verizon.

Then after the meeting, I wrote him an email, cc'ed my and his manager. In the email, basically, I repeated what I said above. Further, asked him if it could be that he meant to call me but mistakenly called somebody else which could be easily found out by checking his outgoing call records on his phone.

He didn’t reply my email.

The manager can say whatever he wanted to say and get away from it. It's not fair to me. Can someone please offer some suggestions on what I should do?

​

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My manager asked clearly to them to release some of their workload on me, but they are not giving me any task and if I ask them to train me than they behave weirdly and give me work which requires no skills or brain, I am really frustrated and tensed, I literally have no work to do at office, I always wanted to learn new things, my manager is on a long vacation now , I literally don’t know what to do , I am not interested in doing tasks which require no brain , please give me some advice on this. Thanks

Started a job a few months back and this guy I work with I started to notice him becoming somewhat interested in me. Extended personal conversations, talking about past relationships, movies, and general interests. Recently I was looking for something in the office that I needed to go out into the field because my job is on the road a lot. I am more than capable asking around and I didn’t even want to ask him, but he was standing nearby and overheard and enthusiastically to starts to ask people for me. I know he was just being nice but it bothered me. His energy towards me is off-putting and just too much. There were a few other similar moments - one instance where he was like “Oh I want to hug you” and again I brushed it off. anyway I was talking to a coworker when I felt sure he was gone. I mentioned a few things I didn’t like about him. Something along the lines of a grown man with a Pokemon tattoo. I’m not saying all pokemon tattoos are bad. But when you partner it with childish immature energy, then that’s how I’m going to see you. Now I’m positive he overheard me based on how he is treating me. I was trying to be quiet, but I think he must’ve just been walking by and happened to catch the conversation. I feel really bad because he does seem hurt by it. But on the other hand problem solved I guess. I knew on some level there was a chance he would hear me but idk it’s just super awkward now I know I’m well aware in the asshole in this situation but what was the alternative silently put up with or confronting him to “take it down a notch” that could easily turn into what’s wrong with my behavior, I’m just being nice.

I am Indian not Telugu(a state in southern India), joined Amazon US on L1 and was surrounded by Telugu managers.

When I joined Amazon US, none of my colleagues and coworkers informed me about PIP system. Later on I was informed that people who are unable to hide their plans to move teams internally are put on PIP.

Why didn't my colleagues inform me about PIP quota?

Also I was told that I need to leave Amazon and join a Telugu consultancy to get H1B.

Most managers were Telugu and conducted work in Telugu language. They also met for lunch and discussed PIP etc in Telugu so that others don't understand these questionable and controversial discussions.

Almost all Desi consultancies in US are run by Telugu folks. These people gave me 100% guarantee that I can get H1b. But someone else told me that they keep H1b papers and you need to be their buddies in order to get the H1b to rejoin FAANG.

Is it important to eat biryani with them? And attend their kids birthday parties?

#tech #faang #greencard #immigration #india

Context: I'm a software engineer with 15+ years experience

Without going into too much detail, I'm about to find myself as extremely critical between my current employer and prospective buyer of the company. I am truly the last person that understands how critical systems work and I'm pretty sure this deal my current employer is brokering with this prospective buyer is that we keep X number of clients happy until they can take the reigns and move some things around on their end.

These critical systems are absolute garbage. It's a miracle they even run and can support business processes. I inherited them but I've been around long enough to know where the issues are, how to quickly fix them, what needs to be improved where and the locations of all the integrations are.

I believe that I'm about to be the lynchpin that allows the deal the be agreed upon and it will require my employment for the next 3-6 months. I don't believe these systems will continue to run without my attendance.

What should I ask for to make it worth my while. Given the cost of this deal I'm pretty sure I could ask for almost anything and it will be considered. Thoughts?

Insider's Insights: Diary Entry 1 - Unveiling the Office Drama Chronicles

Alright, so here's the scoop: my coworker borrowed cash from an elderly patient and conveniently forgot all about paying it back. Next thing you know, we get a call from the patient's daughter threatening to take legal action. I decide to spill the beans to the boss, who then has a chat with the daughter and summons my coworker to the office. But guess what? The coworker plays innocent and starts throwing a fit, demanding to know who ratted him out. Drama at its finest, folks!

So, get this - the boss canned her, and to top it off, her annual bonus went straight into paying off the patient. She's out of a job and bonus now. I can't help but wonder if she ever cracked the case of who set her up. Oh, and did I mention she had borrowed 2 grand from the patient? Man, talk about a tangled web!

I have recently joined an IT company that requires me to commit to a 2-year bond. However, I am feeling dissatisfied with the company culture and the internal politics. At the time of joining, we agreed that I would spend the first 6 month in a training period with a stipend of 10k, and after completing the training, my monthly pay would increase to 20k. I have successfully completed the 8 Months. However, the company is now indicating that my increment will only happen after the completion of the bond, essentially after 1.5 years.

Due to this concern and my dissatisfaction with the company, I am contemplating resigning. However, there is a penalty of 50k for breaking the bond, and this is making me hesitant.

I would appreciate any advice on how to handle this situation effectively and whether there are any considerations I should take into account before making a decision.

What if you made a mistake in office and if someday somebody catch holds of you. There might be an escalation on you. How to handle that situation.

My friend (John) encountered a strange situation where he was reported by his colleague (Darek) (same level). Darek feels that John believes his project (Project A) is not important for the company.

Context:

John had an unofficial meeting with Darek where they talk about the project (Project A). John act knowledges his efforts and give some constructive feedback and the areas of improvement to make this successful.

Few days later, John had a meeting with his manager. John’s manager reported that Darek feels that John think that project A is not worth while. John was shocked and ask for specifics of the conversation. Try to understand why Darek feels like that. Darek wasn’t able to provide any specifics to the manage, as he couldn’t recall the conversation and date.

Now John’s manager wrote him internal counseling and will keep the letter in his folder. Calling it “team culture”. Means will not take it to the HR

Was that a right decision?

My boss came to me today and said he had heard some "gossip".

He said Mike (a current coworker) was at an event and saw Hannah (a former coworker). Hannah told Mike that one of my clients was not happy with one of our deliverables.

This client is not happy with the results of this deliverable - but the findings were accurately portrayed. As the project manager, I have known for several months and we are currently looking at ways to recharacterize the information without violating the professional obligations of the person who reported the findings (Sandy). (I.e. yes... the client is not happy but no, it's not our fault).

I explained that we were aware and were working hard to satisfy the client.

I also shared that former coworker Hannah did not leave on good terms with Sandy.

He said I provided a good summary and moved the conversation onto something else.

This would be the second time Mike heard something third hand and went straight to my boss.

I feel like the fact that he came directly to me and categorized it as "gossip" bodes well to me but it still pisses me off.

I'd like to ask my boss to tell "whoever" told him to please come talk to me first when they hear something about one of my clients or projects.

But I also feel like I should just let it go and keep doing my job.