I have been with my current company a little over 2 years.

Anonymous

January 20,2023 at 10:03PM UTC

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I have been with my current company a little over 2 years. When I started, my boss, one of the owners told me after I cleaned up the mountain of issues with the currently assigned department that the other like function would be folded under my area because while treading water there was a lot of work to do there too. (My field is purchasing and I am director level.)

in the fall it came time for the other department to fold in for multiple reasons. The person who had been there and with the company for 20 years has a serious health condition and had several prolonged periods out of the office, inventory accuracy was discovered to be sadly lacking and declining, we tried hiring an additional helper to improve the situation but it did not work. The employee I will call Bob who has been there for 10+ years actually has no formal purchasing background or training. He was working in manufacturing on the floor and one day they had an emergency need to fill a position in the tool area, so he was plucked out of a Manufacturing role and suddenly became supervisor of the parts room. He did not supervise anyone but himself….rofl.

So as I start looking at this area I realize it is a hot mess, no policies or procedures are followed and no paper trails…. And now Bob is pissed and resentful that he has a boss and has to answer to someone for the first time in over 10 years. The previous people he fell under just let him do whatever and had no idea how messed up it was. We now have a new accounting and banking entity and they require it to be done right and follow generally accepted. accounting practices.

So now that I am trying to straighten this out Bob is fighting me every step of the way. I tried coming in with the approach to Bob of as a single person handling this huge workload you have done a phenomenal job, but as we have grown and taken on new financial partners, there are some new processes and we need to implement and some changes we will have to make.

Now Bob has gone ballistic and hostile on me. He must get really worked up about 10PM on Sunday eveningss because I usually get an email from

around then that is scathing, rude and downright insubordinate. It is generally copied to many. I have discussed with my boss and HR and they tell me he is sick on intermittent warned Bob even that this will not be tolerated. However as Bon is on intermittent FMLA and has been there forever so I should just ignore him and this behavior.

So it continues week after week. Any advice? I feel it is bringing the rest of the department down and affecting many in the company nevatively because now sides are being taken.

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AnonymousJanuary 21,2023 at 3:18AM UTC
Wow! Bob sounds like a black hole of uselessness and sucking everyone down with him. He also sounds pretty entitled and immature, which I guess that's what the effect of 10 years of being on auto pilot will have. I don't know if you have already thought of this but I would try to figure out how much he is financially costing the company through incompetence in detail. Maybe you can look into him getting the actual training needed for this job. It also seems like this FMLA situation has allowed him to have a "I can do what I want" attitude and management probably knows the hole they have dug for themselves by just throwing anyone in there to do the job. So, while you're getting this info together you should be looking for a position with another company if that's what it comes to. If they care enough about this company, they will listen to you.
AnonymousJanuary 21,2023 at 6:21PM UTC
Thank you, it is even worse than that he is close to retirement although I do I know what his plan is other than to make me miserable and throw road blocks up. We have recently had to cut back hours temporarily and the person I have working with him when I told her the new schedule kind of squeeled and said you mean I only have to work one day with Bob now! She was so happy!
Some of the things Bob has said to me in these vicious emails include that I am a liar, that I “am only over him because I volunteered” and I have no business even coming into the manufacturing building. That I grabbed this so I could “build my resume”. Mind you I am 60 years old and cleaning up this mess is NOT a resume builder for me it is a favor to my boss who I respect and admire very much.
AnonymousJanuary 22,2023 at 2:22AM UTC
While you are almost entirely in the right (as most of this reply indicates), your ROFL comment about Bob is troubling. I hope that you have been treating him with respect. If you have not, that might explain his hostile behavior. Definitely double down on the “Bob, I respect that you managed this function alone in the past, but new processes are needed.”
After ensuring that you are treating Bob respectfully, you can take the following steps if the situation continues:
I agree with the suggestion that you document for management the financial cost of Bob’s prior practices.
Beyond that, I suggest that you report to HR and management that Bob’s actions are beginning to cause larger morale, management and reputational problems for you and for the company. I hope that this, in combination with the information on financial impact, would cause the company to shut down Bob‘s hostile emails.
As a precaution, keep a log at home containing a copy of Bob’s emails, related emails between you and HR/management, and any other notes/evidence concerning this situation in case it becomes necessary for you to take legal action against Bob/the company due to Bob’s defamation of you. (If the company refuses to restrain or discipline Bob, it appears to me that the company is complicit in Bob’s ongoing defamation campaign.)
If the situation continues to deteriorate (which I hope it does not), seek a new job and see a lawyer about the defamation. If you take legal action, it would most likely end with a negotiated financial settlement and your resignation.
misskelleypJanuary 25,2023 at 6:32PM UTC
Bob needs to go. He is creating a hostile work environment, not only for you but for others. This causes morale issues, and costs the company money. If you can put a dollar value on this cost, it will become clear to management why he needs to go.
AnonymousJanuary 25,2023 at 7:17PM UTC
When someone is ill and in fear of losing their job they will likely act out. It's going to be hard not to personalize this but the best recourse would be to have HR/People Ops help you to solve this as best as possible. It is not your job to fix the problem of him. Be sure to document all of the things you need to to protect yourself and your job. If you are in meetings with him and that is where he is acting out bring HR into those meetings. Do not allow his behavior to be directed toward you.
AnonymousJanuary 25,2023 at 8:36PM UTC
Did you come in and ask Bob about how the processes were working or did you come in like a "know-it-all" and start mandating? Some managers assume they know how the department is going without asking the person who actually does the work. I would become defensive and angry if the "know-it-all" attitude was used. Approach this in a different way - ask Bob how the processes could improve, let him have some buy-in to the changes. I've been in Bob's position and it's hard when brand new manager who don't know how things are going are mandating.
AnonymousFebruary 9,2023 at 7:05AM UTC
I actually did not do that. I sat down with him as did our owner separately and explained that as we have grown it has become much too big of a responsibility for just one person. I told him I thought he had done an amazing job with what he had to work with. He had a list of complaints 10 miles long of how the company had failed him, not gotten him tge software he demanded (which would require a whole new finance package), etc.. and other things that were not feasible. The software would not have helped him as his computer skills are horrible.
i explained I understood those challenges and it was unfortunate that finance was not willing to change to a solution that would be easier for him, but that I was willing to help him either find a solution and work with finance to find a suitable in/between package that we could integrate.
I have gotten him help, I have rolled up my sleeves and helped myself, I have extended every olive branch possible and he is not cooperative in any way,
My boss and our owner told me today that he appreciated all the effort I had made, but I might as well accept defeat because there is not a single thing that I can do to get that man to accept the change. That he was determined to hate it, even if I dropped a million dollars in his lap and asked him if he had a place to use it, he would complain that I did not put it in his account for him.
So I am having to tiptoe around him until we can find another place to fit him in the company, as you can imagine, we are not finding many that are eager to take him,