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coworker with an advanced degree but 15 years less experience - puzzling behavior

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coworker with an advanced degree but 15 years less experience - puzzling behavior

Curious as to what you would make of this.

I've worked for the same company for 6 years. I've worked in the same industry for 27 years. I've worked in the same field for 20 years.

A year ago, company hired a male (I'm female) that is a direct colleague although has a title senior to mine because he has an advanced degree (juris doctorate, no way for me to have the same title without a juris doctorate). Last Summer, I was assigned by our boss (senior counsel) to work with him in support of a study he is managing (I am supporting him while also managing my own study with my own people supporting me).

Background: This is my 9th study start up and it's his 2nd. The templates and the playbook we are using are largely based on what I established with another senior counsel 5 years ago however, I've since updated them last year. Everything that I do is approved by both senior counsel and our SVP.

Observations: While I have literally negotiated contracts with 90% of the sites with whom we are contracting for his study, and while the templates and the playbook are based on my work, my recent hire colleague dismisses all of it. Meaning:

  • He had me work on 4 contracts, sent them to him in a single day and his response was, "please don't ever do that again" and then he decided not to use any of them.
  • For anything that I have worked on and asked for his feedback on some approaches, he says he will ask our boss and then he just takes it from me as opposed to getting back to me so that I can proceed with my work.
  • Our boss asked me to ask him to obtain some information from the Study Team and my recent hire colleague notes the same by way of IM to me. I told him, yes, that's correct however, our boss asked me to ask him to obtain the information. 2 weeks go by - nothing, so I send a follow-up to him and cc our boss - still nothing after another week so I send a second follow-up and cc our boss - still nothing after another week so I did it myself because outside party was waiting for what took literally 3 minutes for us to do.
  • Company is switching to OneDrive as a means of managing files and we had training last week and this week. Our boss asked me to set up a folder for my recent hire colleague's study in OneDrive - I followed the detailed directions from the ppt training. Recent hire colleague IM'ed me to ask after why I did what I did, how I did what I did, and will I show him. I said "happy to help however, the training materials have more to offer in the way of how to set things up. this process is new for me as well." Get on the call with my recent hire colleague and it was passive aggressive fault finding - not offering suggestions, not asking questions - I offered that I was following the direction of our boss, he reviewed it and asked that the folder is used as an example for other studies.

I've let our boss know my concerns previously, i.e., he's taken over matters that are assigned to me and opines about these same matters during meetings (and has provided erroneous information to the team twice now, creating more work for me to course correct the team) and he's essentially relegated my duties to administrative matters. Our boss had to tell him twice to back off and manage his own matters.

Oddly, he tells me that I he thinks I am amazing and once my husband heard him carrying on (we both work FT remote so this was via Zoom) and my husband said "he's laying it on a bit thick" - it did make me feel uncomfortable, tbh. He's also gave me kudos when he told me that our SVP gave me a shout-out and I told him that I reported to her when I first started, she's familiar with my work and I have an immense amount of respect for her (I found out later from my boss that he was hired to work with our SVP however, things didn't work out so he was put on the clinical contracts team).

Do I ignore his nonsense? Do I go to my boss again? Do I have a meeting with the recent hire colleague and my boss to air things out?

Any feedback is appreciated. Thank you very much.

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  1. Anonymous

    Do you still have a good rapport with the previous SVP?

    If you go to your boss again, I’d put it in writing (calendar invite with a high level agenda that you can recap in an email after).

  2. Anonymous

    This person mistakenly thinks they are more senior than you because their title is more senior than yours, and what's more, is clearly not mature enough to be a managerial/senior role given the way the way that he's behaving.

    The good news is, it sounds like other people have also had similar issues working with him, so it's not you. It's him. I would document anything similar to what you've shared above just to CYA, but I would mostly ignore this. There are players in this game who can do things about this person and don't seem inclined to.

  3. Anonymous

    The only suggestion I would offer is not to be the boss's messenger.

    Your boss must manage his own communication with this person. I would begin to keep your own traking report for your direct work. There is no need to keep following up on work this person is to responsible for. Have 1:1 with your boss often. Calendar them with invites. Make them thorough and only cover your responsibilities. Distance yourself or this person will ensure that you are held responsible for all his failures one way or another. Again, distance yourself for self preservation. Do not hold his hand, do not babysit, do not enable this behavior. Be too busy to coddle this person. You are not his administrator so refuse to spend your energy doing this. When asked for training be waaaayyyyy too busy to do so. Create reasons to recommend he seek training from the training staff. STOP offering to do anything outside of your own responsibilities.

    Create boundaries for yourself. There is no reason to explain. Just be professional, be distant, be extremely good at your job....not managing him. Force communication between your boss and him. You do this by not answering his requests for anything. Suggest he speak with your boss. Copy your boss on everything.

  4. Ann Sweeney

    Yup. Let her deal with him and manage him. If she asks you to do something for him or for her, ask her to put that request in writing and copy all so there’s awareness and no confusion. Triangles don’t work.

  5. Anonymous

    First, he has the credentials for the title and position, and by your admission, you don't, so on that point, you can't complain. On the other hand, he is passive-aggressive, which is inappropriate in a workplace environment. This behavior becomes toxic, so if it persists, keep complaining. Otherwise, your boss will think things are better (which they aren't). This sounds like an issue of who has the lead on the projects, so you can request a sit-down with your boss and the two of you, which can be eye-opening for all three of you. He can pull rank (because of his credentials and licensing) but not experience and tenure on you. In the meeting, ask who has the lead on the projects so it is clear on all sides.

  6. Anonymous

    Had a Principal of my school who had her doctorate and credentials and acted just like him. Turned out she had plagiarized her doctorate and the team was able to find the original and prove her plagiarism. Be very careful because these kind of people are also very vindictive. She caused a lot of damage before being held accountable.

  7. Dianna Deeley

    You absolutely must document all of this, and take it to your boss.

    I have no idea why your new colleague is failing to do collaborate, or perform requested tasks, and not giving feedback, and not returning work done. But none of this is acceptable, and protecting yourself is a priority.

  8. Sarah Borders

    No matter the field, when degrees and credentials clash with experience and institutional knowledge, experience and institutional knowledge win every time. This is a lesson new graduates often must learn the hard way, unfortunately.

    You can try to consider things from his point of view: He WAS going to have a prestigious and exciting role working with the SVP, but instead, he’s working on this study. Then, it was determined he needed help to complete it, so they asked you to support him. He’s probably taken a blow to his confidence, thinking management doesn’t trust him to handle it himself.

    I would use the incident you shared as a jumping off point to have a conversation with your colleague and your boss about roles and responsibilities with respect to this study. It seems completely unacceptable for an outside party to have to wait two weeks for something they could’ve gotten in under a day. What’s more, you have your own team to manage, so you’ve got other things on your plate, and it’s needs to be clear who is responsible for what and what percentage of your time you should expect to commit to it. Get it in writing for everyone to see. This probably would fix most of the issues you’re having with your colleague.

    The only other option I see is to let him fail, but that means potentially letting the study fail, too. People can learn a lot from failure, but that really should be a last resort.

  9. Rt Wl

    Excellent reply.

  10. Joan Williams, Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist

    I would recommend you go to your boss about this again.
    Usually with these kinds of people, if you let their behavior slide, it just gets worse.

    I wouldn't meet with the colleague and your boss. It's not your job to manage him. And he would probably either argue with you or gas light you - none of which you want to happen in front of your boss. Address your concerns to your boss and let them manage him.

  11. Anonymous

    They bring different things to do the table. There may be something that's your strength and others that co worker has. Can you see what strengths are helpful. And provide a complement. Or a criticism from your knowledge. Rather than a competition. Most things once feels have been addressed have a resolution. There's a threshold for learning. I can't believe I took so long to use this site. I was sceptical.

  12. Beth Whight Morales

    It sounds like he’s not able to produce the level of output they would like. It’s possible your boss and the SVP realize this and they are hoping he will learn from you, which would explain that they requested he specifically provide the information you eventually spent three minutes obtaining.

    You have the credibility to go to your boss and be heard, and you should. If this individual can’t produce and in fact gives bad information, they will spend time denigrating the performance of you and other top producers, and generally deflate the organization’s capabilities as upskilled resources are required to hand-hold and address his deficiencies. He probably came out of that JD with an immense ego, and so it should be addressed now.

    And for him to “recognize” you - so patronizing. It’s always difficult to know how to react when inexperienced employee A either “praises” or “reassures” or “explains” to an experienced employee from a POV that just highlights how much employee A is oblivious to their own need to essentially, shut the hell up, stay out of the way, and watch and learn. I haven’t quite figured out how to handle that, but I understand how frustrating it is.

  13. Anonymous

    He's a classic gaslighter, definitely do the minimum to help him follow the direction of your manager and be sure to document any derogatory or inflammatory comments directed to your work product. If he chooses not to get the work done right, be sure to memorialize in writing where it was before any "fix" that you do. Don't make this a battle but stay the course instead in your own lane and let him fail on his own. Perhaps the isolation of his mistakes will be overtly clear once you stop helping the work get done. Take a deep breath and let your emotions go in this he is definitely baiting you some to make himself look more superior. Don't buy into it.

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  15. James Smith

    That’s a solid take. Given her experience, it does seem like he’s overstepping despite relying on her work. A direct but professional conversation, along with keeping the manager in the loop, feels like the right approach here.

    Also, building strong credentials helps reinforce authority in such situations CertBoosters can be a great support for that.

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