[legion]

Where to begin?

For the past two years, I've had problems with a coworker.

The first incidence occured when I was assigned to convince another team to use our technology. It wasn't the best fit, but the business side wanted it. I knew the other team wasn't overly enthused, so I laid out the best logical argument I could muster. I scheduled a series of meetings where in each I focused on explaining and getting buy-in on one aspect of my argument. The coworker in question was assigned to be my backup. After the first meeting he basically decided he hated the other team's lead and started projecting problems onto him. He decided that this other team had it out for us and wanted to develop a competing technology. (The did not and they don't have the time or the budget to entertain such ideas.) He would loudly complain about the team lead at every opportunity and call him names in meetings. He'd bring up the guy to bash just to bash him, and if someone else mentioned a problem they were having he'd start in with: "At least your problem isn't as bad as..."

During the third meeting he started screaming at the other team's lead accusing him of the things he was projecting onto him. I simply stopped inviting him to meetings after that as he proved to be a hindrance rather than a help. The damage was done, and I ended up not making the "sale" as it were.

Now, the coworker in question is a consumate brown-noser and a member of a "protected" group. As such, I didn't mention this to my manager. I could see him turning the tables on me. Besides, I could handle it, right?

Three months after that incident I was riding back from a sushi lunch with some members of my team. He asked me a question about my 951 (which I still had at that point in time). I started to respond and he cut me off, screaming: "No one wants to hear about your f***ing car, Chris!" Wow. He'd just asked me the question purely as a setup to attack me. I was livid, but I still didn't say anything. From that point I pretty much avoided this guy as much as I could, which could be hard as he sits right by me and is on the same team.

I'm pretty sure I'm the person he now obsesses about hating and bashes whenever I'm not around.

There have been other incidents over the years. He whines and complains loudly about all the things that "offend" him, yet holds court at his desk loudly proclaiming things I find rather offensive.

His latest thing is to try to pass his work off on me. I have simply taken the tack of answering his specific questions and volunteering no additional information.

So, Wednesday two weeks ago, I had been answering some questions for him (while I knew he was trying to get me to do his job for him), and he gets frustrated and sends me this:

So, Chris….are you going to do any leg work to try to help us figure this out, or are you just going to throw out ideas? We would appreciate your help with this.

I reply with:

I thought you might be able to check the dates when these codes were added. Was I wrong?

To which he writes:

Seriously? You don’t think we already did this? Do you really think we are that incompetent?

First of all, I was surprised he put this in writing. This was a first. Most of his abuse up until this point had been verbal and I hesitated to report it as it would quickly devolve into a he said/he said type of disagreement. Second, he put some people on the e-mail that are in a completly different department. Bad form, I thought. I stopped responding to him after that. I wasn't going to say anything that would help my career any, so I didn't say anything.

Immediately after this, he scheduled a meeting titled "Stop the Insanity!" with me and the people he had put on the e-mail, and a director from a different department. I thought he was trying to build support to "force" me to do his work. I guessed that he was going to argue that the work needed to get done, he wasn't capable of doing it, and therefor it fell to me to finish it. (In reality, what he does is take a wild guess without doing any research and then CC's me for confirmation. In this mind, he has transitioned the problem to me and wiped his hands of it.) I didn't attend the meeting.

So I had a meeting with my manager today. I was hesitant to bring this up. I don't want to start a war, I just want to do my job and I just want him to do his. If this were outside work, I'd be poking this guy until he imploded (as he is clearly mentally unbalanced), but I want to keep my job, so instead I have withdrawn from the conflict and contemplated the best way to proceed.

So I told my manager about my issues. She wasn't surprised. That team that the "problem coworker" was screaming at two years ago? They reported to her at the time. She already knew the story. She was familiar with his erratic behavior.

She's talking to him on Monday about it. We'll see how it goes. I fully anticipate some kind of retribution.