My wife works for a moron

[rammstein]

I will keep this general to protect the innocent.

Wife started working for a guy who is a smart guy and gets intellectually satisfying work from him. Guy pulls a 2nd higher level person in to work on another end of the business. Wife is required to report to the new person as well. New person is a complete dolt. They are in the same industry as I am, and the stories I hear are downright horrific. This has been corroborated by others in her office independently. In addition to being incompetent, this person also manages to be so abrasive and malicious that everyone there hates her. Supposedly even the main guy who brought her in has had it. She has turned vicious with many (all now I think) members of the office, and when she finally pushed my wife too far the wife quietly suggested that she work on her social skills . Now she is on the 'hit list'.

According to the main boss, this person is being kept on for the near term due to a large commission check in play. The implication is that once this happens, she (the idiot) will be cut loose. In the meantime, the wife has to put up with her and carefully journalize all of the nonsense for when the big day comes.

I don't even know why I am posting this, I am just venting I guess. It pisses me off because the wife is the most harmless and easy to get along with person ever. Very quiet, humble, and genuinely hard working. She is married to me to god's sake! In addition, she is a bona fide genius (hot too). It kills me to picture her dealing with what amounts to a kindergarten-like squabbling whore of a semi-boss. What can I do? Concrete boots? Wood-chipper?

[CJFusco]

There's one in every workplace. Don't worry, these things have a way of working themselves out.

[Rick V]

Originally posted by rammstein
Concrete boots? Wood-chipper?

You can't put concrete in a wood chipper.......duh.
Cover her with brown gravy and lock her in a room with a horney wolverine.

[legion]

Both I and my wife have been in similar situations. If I were in that situation, I would stick around until the deal in question is done. If this lady isn't cut lose then, I doubt she ever will be. I'd also be updating my resume in the mean time in case things didn't go as anticipated.

[M.D. Holloway]

So the chick is a hack, an emotional bafoon and a roach...hmm, nice combo. Have here leave and never look back. Things will only get worse.

[speedemon666]

Your wife needs to plead her case to the boss that this woman is creating a hostile work environment. Document everything and present it to the old man. If he's not willing to do anything then she can sue. She needs to nip this in the butt immediately or it will get worse!

I'm not sure what state you're in, but you can google search for hostile workplace.

http://www.california-employment-lawyers.com/hostileWorkplace.shtml

I'm going thru far worse with my Sup

Pornographic material on Sup's company computor
Verbal & physical threats of subordinates & coworkers
Fraudulent hiring practices
Wrongful denial of vacation
Wrongful termination of employee

This should motivate your wife, she was awarded a total of $600K.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=9th&navby=case&no=9815072

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Never forget you (and she) is a free agent in this day and age. There's absolutely no harm in looking elsewhere and going there if the situation is better. I'm possibly about to pull the trigger on a similar job change for myself for a number of reasons including (but not limited to) the recent introduction of a similar do-nothing, self-important middle management type in our office. I've been told by several long-timers that such individuals historically don't last long (typically they last about a year before upper management pulls the plug on them for being so costly and not bringing in any new work) but I'm probably not going to stick around since there are other reasons as well (better pay, closer to home, more interesting work, etc.)

My point is there's no harm in EVER keeping resumes current and sending a few out once in a while even if you're "happily" employed. Every overpaid H.R. consultant in the world will tell you this, very few people actually do it (I'm happy to say I'm one of the few that does and it has worked quite nicely to my advantage over the last few years).

Nobody is entitled to my (or your or her) loyalty. It's earned. If the "free market" principle of labor is to work, people need to stop rewarding/reinforcing behavior like this on the part of companies and stop biting their tongues on "exit interviews" when it comes to things like this. Be honest. Be careful how you word things (I wouldn't say "I'm leaving because so-and-so is an a-hole") but I WOULD say that "recent changes in management structure and in particular, my immediate supervisory chain-of-command have created a work environment that is contentious and incompatible with someone like myself, my goals, my work ethic and my desire to advance within this organization". Something like that. They'll be able to read between the lines. If more people did this, it'd make companies realize that they actually DO need to take measures to scrutinize their work force, management structure and what's going on if they want to retain the best people and avoid "revolving door syndrome".

Of course in a down economy all bets are off and employers can be a lot more picky and less concerned about retention since there's often a larger pool of (expendible) labor. Something to consider given where it looks like our own economy might head in the next 6-12 months. . .

[rammstein]

Her real boss has been made painfully aware of the situation by other coworkers. Luckily, he came to the wife with questions, which she finally answered honestly to. She's just not a compainer so he had to draw it out a bit. The word was that supposedly the wife's commentary was the last straw, but things are still being dragged out as they wait for this supposed deal to go through. Things have continued to degrade in the meantime.

The resume has been updated, and the plan is to try if at all possible to make it to January (for the purpose of receiving a decent bonus) and then to move on if the witch is still present.

Its amazing to me that somebody would behave like this woman, when it is to her own detriment.

[cord68]

allways remember those who complain about there boss being stupid would be out of a job if was any smarter.

[Z-man]

Hmm - those crazy Mormons. I'd be concerned if my wife worked for a Mormon as well...

Oh wait...

-Z-man.

Disclaimer: no animals were harmed in this thread, and any consideration that my post is meant to be offensive to Mormons is incorrect. Though I cannot guarantee the same for morons. They may have been harmed and offended.