...And other fiction

Having been again away from this blog so long that I couldn't remember what I last posted, I now see that I neglected to mention another significant event from the last few weeks: [edit: Oops... No I didn't]

Meanwhile I've taken a few more steps toward escaping my current job, having met with a representative of an agency. I now have some forms to fill in and send back to get the ball rolling.

At work, the plot thickens, literally. My senior designer has somehow convinced all the copy controllers that another of my staff is not pulling her weight, despite the evidence of their own eyes. When the situation was looked into thoroughly, there was indeed a member of my team who was not doing her fair share of the work... but not the one on the receiving end of the allegations. The one who's slacking is the one who's leaving.

My next course of action is complicated. I need to talk to my counterpart on the other team, because he's worked with my senior designer for longer. There is a pattern to his behaviour in that, every time we've hired somebody better than him, but of a similar age, he complains about them. The questions are, how far back does it go, and is there an obvious reason for it?

After that, there are several possibilities:

1. Speak to my designer's editors and apprise them of the allegations (not necessarily naming the source) to ensure their support of their designer.
2. Speak to the MD and bring his attention the the machinations of my senior designer.
3. Speak to Human Resources about bullying.

There's also a fourth option - start moving to make both senior designers redundant. Neither is really capable of fulfilling that role. One is only in the office two days a week, the other has a rather creative interpretation of timekeeping.

But that still leaves a problem with the other idiots in the department who have believed the lies. This is nothing new. I've been the victim of this kind of bullying myself - and was only aware of it in a peripheral sense - and so, while I'm keen to leave, I'm also keen to have this fixed before I go.

I don't fully understand how my senior designer can be so compelling but, for whatever reason, several people in the company let him think for them. It's my firm belief that we should not confirm any staff who are unable to think for themselves, so our newest recruit on Copy Control should probably be ditched.

I'm more than tempted to speak to each of my copy controllers separately about the workflow, and ask them to think very carefully about how it's been going, then tell me what brought them to the conclusion that this particular designer is the problem. If a certain name comes up, I'll have evidence of bullying.

It may help that his staunchest supporter left the company yesterday, now that her tenure as 'Acting Editor' has come to an end with the return of an editor from maternity leave. Even so, he has enough people in his thrall to make life difficult.