Volume 26 • No 09 • 2003
ISSN 0742-468X • Since 1978
On-line Since 2000

Office Politics:
Ear Of The Boss

by

I clearly remember the day I was sitting across from a man I shall refer to as Dick, getting yet another tongue thrashing for something which, in his expert opinion, I was supposed to be doing. I was much younger and less experienced at the time, so I just sat there, getting more and more caved in, listening to him explain to me that everything was going wrong because of me. Now I am much wiser and stronger, and this idiot would not be screaming at the top of his voice at me for very long.

What was going on with Dick was that he had the ear of the boss. This "man" always had an excuse for everything that was going wrong around him, and it was always someone else's fault. In fact, Dick was directly responsible for the firing of two good people before I quit, and two additional people left on their own after I left.

Dick, you see, had the ear of the boss, and he took advantage of that to "educate" him on how a business should really be run. And it seemed that the proper way to run a business meant belittling the employees, screaming at the top of his lungs, and loudly asking people what was wrong with them.

I remember when Dick came on board at our small consulting company. He claimed he had an incredible amount of marketing experience and convinced my boss that he was the answer to everything, and would make our company big and profitable. Up until that point, by the way, our company was small but excellent - we had a concept that we would be the best at what we did and that we would create a wonderful place to work.

That all changed when Dick came on board. He spent endless hours talking with the boss, educating him on how to run a company. He also spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out "what was wrong", and soon isolated an employee (we'll call him Marvin) as a serious non-producer. Now, it didn't seem to matter that Marvin was actually doing a pretty good job. It didn't seem to matter that the agreement that Marvin had with the boss was to "at least make his salary". You see, Marvin had fallen to rough times and come to his friend, the boss, for help. A temporary job selling our products. The boss was happy with this arrangement, and Marvin did make enough money to pay his paycheck plus a few dollars on top of that. At least, the boss was happy until Dick decided otherwise.

Marvin got fired shortly afterwards for reasons which were, well, contrived and unfair, but it didn't seem to matter to anyone. Unfortunately, this left Dick without a reason for his own failures, so he quickly had to find someone else. Another employee soon found herself the reason for all of the problems occurring at work, and before long she quit because she could not take it anymore.

Now it was my turn. I did much better than the previous two employees - it took Dick about six months to discredit me enough that I finally left the company that, until Dick arrived, I loved with all my heart.

Oh, those were terrible times. It seemed that I could do nothing right, and everything seemed somehow to get reported to the boss. Of course, Dick was "just trying to help" and "had the best interests of the group at heart". More and more I found myself called into meetings with the boss, with Dick sitting in as an advisor, explaining some issue, problem or concern. These meetings often became shouting matches in which I found myself mentally cowering in the corner, only wanting the pain to stop.

I found myself getting sick more and more often - and this was very unusual as I never really get sick. I had colds all of the time, and a couple of bouts with the flu and food poisoning.

You have to understand that my work at that time was my life. I typically spent 80 to 100 hours each week at the office, sitting in my chair writing programs which could make computers almost literally dance. I have always loved my job and poured my heart and soul into everything that I did.

Thus, it was a direct shot to the core of my being to be told over and over, day after day, that I was failing, messing up, causing problems, creating issues and letting everyone down. It was worse that the boss didn't seem to be helping the situation - he just listened and mediated.

I eventually fled the company and got a wonderful job somewhere else. It actually required years of therapy (over 500 hours) to get over the results of the pain and agony caused by this man. For the first couple of years after I left it was so bad that even the thought of him caused me to get very sick.

Now, of course, I understand things better - in the words of the song, "I can see clearly now that the rain is gone...". Dick was actually a very small, terrified man, not worth the time of day. The only way he feels he can get ahead in life was to belittle and bring down other people. 

So how do you fight this kind of person? You have to recognize the situation early, before things get out of hand. Then you must take decisive, conclusive action and get the situation handled fast. You MUST remember that this kind of person is an enemy and has to be handled as such. You also have to recognize that he has the ear of the boss, which means the boss trusts him and believes in him implicitly and for no good reason. This makes this kind of person very dangerous and very difficult to deal with.

When you first recognize that someone has the ear of the boss and is an enemy, take a look over your own situation. If you've got anything at all which needs to be corrected, then do it fast. It doesn't matter how small it is, get it corrected. This kind of person has an almost unique ability to find small, seemingly insignificant issues and blow them up to incredibly horrible problems. For example, if you take a longer lunch than you should, stop doing it. Or if you come into work late, then start coming in on time. Look over yourself with a very critical eye (and take on the role of your boss for a few minutes) and fix everything that you find. Clean your desk, look over the quality of your work and make sure you are dressing appropriately. Don't give these kinds of people anything to sink their claws into.

Also, and this is a good idea regardless of where you work, make sure your personal life is completely segregated from your work life. Your loves, hobbies, sports and everything else you do on your own time has nothing to do with work, so be sure and keep it from the workplace. This kind of idiot loves to find problems anywhere he can, and your personal life is just as good a place to find them as anywhere.

Now that you've spent a little time on defense perhaps it's time for a little offense. Careful now, this kind of person is very good at this, so don't move before you are ready.

Before I go any further, let me preface what I'm telling you by restating a fact - this type of person is your enemy. He is the enemy of your boss. He is the enemy of your co-workers, your loves, and everyone in the community. He does not care about anything or anyone other than himself. He will not hesitate for one nanosecond to blame all of his failures directly and totally on you, with all of the facts necessary to hang you until dead. So don't worry for one minute about defending yourself.

Okay, so what do you do? You keep your eyes open and do some research Start making a journal of things that he is doing. Track whatever you want. When he gets to work, when he leaves, how long of a lunch he takes, who he goes with. Make it your hobby to find out all about this person. In fact, depending upon the circumstances, you might use other means, up to and including private investigators, to find out more information. Believe me, if this guy has you in his sights, you will need everything you can get.

Understand this, the Dick's of the world are trying to, almost literally, kill you. They want to get you fired. They have this almost obsessive need to destroy everything good. They are very hostile and very aggressive, and seemingly untouchable, because they have the ear of the boss. This means they are trusted, and they are using that trust to, again almost literally, kill you.

Now, let's say you are in a meeting with the boss and this guy, and he starts to try and attack you. He says something like, "you are the reason why this project is failing, and you are behind schedule, why?". DO NOT ANSWER HIS QUESTION. DO NOT EVEN ACKNOWLEDGE IT unless the BOSS brings it up.

Why not? Because I've learned from experience that this is exactly what he wants. He wants to turn all eyes away from himself and his own miserable existence to someone else. By answering and defending yourself, you have helped him achieve his purpose.

Today, now that I am older and wiser, I would just look him in the eye and ask him how his sales are doing. If he was as smart as Dick, he would say he asked me a question and try to get the eyes back to me. I would repeat, how are his sales doing? If he continued pressing me, I would point out that they must be doing great because he seems to have enough time left over to be concerned about my area. So why isn't he answering the question?

You see? The eyes go right back to him. If the boss wants to pursue his question, then bring out your FACTS and discredit the poor fool. Simply state that your project is on schedule, as agreed to by the boss. If your project is late, be sure to pass credit to the boss - you might say something like, "well, the Davidson project is a week late because George [the boss] asked me to delay it in order to work on the Peterson project, which is now finished."

I could write a whole book on this subject, but I will sum it up here briefly. Your existence at this company is literally at stake. If the guy keeps attacking you, then pull out all of the stops. You MUST get this person fired, or he will get you fired or force you into a situation in which you will quit - or you will get so sick that you will die.  It's that simple. This man (or woman) is the enemy, and you can be absolutely certain that he will not stop.

The best advice I can give is (a) find some way to destroy him (and you can be absolutely certain that he is doing some seriously bad things, you've just got to look to find out what they are), or (b) leave before he destroys you.

Office Politics: Ear Of The Boss
Copyright© 1999–2003 Richard Lowe and Claudia Arevalo-Lowe

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