Today, my manager ripped me to shreds in front of an employee that I supervise and had to reprimand for
taking long breaks, an issue which my manager recently addressed with the whole dept.
After I spoke to the employee (as gently as possible), he ran to my supervisor describing my "abrasive and accusing"
remarks. My manager believes every word out of my employees mouth and then acts on these descriptions.
This employee has, for several months, been "getting in the ear" of my supervisor telling him things that are
going on within the department that are exaggerations and misrepresentations of the truth. He has effectively
manipulated my supervisor against me. Somehow, I'm now the mean, rotten supervisor while my employee is viewed as
the innocent victim.
I am being sent to management training now because, as he stated in front of my employee "my management technique stinks".
I would welcome the training more if it didn't seem like a punishment based on the "stories" of my employee.
This employee seems to have my supervisor wrapped around his little finger and I've noticed strong favoritism.
The beating and humiliation I took today is too much. My manager is far better equipped for confrontation than me.
I am a mild-mannered and easy going manager and I have good, friendly work relationships with 99.9% of people in
the building and, for 16 years, I've delivered and got things done well. My manager, who I recently found myself under due to a shuffle of departments, has a lot of management training and effectively backed me into an embarrassing and humiliating corner(all in front of my employee). I plan on trying to call a meeting with upper management to address what happened first thing tomorrow
morning. This will undoubtedly enrage my manager and I expect things could get worse.
My main complaint is that my manager ripped me to shreds in front of the employee I was trying to reprimand. All I said to my employee was "You took a half hour break today. Please keep it down to 15 minutes as company policy states." That's when he ran to my manager and all heck broke loose.
I'll take any advice or words of wisdom you can offer. Thank you very much for your time! |