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This item is filed under these categories:
Lies and Lying Blaming Honesty Disciplining Fairness

My manager did some unauthorized work on one of our computers and destroyed the hard drive. When he was reprimanded by our director, he changed his story and emailed her a distorted timeline of events and blamed me for what happened. Fortunately, our director was on my initial emails and is completely on my side. How do I deal with this manager?

If your director had actually taken some direct action here, you would not have to deal with your manager at all. Your manager destroyed company property, lied about what happened, and then tried to implicate an innocent employee. That's really three strikes, so he should be out.

Your director reprimanded him before he lied about what happened. Where is the reprimand for the lie? If your director had dealt with him effectively, you would not have to think about how to deal with him now. Your manager would either be gone or would have had such a compelling reprimand that he would think several times before repeating this performance.

At this point, keep your guard up in all dealings with your manager. Continue to document your work and advise significant others of your actions. If you ever sense that your manager is once again pulling the rug out from under you, call him on the carpet and hit him with the facts. Keep your director in this loop, too. Unfortunately, you also need to be careful in your dealings with her, as she has already shown that her skills are not on the cutting edge. If they were, your manager would have been cut.




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