Boss lying about complaints

blatini

Anyone ever had a boss do this? He pretty much uses "people are complaining" as a blanket reason to motivate / push people to get projects. I caught him in the lie asking the people he says were having issue and they all denied it. One even said "I really wish people would stop spreading rumors about me that aren't true." Obviously I agree with the "time to move on" sentiment but I'm really curious how people who have been in the situation handled it. Did you even ask the person about it? What was their reaction? What do you wish you did differently?

I am inclined to bring it up but it feels like a situation where I would be met with "It doesn't matter - it needs to get done" and make matters worse. Probably best to not make a bigger issue of it and move on to another opportunity.

NetworkNewb

That sux, I would probably start looking for another place to work. I mean, if you know they are knowingly lying to would you ever really trust that person about anything else they say?

The saying goes "people leave managers, not companies" or something like that

Phalanx

One of my favourite infographics.

Danielh22185

Big reason why I left my last job.

Cisco Inferno

Did they ever fire the Carls' Junior guy?

blatini

Yeah he ended up leaving the day he was going to be fired.

TechGromit

What?! What will you do for lunches now?

dhay13

My last job my manager told me one day that the owner/CEO wanted me to help him organize the file room so I did. I found out waaaay later that this was a lie. All he had to do was ask and I would have helped but why lie? The owner found out about the lie at the same time as I did but nothing was done to him. There were a bunch of other lies but that was the main one that was directly related to me.

Then there was the time that he changed a bunch of the default domain policies and didn't tell anyone then nobody could log onto the domain and we had no idea why. I asked him if he changed anything and he denied it. The owner ended up calling in a consulting firm who found the issue. When he asked my manager if he made these changes he said 'oh yeah, I forgot'. He then asked the consultant not to tell the managers what caused it.

Then when I first started we had 1 DC. I asked why only one and he said 'I don't think you can have more than one on a network'. I pleaded with him to let me add a 2nd DC but he refused. I went to upper management with my concerns and being the new guy they deferred to him and he told them it wasn't necessary and just an added expense. A couple weeks later the MB died on our DC and we were screwed. He told management that there was no way to predict that and it was a cost of doing business. Once we got back up and running I deployed a 2nd DC without him knowing until after it was online.

Press ANY Key

dhay13 wrote: »

My last job my manager told me one day that the owner/CEO wanted me to help him organize the file room so I did. I found out waaaay later that this was a lie. All he had to do was ask and I would have helped but why lie? The owner found out about the lie at the same time as I did but nothing was done to him. There were a bunch of other lies but that was the main one that was directly related to me.

Then there was the time that he changed a bunch of the default domain policies and didn't tell anyone then nobody could log onto the domain and we had no idea why. I asked him if he changed anything and he denied it. The owner ended up calling in a consulting firm who found the issue. When he asked my manager if he made these changes he said 'oh yeah, I forgot'. He then asked the consultant not to tell the managers what caused it.

Then when I first started we had 1 DC. I asked why only one and he said 'I don't think you can have more than one on a network'. I pleaded with him to let me add a 2nd DC but he refused. I went to upper management with my concerns and being the new guy they deferred to him and he told them it wasn't necessary and just an added expense. A couple weeks later the MB died on our DC and we were screwed. He told management that there was no way to predict that and it was a cost of doing business. Once we got back up and running I deployed a 2nd DC without him knowing until after it was online.

How is your manager still employed there? He obviously doesn't know what he is doing or talking about. Messing with the Domain policies are very delicate. He should not be managing at that level. The cost of hiring a consulting firm is not cheap. That alone should've put his job in jeopardy.

On top of that, a junior person advises him to put a second DC on the network and he tells you that he doesn't think you can have more than one. This guy should be fired. I can't work with people like that.

Danielm7

I had a boss like that, he got promoted... When you know how to BS people way above your level you can get promoted way faster than you can by just doing a good job in lots of places.

icebear

Guess in the situations like that there's nothing much to be done. At least I'm not the one who believes I can make my boss change their mind. I would just try not to pay attention to that, such behaviour is very frequent among people in general.

powerfool

@dhay13 - no way I would stay there. I would torch his very existence at that place with statements of truth and be looking for another job immediately.

redsteel

Danielm7 wrote: »

I had a boss like that, he got promoted... When you know how to BS people way above your level you can get promoted way faster than you can by just doing a good job in lots of places.

This. . .
My last boss was promoted and knew NOTHING. I once caught him telling this nobody that some process I setup was his idea when they complemented how great it was. I called him on it. To my face, he admitted that he was sorry.
He did get promoted though and when I left, his boss actually secretly offered me his job. I couldn't take it clear conscious so they tried to make me an admin position, but I ended up leaving b/c they couldn't scrape the pay together. Its been almost 2 years, and I heard they had to fire him. He was promoted into a place where he couldn't fake it anymore and finally got called on the carpet for it. He WAS pretty awesome at kissing butt. I'll give him that.

TeKniques

Having a bad manager is no fun, but what to do about it depends on what type of person you are. If you don't mind conflict in a team environment then you should have a 1-on-1 with your boss and call him on it. However, if you're more of the type that doesn't like confrontation and would rather triangulate with co-workers on the situation so nothing changes; that is fine too. Personally, most jobs aren't a hill to die on and the better decision would be to begin to move on ...

SweenMachine

One of my largest challenges as a manager is to make sure my staff has all the relevant information. I have 16 direct reports. Sometimes, managers will treat their organizations like a pro football team by motivating with incomplete or false information. They can telegraph false feedback thinking it will get them where they need to go.

My group is not a perfect group. I am not a perfect boss. But I am always open and honest whenever I can be. I would never lie about fake negative customer experience. Why on earth would someone do that? Makes no sense to me.

blatini

^

Yeah I understand that you need to push people. That's fine. I am not cool what so ever with pushing an agenda through fear. It just brings into question everything else I have heard before about network complaints he's relayed over the time. Was this actually the case or did he just want to get us to check in on a site?

TechGromit wrote: »

What?! What will you do for lunches now?

For the first time ever I've consistently been bringing my lunch! Feels good having that extra money

Remedymp

Regardless of that guy bringing lunches to work being a poor performer. I think said it before, it's not the employee, it's the environment. A toxic environment, breeds toxic people. If I were you, I would have took off a long time ago before the Cardy's guy left.

dhay13

Press ANY Key wrote: »

How is your manager still employed there? He obviously doesn't know what he is doing or talking about. Messing with the Domain policies are very delicate. He should not be managing at that level. The cost of hiring a consulting firm is not cheap. That alone should've put his job in jeopardy.

On top of that, a junior person advises him to put a second DC on the network and he tells you that he doesn't think you can have more than one. This guy should be fired. I can't work with people like that.

He started out in the shop and the owners philosophy was if they like you they will find a spot for you upstairs and you will figure it out. He was the only other person there that even knew what an IP address was so nobody there could ever prove him wrong when he would say anything. I started pointing out things he was doing wrong but he would just say 'well we are a small company and can't spend the money on it'. The owner thought he was great because he kept company (and family) secrets. I think they started realizing all of this shortly before I left but the owner retired so he is still there. I was hired as a system administrator but about 6 months before I left the owner/CEO told me I had to take an accounting class so I did. A few weeks later she told me she wanted me to get an accounting degree. I refused and was told if I didn't do it I would be terminated. A few months later she asked me if I started the courses and I told her again that I was not doing it. She said you realize this wasn't a request and if you refuse today will be your last day here. So I was escorted to the door. My replacement had an IT background but was told to do accounts receivable too (they fired the AR girl shortly after I left so that must have been their plan). I heard AR is so messed up now that they will never be able to figure it out. This whole accounting/IT thing started because the daughter had an accounting degree and was the head of the accounting dept. When they started getting computers she headed that up so the parents assumed IT and accounting went together and it has been that way for 20 years or so now. I knew there was no future for me there and I wanted out of there bad. I didn't want anything to do with an IT dept that was ran that way. I knew my time there was limited and had already cleaned out my office of all personal stuff. There was several occurrences of unlicensed software or one license installed on several machines. I didn't want my name associated with that in case they were ever nailed for it. I told my manager several times that we needed more licenses and his response was that either they didn't have money for that or that he had the licenses but couldn't find them. I didn't want my name attached to that as I was just starting out and was afraid of what that might do to my future.

thomas_

Hmm, I think there is a program where you can report improperly licensed business computers/software and potentially get a reward...

dhay13

thomas_ wrote: »

Hmm, I think there is a program where you can report improperly licensed business computers/software and potentially get a reward...

You are probably right but I'm not interested in that route. Sure revenge crossed my mind initially but I wanted to take the higher road and move on.

Press ANY Key

@dhay13- It was a smart move for you to get out of there. That place sounds like a mess.