My Enemies

*** Revision...

I forgot to mention that I did this after reading Chrissie and Steff's posts on the same subject (we all picked different titles though). This took me a number of days to write because I would get started and I would get pissed off and need a break. Get a drink now... it's another long one. Enjoy! -Jon

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I don't know too many people that I don't like. I am generally a very likeable guy myself (at least that is what I am told), and I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, but I also can read through the bullshit really quickly. It tends to make some interviews people have with me go really fast. I try not to piss people off, but sometimes to get the job done you have to ruffle some feathers. I've had some managers and directors tell me that I am too nice (I think they also assume easily influenced), and that certain strong personalities in the groups that I deal with try to control my efforts. I guess some people see someone that is nice as an easy mark. I am not one of those.

Marty was a back stabbing moron that my manager hired out of desperation to fill positions on a government contract we took over. Marty and I butted heads almost right away. This had a lot to do with the fact that he could not do the job he was hired for, but then my manager, Bruce, was not writing up his deficiencies because we were too busy trying to get this contract working.

Marty and I argued a lot. He did not like me and I did not like or respect him. He lied on his resume, and my manager was too technically ignorant to read through his bullshit in the interview. He did have one thing that he was good at... lying.

I was promoted to supervisor of the department and quickly got things into motion to get rid of him. I started documenting his deficiencies and our arguments, and with the help of my manager we compiled a nice folder for HR.

Marty obviously knew how the game was played, but he was probably a third stringer on the team. Before I was ready to go to HR, Marty brought up a harassment claim on me to my manager. It was quite harsh and complete bullshit. My manager and I had a sit down meeting with Marty.

Bruce was the master! He knew just how to turn this around on Marty. By the end of the meeting we actually had him admitting IN WRITING how he was reacting harshly due to his hot temper. We also documented and had him sign off on how he was not following my directions and doing things the way he wanted instead of how the procedures were written.


Renee was one sneaky bitch. She was hired at the same time Marty was (I really hated this job). She was the ultimate back stabber. She was hired as our media librarian. She was then transferred under me to keep an eye on here. Why did I become the damn babysitter.

I was not happy with her work, and I came to find out it wasn't even her work. One of her jobs was to write up "engineering" changes for a particular customer on our project. The changes were mostly just equipment moves from one part of the building to another, which required drawing updates and ensuring adequate power and cooling. I found out that she was actually having one of the customer's engineers write up the changes, then she would transfer these to our forms and submit them.

Eventually my manager had Renee move into my cubicle so that I could watch her like a hawk. I really hated that, especially because I could not stand her. I did notice that the majority of her day was spent BSing with people. I had to get on her about that. Then she was having a house build, so she was always on the phone with her general contractor or a supplier. That had to be stopped as well. She said she did. My boss wanted her gone, so I needed to start compiling data on her.

I was preparing to fly out to LA Air Force Base to assist with a project when I saw her computer screen unlocked (unusual for her... she always covered her tracks very well). A floppy disk was in the drive. I saw that it was all personal stuff. House building info, kids projects, resumes, etc. I made a stupid decision because I was about to leave for LA. I decided to copy the data over the network to my system and bury it in a directory. I was going to analyze the dates and times of the files when I returned to determine if she was using government equipment (the computer) for personal use.

When I returned I was immediately called to the program manager's office. Renee had contacted HR about me invading her privacy. She found the files on my system (which was locked), and erased all the files using a tool that wiped the sectors to eliminate being able to recover them. She was smart except for one thing. Why did she feel the need to remove the evidence that proved I invaded her privacy. She knew I had her. If I would have said that I didn't do it there would have been no evidence. I was honest and admitted to what I did explaining why I did it.

They were totally on my side, but she got HR involved (we worked for 2 different companies, so HR from both were involved...yeah!), so they needed to have a big meeting with all of us. The big guns were on my side along with my HR guy. They gave me a pretty hard slap on the wrist and instructed me on what to do next time. This being my first time in a management position I asked for some management training. Renee on the other hand got severely slapped, and received a written warning for what she had done.

She and I both found new jobs soon afterwards. This all made me not want to ever be in a management position ever again.

A few years later I met Dawn. She knew Renee from the job that Renee went to, and ran into her from time to time. She didn't care for Renee, but would tolerate her. I told Dawn how I could not stand her. Dawn and I got along great. Dawn took it upon herself to play along with the bizarre situation. She had Renee's e-mail address and they started talking shit about me. Renee had asked how I was to work for. She told Renee that I was ok, but kind of a hard ass (so not true). Renee proceeded to tell Dawn that my boss and I were fired from our jobs out at the NTF for sexual harassment of another woman in our department. I was so tempted to sue her ass. Dawn gave me copies of the e-mail. I decided it wasn't something I wanted to waste my time on.


Pamwas an incompetent bitch that was hired as the lead of the department I work with. This was right after I first went into consulting. The director that hired her (not knowing a damn thing about what we do) in a staff meeting the day before she started described the type of person she was. He made it sound like a good thing. We all let out a collective groan. We all knew that she was going to make a lot of enemies throughout the company. But I gave her the benefit of the doubt... for a short while.

We spent about 2 hours with her on her first morning. I knew we were in big trouble. This woman was so totally clueless, and just wanted to brown nose her way up the ladder. It was so incredibly disgusting to watch.

About the same time she was hired they brought in a consultant to manage our department (we all agreed that having a consultant as a manager was odd, but he was good so we gave him the respect he deserved). Greg was an awesome guy. Smart as hell and knew exactly what needed to be done. Pam of course saw this as a road block to her future. She went around him to other managers and back stabbed him at every opportunity. We all quickly got to hate her.

Greg quickly figured out that I knew what I was doing, and he trusted my judgment. We let Greg know all of the bullshit Pam was trying to pull. Greg immediately started talks with his boss. My friend/co-worker Evans had actually taken an issue to HR about her. He was not going to let the bureaucracy slow him down. I'm not sure if that was a good thing or not.

I figured she was not going to last, but there were so many things we were up against that HR was too chicken-shit to do anything.

I asked Greg if he had Pam's resume. I asked him if he trusted me to read it over. He took me to lunch and he had me read it. Her resume was so packed full of lies. I was just floored that someone could get hired claiming they knew so much, but not being able to do any of it. Greg said the one thing that his being a consultant does is ties his hands. He was given the title with zero authority. His boss was reacting to all the problems she was causing at a snails pace.

She wanted to hire a friend of hers. Greg told her know, so she went to a project manager and got this PM to pay for bringing this new guy in. This PM didn't like me or Greg because we didn't suck up to her. We all protested to Greg's manager, who ended up letting this guy to be brought it.

Pam told me to get him up to speed on what we do. I figured this guy had to have some experience in our area, but no... he had none. His claim to fame was that he sucked up to Pam at her last job (which we subsequently learned she was fired from FOR INCOMPETENCE!!!). We use very specific type of software tools. Not only did he have no experience in these tools, he didn't even know anything about UNIX, which was the platform we were working on. So basically I was having to teach him EVERYTHING. Greg had enough and soon found a new consulting gig.

After a long weekend of work where Pam jumped in and mispoke in a teleconference with our customer I decided I couldn't take it anymore. The following Monday we had a meeting with our director present. Three of us (including her brown nose buddy) jumped all over her shit. We told her how wrong she was and highlighted all of the bad decisions she had inflicted on us. She of course wouldn't listen.

A week later my contract was cancelled. I was told it wasn't because of Pam. I told the manager that he didn't need to blow smoke up my ass.

A couple months later Evans got a new job in a different division of the company. Pam had come to him to ask if he though I would come back. I am sure he was holding back a gut busting laugh. He called me a few minutes later. I told him to tell her to kiss my ass. I told him I would go back only if she was gone.

She basically gutted that department. We had 6 employees at one point. I have no idea how they are getting by these days. It's sad when companies are too afraid to fire someone. It effects so many people and costs the company so much money. A few months ago she actually got a different job in the company, then was soon fired for incompetence. We considered having a party.

Sorry this was so long. I need to hire an editor.