It’s Fun to Give People Enough Rope to Hang Themselves
I know it seems petty, but if you have a really abusive manager or co-worker, it's sometimes really nice to see them shoot themselves in the foot. It doesn't happen all that often, but this morning I was lucky enough to be able to be nice to a really socially challenged manager, and watch him simply show his complete and utter foolishness. He hung himself real good.
It was an email chain, and while I'm always careful what I read and respond to, I can tell when there's someone in the chain that isn't. They ask the same question when it's been answered, they don't answer questions, it's all pretty obvious. But couple that with a person that's really not very nice, and you get an abusive person that tends to show his worst qualities at the most public of times.
And that's just what happened.
I haven't dealt with this guy a lot, and I try not to prejudge folks, but today I learned that he really doesn't listen to other people. Not at all. While he may be right at times, it doesn't excuse the not listening, for today it wasn't about right or wrong, it was about information I was trying to get out of him, and he just never really read the email well enough to understand.
But he sure popped off on me several times. I was nice, and apologized for not making my points clearly, and then highlighted the relevant sections from the email for him to read again. It made him look bad, and that's a good thing, in my book. Maybe a little humility will do him good.
Probably not, but it made me feel a lot better.