binny Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 My manager shows obvious favouritsm to 2 guys I work with. It's started to drive me and another colleague who has also noticed it crazy. In my managers eyes, these 2 guys can do no wrong (people in other departments have also noticed this). Whenever something goes wrong it is usually because one of the 2 favourites messed up but for whatever reason my manager never seems to see it and will always excuse it. It is getting to a point where I don't feel I can advance anymore in my career because my manager is blinded by the favourites and in his eyes no one compares to them. In front of the whole department, he actually asked one of his favourites if he had any relatives who wanted a job because he was so impressed with him, despite the fact that the company isn't hiring people at the moment. This made me a bit angry at the time, although I didn't show it, because I just felt like he was undermining the work the rest of us are doing. I know that I'm not doing a bad job because I've asked him for feedback on my performance before and he said he is very happy with me. Any advice on how to deal with this? I've got my performance appraisal coming up in a couple days and my manager has asked for feedback on his performance. Is it a good idea to bring this up? I don't think it's a good idea because I fear my manager will think it's jealously or something but I just want to be treated fairly. Any advice?
Philosoraptor Posted February 24, 2012 Posted February 24, 2012 I'd bring the issue up anonymously to someone higher than him. If things don't change then you might want to consider changing departments or even companies.
Author binny Posted February 26, 2012 Author Posted February 26, 2012 Thanks Philosoraptor. Unfortunately, I don't think I can bring up the issue anonymously, it would have to be an official complaint.. An official complaint would mean I would need concrete evidence, which isn't that easy to get. I am considering changing departments though, if don't manage that then I will start looking to change companies.
Feelin Frisky Posted February 26, 2012 Posted February 26, 2012 I sympathize. Office politics can be maddening if you're not able to get away from someone's power you don't respect. Been totally there. I agree though with some of the points yukon mentioned--try to make it all about how to win that favor these other dudes get rather than faulting those guys of the manager. Even if you're right, it winds up "negative" for you. Make some longer-term commitment to getting out of this sphere of unfairness. I had a boss who was a real piece of work in so many political ways when I worked in my job on Wall Street. I wound up winning a special achievement award by going through "human resources" and I used the notoriety to pitch an executive way up the chain from him. He thought, "whoa, you're feeling mighty big of yourself". I wound up creating the job I would get and never have to take crumbs from that schmuck again.
Author binny Posted February 28, 2012 Author Posted February 28, 2012 Thanks Yukon and Feelin Frisky! I hate office politics! It came up as we were talking about something that happened recently where I had to work on my day off despite having plans and one of them basically abused the fact that I was there just to help on a particular project. As a result I ended up being at work longer than was planned/agreed and doing more than was agreed. It was more of a rant rather than whining and nothing negative was said about the favoured colleagues, just frustration about some of the things they do and how our manager seems to be blind when either of them mess up. Don't get me wrong, I respect and have a good working relationship with my manager, it just frustrates me at times to know that he does favour them. I know everyone is human, but I strongly believe that my manager should hide the fact that he favours them infront of the rest of the team. Yukon, now I have calmed down a bit your advice is spot on what I have been thinking about doing and it sounds like the right way to go about things! I plan to go to my review with an open mind and discuss where I am and what I could be doing better. I think I might mention that I am concerned about my career advancement within the team and see what he says to that. If nothing changes after my review without good reason, I'll ask for a department move and look for a new job elsewhere. Glad things worked out for you in the end Feelin Frisky, hope they work out for me too!
D-Lish Posted March 1, 2012 Posted March 1, 2012 I am in Management, and I do have my favorites, however the bottom line is that results matter, and that's all I look at. I have had to let people go that I really liked personally, but couldn't keep them because they weren't producing the required results. I treat everyone equally when it comes to the business end of things. I click with some people moreso than others though. If someone is doing their job well, I recognize it, acknowledge it, and compensate them regardless of how I feel about them on a personal level. I'd be silly not to because their good performance reflects positively on me. If I were you, I'd speak directly to your boss and be frank with him. Ask him for feedback regarding your performance and seek advice on areas you might be able to improve upon. As a boss, that would impress me.
Author binny Posted March 4, 2012 Author Posted March 4, 2012 Thank D-Lish! Ask him for feedback regarding your performance and seek advice on areas you might be able to improve upon. I do this regularly, I think it's important for me to be aware of what I need to improve and constantly work towards improving my development areas. The issue is though, that the favourites aren't producing the results but the manager isn't picking up on this. The big problem is with one of them in particular. He comes up with excuses left, right and center for when he fails to do something and blames everyone except himself. The other thing is, he stroles into the office pretty late. We are lucky that our manager is pretty relaxed on timings as long as the work gets done. When the rest of us come in late we stay late to make up for being late so we are putting our hours in and usually work quite a bit of overtime despite not getting paid for it. This favourite will happily strole in an hour late and leave an hour early! I know that managers are human and they will have their favourites. I just wish that it wasn't so obvious and that we would all be treated equally, at least in the work place.
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