The final showdown?

Sorry I’ve been so quiet.  Encountered a technical problem on my blog, for one thing.  But really the issue is that I think I’m heading into the final showdown with Dumb Boss.

He has reverted to bullying me, and using any negative thing someone says as fodder for my under-performance.  He has even committed this to writing – in emails, which he is particularly patronising and belittling in.

The core of the issue is that, after the transfers of funds, I was asked my view by the internal auditors.  So I told them I thought there were risks with the transactions.  He went ballistic, became threatening and now I’m not allowed to raise a risk issue unless he agrees with me.  This includes to the auditors.  He reckons that I’ve been running my own agenda, but all I’ve done is express concerns about a transaction that (a) the regulator is sniffing around, and (b) I warned them not to do in the first place.  Being the General Counsel, THAT’S MY JOB!

Yet again, he’s also let another Senior Exec complain about some advice we gave – and even though I tried to brief him on the issue more than once (he declined) he is not interested in hearing my side of the story and is slamming me in my performance review.  I have said I want an independent person to review what was done, as I stand by our conduct and the advice given.  He says he doesn’t want to “re-litigate” it – “there’s no point”.

He also has given me no credit for working around the clock for 3 months to sort out all sorts of disasters that were going on.  Instead, I got criticised for making decisions instead of letting the business do so – problem was, there was no-one from the business around and, when they were around, they were unprepared to make the decisions…leaving a massive and dangerous gap given the complexity and speed with which things were moving. 

He also failed to actually meet the promises that he made to me in our half yearly discussion – that he would meet with me every 2 weeks, and we’d discuss issues and he would raise any negative feedback in a timely manner so that we could discuss it.  He has done that twice.  No more.  And now he’s raising issues without notice or interest in my version of events in my performance review.  I feel like I’m suffocating.  I can’t move.  There’s no room – it’s his way or the highway, and I have no way of knowing his way until well after the event.  Naturally, since I can’t get in to meet with him, I can’t work out what he’s thinking…he now tells me he has no time to meet with me.

So, I am now pondering how to deal with him.  Do I:

(a) resign – in an environment of GFC crap where I may not get a job

(b) formally respond and go all “legal” on him

(c) roll over – but compromise what I regard as the core part of my role, for which I will be criticised if I don’t do it!  (he is asking me to stop being concerned about whether the Boards are meeting their legal obligations, and focus on assisting management.  My working assumption is meant to be that management knows what it’s doing and will never cause the boards to be in breach of the law…except I know different.  Few people in this business seem to know or understand their legal obligations, and there have been numerous things done that compromise the Boards…how can I ignore this when it’s my job to help people navigate through it?

(d) ask him to change my position description to remove the things that he doesn’t want me to do - things that are crucial for a General Counsel, like ensuring compliance? 

(e) something else – report him to the regulator?  Sue him? 

So, we have another meeting tomorrow.

Rainy Saturdays

I used to love a rainy Saturday, but now they just seem to make me feel depressed.

Two weeks ago, one of my management team told me that the team wanted to nominate me for a senior leadership award, but they were worried that I wouldn’t want it in the current political climate.  The team is going well.  There are still a couple of drama queens, but things have improved out of sight.  I am really chuffed that they want to nominate me: Lord knows, though, I won’t win if the Exec Directors that are aligned with DB have anything to do with it.

But how do I deal with this overwhelming feeling that I have no ability to do my job as General Counsel properly?  The feedback from DB has been whirling through my head for 3 weeks now, and I still can’t make head nor tail of most of it.  Much of it contradicts itself.  How do you address issues when you don’t even understand them?

There are two issues here:  one is my ego.  How can I be subservient to Dumb Boss when he is so patently such a fool?  This folly is a well known fact; but my hopes that the new CEO would pick it up quickly have been dashed.  I was approached by the Regional CEO, who is the CEO’s boss, and a supporter of mine.  He told me I would need to fit the regime because, while he could say words of support, the CEO would take time to work Dumb Boss out.  How long will this be?  And would I be one of the sacrifices that would eventually expose him?

Can I live with checking everything with him?  He now wants to see the questions in our customer survey, and the list of people being surveyed.  He always reviews my papers for the Board, often adding himself in as a contact person.  He doesn’t let his direct reports nominate their own staff for leadership opportunities, or even consult with them; instead, he takes these decisions on his own.

So, even if I can live with it: swallow my pride and shut up at the right times, is that what a General Counsel should do?  Will I speak up at the right time, or will he just break my spirit?

My managers are worried that I will leave.  For, if I do, they will follow.  So much is at stake.  But the Company seems so full of backstabbing and blame – do I really want to be here?

I have a holiday to Greece ahead…I will be in Athens in 2 short weeks.  Although I fear a crisis while I am away, I need this break to consider my future.

Performance Review: Part 2

You can only imagine how much I was looking forward to this.  I walk in and prepare for another schellacking.  Instead, DB is calm.  He begins: “Well, last time I did a lot of talking.  Why don’t you take it away this time.”

I considered his beady little Dumb Boss eyes.  “How honest can I be?”  He choked for a second, then composed himself.  I continued: “The biggest issue is whether our relationship will ever work.”  There.  I said it.

A fairly civil conversation ensued, at which we agreed I would visit the other Executive DIrectors and get direct feedback, and that he and I would (for the first time ever) actually meet on a regular basis.  That he would give me feedback on issues as they happened.  I foreshadowed that I would respond formally to the issues listed in his extensive email.  All in all, it went OK.

Over the next 2 weeks, I finalised my response: when I delivered it to him, though, he seized up…he felt it was like a declaration of war, whereas I felt I needed to respond to the issues that he had raised.  It was a fair and balanced document: where there were things to learn, I acknowledged it.

But I also noted that he needed to remember that my team was a work in progress: that just over a year ago, I had arrived to turn the team around.  Judging me and the team’s performance was premature and particularly unfair given how overworked we had all been for the entire year. 

We will have to see how it goes.  To be honest, I can’t see how it will work.  I know for a fact that he’s dribbled a biased viewpoint into the CEO, and that with all the problems in the business, my troubles with DB are not a priority.  Especially when all his other direct reports toe the line and hush up at the first sign of trouble.

Another chat with HR

During chat number 1, my HR rep suggests and she and I should get together with the Acting ED of HR to talk about the Dumb Boss situation.  So, we catch up for an hour the day before Performance Review Part 2.

They are their usual cagey selves, but announce that no-one wants me to leave.  Not even Dumb Boss, and he has confirmed this personally (that asshole; I had already started making plans to spend my massive pay-out on a 12 month break, some of which would be spent studying Italian in Florence, probably at a school going by the name of a famous Renaissance artist).  They give me some meaningless advice, and then give me a couple of pretty nifty pieces of information:

1. The CEO has no plans to break up Legal.  While he might change his mind, and Dumb Boss might force the issue anyhow, all the new CEO wants is for service areas to have more accountability to the business.  This is completely cool with me; in fact, that was the next phase of our plan.

2. The CEO asked that they tell me he really values me.  I cried at that bit.  Only a little bit, though.  It certainly made me feel better.

The other thing that made me feel better that week was my lawyer, who reckons DB could seriously screw himself over if he makes the wrong move.   Only 1 day to go until Performance Review Part 2…

Performance Review Part 1

Don’t panic, I thought.  DON’T PAAAAANIIIIICCCC!  CEO is smarter than to be taken in.

I called our ex-HR dude in Europe: What should I do next?

His words were calming: don’t put it past the new CEO to know exactly what DB is like.  He is a smart guy, and has already commented that DB “Has his phaser turned to kill instead of stun.”  Hmmm.  OK.  I’ll trust that and prepare for my performance review with DB.

So, I wander into DB’s cage at the appointed time, and take my seat across the desk from him.  He then pulls out a file with my name on it and yanks out a pile of paper.  He vaguely refers to a couple of positive things I have done this year…and then promptly announces that, for all of his team who are “service providers to the business” he has sought anonymous feedback from 15 people on our performance.  15 people???  He has asked Exec Directors (ie his peers), but there aren’t 15 of them…it appears that he has also been busy asking MY PEERS for feedback.  All without my knowledge.

He then reads out a list of supposed sins, from “The Legal team only provide basic service”  (uh, yeah, because we have been swamped and because DB randomly cut our budget last year), to “they sometimes get advice wrong (um…every lawyer does), to “they outsource too much”  (again, that’s what happens when you’re under-resourced). 

Naturally, all feedback is anonymous, rendering me unable to know what to properly respond to.

As you can imagine, it hit me like a tidal wave and I didn’t know what to respond to first.  I did, however, remain calm and cool about the whole sorry tale.  I responded to what I could and then suggested that he needed to work on his own communication style.  That I felt it was both unfair and inappropriate that he had bombarded me with this without warning, and that I would respond formally in due course.  Needless to say, it was an hour and 20 minutes before we parted…and he announced that there was to be a follow-up session in which he would cover the “positive” feedback.   It was scheduled for 8 days later…leaving me to sweat and continue to hatch my response plan.

I knew I couldn’t panic.  I had to remain level-headed and take each day as it came.  The worst thing I could do is to over-react and ruin any chance of credibility he had.  I needed to be cold and calculating.  It was the only way to respond.  It seemed to me like it was time to plant some helpful information with our HR area…

Chilling at the spa

OK.  Continuing my Battle with Dumb Boss. 

I went to a spa for the weekend and spent $3,000 on clean food, sensual massages and thinking about DB and what appeared to be his evil plan to oust me.  First of all, I decided, I needed to NOT CARE what he did with my team (yes, even with all I’ve put into rebuilding the team).  Why?  Because if I took it personally he would attack me for not supporting a fact of corporate life, and I would end up being too emotional to make the cold, calculating decisions that were necessary to take it to him.

So, with that decision made, I also emailed our regional general counsel (my functional boss) about what had been going on.  He was very concerned to hear that there were considerations about legal’s reporting lines being changed, and my governance role being threatened.  He is a wise old bird, and I figured that he could help me build a strategy to defeat DB’s evil plan.  A very cool dude indeed.

I also downed lots of lentils, bought much Babor facial products (very nice German stuff – hello again, Deutschland) and did tai chi each morning.  This is apart from finding out that I am a somewhat talented salsa dancer, and blew the other less rythmic chicks out of their socks.  But that is beside the point. 

I arrived back at work on the Wednesday and had cooled to the idea of seeing the CEO first – I needed to duke it out with DB before unveiling all his evil ways to the CEO.  However, when I rang to cancel the appointment, his PA told me that the CEO had asked her to postpone it until after my appointment with the CFO.  Not surprisingly, it appears that DB had been doing his own lobbying.

Teenage crush: status report

Before I continue my dumb boss story, I thought I should update you on the status of my heady teenage crush on the new lawyer in my team.  First of all, I found out he’s 32 – not so bad; I’m only 25% older than him (hmmm…perhaps I am just kidding myself).

Anyhow, yes, he does have a girlfriend who is apparently as much of a hot tamale as he is (dammit dammit dammit).  But I suppose the good news is that my crush has inevitably cooled and, while I admire him from afar, my heart no longer speeds up when he wears his funky body-hugging duds on casual Fridays.  No doubt it’s for the best.

On another (related) topic, I am starting to explore the point of all this work and no play.  Am I addicted to work?  A friend rang out of the blue the other day and asked me how I was going APART FROM work.  I stuttered a little.  Nothing to say. 

Is it time to reconsider my career?  Have I lost my ambition, my drive, or is the way I am feeling just a symptom of the fact that I hate my boss?  I’ve never felt so demotivated at work.  I think this is most definitely a subject of exploration for another post…

All quiet on the lunatic front?

Oh, I think not, dear reader!  Grovelling apologies for having been silent for a couple of months.  But Dumb Boss is striking at his worst!  I will need to update you in parts as to the whole sorry saga, but suffice it to say that DB and I have come to blows of late.

The story so far:  as you know, we’ve had a new CEO since April.  My initial impressions were that is a top dude who was quickly sniffing through DB’s patronising exterior to find not much substance underneath.  New CEO has been conducting a “business diagnostic”, finding all sorts of problems lying underneath the surface (I don’t think he realisted how dire the place was when he signed up!).

Meanwhile, my team and I have been overwhelmed with work (I am so very very OVER working weekends) and struggling to keep up.  DB seems to have been busy building alliances with some of the other Executive Directors (read: direct reports to the CEO), while other more seasoned execs are rolling their eyes at him and making quiet remarks to me about “some people playing the politics”.

Some of DB’s more stupid moments have included publicly criticising the old CEO – even to junior staff!  This is pretty rank at the best of times but – wait for it – the old CEO got promoted and he’s now the new CEO’s BOSS!  Apparently there was a falling out between old CEO and DB as old CEO left the building and the relationship has been frosty ever since.  In the meantime (and totally unrelated) my relationship with the old CEO has never been better as I’ve been handling something he stuffed up and making sure he and the Company’s interests are protected.

Anyhow, for some reason (don’t know what) DB has bolstered his own confidence and he is acting like King Cockroach (ie top of the pile of lunatics; convinced he will still be around even after the nuclear blast).  His confidence includes ignoring my requests for lawyers to report to me who have been hired on a 2 year project!  He doesn’t understand the need for lawyers to be independent – thinks there will be better results if I just stay in touch with them rather than their having a hard or dotted reporting line to me.  He is, of course, being influenced by a Project Manager of such evil intention that you can hear the Darth Vadar theme in the background every time he wanders away from the Death Star.  Such a schmuck.  Both of them.

Darth has even taken to saying that one of the lawyers he recently hired would make a great general counsel, and that I have no authority to decide what happens in respect of the legal team.  Nice.  All thanks to Dumb Boss.

Then – THEN – I am sitting in a meeting and the CEO announces (out of the blue) that the legal, risk and compliance teams should be located in the business.  I tried to retain my composure, and keep a straight face, all the while thinking “WHAT THE ….?”

Two days worth of phone calls later, and DB still hasn’t explained what the deal is – so I was getting more and more pissed off with DB, and finally flipped my lid at him. 

DB responds by ringing me and listing my sins: (i) I focus too much on the needs of our Boards and not enough on management; (ii) I am too risk averse and (iii) I do not respect the “chain of command” by checking with him first before I raise issues with the CEO or other Exec Directors!  Hell, I am the GENERAL COUNSEL!  Hasn’t this guy worked that out yet! 

So, then he pipes up with “If I were you, I’d be thinking about whether this job is what you want – it seems you want something more senior and a bigger role, so maybe this isn’t the role for you.  I will go into these issues further at your performance review next week…”  I read this as him saying he wants me to leave.  So, I call the former HR guy (who has since been promoted to our head office in Europe) and ask what I should do.

He says that he wouldn’t put it past DB to be deliberately seeking negative feedback about me to bolster his own view and that, if he and the old CEO were still there, this would have been clipped.  He says that his interpretation is that my role as a keeper of corporate governance is under threat, and that I should make an appointment with the CEO – BEFORE my performance review.  Why?  Because I don’t want the meeting to be about my review.  So, I make the appointment…and sweat for the rest of the weekend.

Closing in on the Asshole

A few posts ago I told you about my dilemma: there’s a guy whose team sits right next to mine.  He is, by all accounts, an Asshole.  His staff hate him; his peers think he’s an idiot.  He is, in effect, the perfect example of a man who pretends his way through senior roles.  No doubt he thinks he’s incredibly competent, but it’s often only a matter of time before the facts catch up with them.

My dilemma is twofold: first of all, I am the most obvious person to take over his “portfolio” if he is fired.  Second, his staff come to me regularly raising issues about his behaviour.  There comes a point where you have to say something and can’t stay silent.  Then, once you’ve said something, there comes a time to shut up and let the situation play out.  I think I’m there right now.

There have been two new events:

1. The Asshole has hired another asshole.  He has given his senior government relations role to a guy I briefly worked with while I was contracting.  While I did all the heavy lifting, he swanned around and took all the credit.  Then I found out he was doing the same thing with everyone.  It didn’t take long before he got fired.

When his old boss found out we had hired him, she rang me straight away.  “What is the Company THINKING???” she asked.  Apparently she’s signed a Deed of Release, so she can’t possibly tell all.  However, she did indicate that there were ethical issues with the guy.  Hmmm.  What was I to do with this information?  Dammit, I had to say something.  So I told the head of our HR area about the call on a no-names basis, and suggested that our CEO discreetly call the CEO of the place the new asshole used to work.

The trick is that, this is it now.  I can’t raise another issue unless it’s a HUM DINGER.  No, really.  There’s a point at which I start to look obsesed.  I’m done, gotta sit back and hope the powers that be get it, and get it fast.

The good thing is, I’m not alone.

2. One of the Asshole’s staff came to see me last Friday.  She wasn’t sure about what to do, but needed to talk through some issues.  She has been with the Company for 10 years, and is hugely respected – she’s one of those people who just gets on with her job without any fuss.  So, anyhow, she reckons that the Asshole has a drinking problem!

Apparently, he is away from his office 70% of the time, and no-one knows where he is.  When he does turn up, usually after lunch, he smells of alcohol.  He is inconsistent and has taken to hanging around her (very attractive) assistant when she’s not there.

She said she thought she should go to the head of HR about it, and I agreed.  So she did.

This situation really can’t go on too much longer.  Our new CEO is starting in a couple of weeks.  I wonder if he will do something about it.

Us and them

We are pretty aware that, while most of our team are happy and non-bitchy, there are 2 (maybe 3) who get a kick out of criticising everyone in their path.  They banded together long ago as part of the Dispute Resolution team’s reaction to their terrible manager, and they have developed a paranoid, ultra-bitchy outlook on life.

Of course, they put on a happy face whenever a manager is around and their “official” position is that they are happier and looking forward to the new start.  However, for one reason or another, they don’t seem able to break from their own poor behaviours.  Now, I’m not talking kids here, either.  The youngest of this crowd is 39!

Two of the group are from the DR Team.  One, Anne, re-joined the Legal team on contract in 2007 after she left, having had enough of their terrible manager.  She has been a fan of mine, but I know she is under pressure from her friends to criticise and cajole.  When I made her permanent just before Christmas, she tellingly exclaimed “I’ve been vindicated!  The others said you wouldn’t make me permanent.”  That told me a lot, not the least of which was that other members of the DR Team (including those who had left) had been creating their own versions of reality based solely on their construction of a view of the world, + putting their own spin on what they see.

Lisa is another story.  Technically a strong lawyer, she has no idea how poorly she comes across.  She thrives on drama (if it’s not there, she creates it) and her clients think she gives them uncommercial legal advice.  She is a follower and, always seeking approval from others, tends to reflect whatever mood or attitude prevails.

The third is Dee.  Now, she’s a different case altogether.  Dee isn’t in the DR Team, and comes across as hating the world.  She is intelligent, and has been a lawyer for over 20 years.  However, she has a serious chip on her shoulder and is terribly unpleasant to work with.  Everything bothers her.  Everything.  For a long time, she was protected by a senior manager, who was her main client.  However, shortly after I started, I spoke to him and said that her behaviour in our dept was harming the team, and I would need to do something about it.  He agreed to support me, especially after his own team started complaining about her.  So, we talked to her in July last year and said that she needed to turn around her attitude.  We all braced for her reaction, fully prepared for her to walk.

To our surprise (and her credit) she actually responded.  She confessed that she struggled with depression, and didn’t realise that she came across so poorly with her colleagues.  She actually picked up her behaviour from then on, which is an impressive feat.  Her supporter left the company, and was replaced with someone who Dee had regarded as an idiot, and had, thinking he was on contract, decided to bully!  He is a terrifically nice guy, and has been prepared to give Dee a second chance, at our request. 

The trick is that we are left with a dilemma:  her behaviour is better than it was, but by no means good enough yet.  People in the team (well, apart from Lisa and Anne) still keep their distance.  She still never volunteers for anything, and works as little as possible in order to deliver her work.  Plus, she isn’t open with her work.  She won’t let anyone else see it or, if something goes wrong, she resists revisiting it and just takes a difficult immovable stance.  She uses her experience as an excuse to gloss over things – to do them too quickly, and not exercise enough discipline.  Everyone stays away from her, if they can.

Something interesting has happened over the past few weeks.  Anne, Lisa and Dee, having been “friends” of sort for some time, have banded together.  Part of this is because they’d always done so; also, we have started to raise some behavioural issues with each of them, where they genuinely need to improve on, as part of our usual development and performance discussions.

However, they act like the “us” in the “us and them”.  A new girl, Margaret, started with us 3 months ago.  We asked her to learn IT law…something we knew would be a challenge, because she would need to learn it from Dee.  We crossed our fingers and hoped that Dee’s improvement would continue, and that the coaching relationship would work.