You have always been told to watch your back when walking alone at night or in a dark parking garage. If you don’t, a stranger can come from behind and attack you. But, it is worse, when we have to watch our back at work. To protect ourselves, from people we know, who could cause us harm.
During the last couple of months, I have been working on a very important project. The sponsor of this project is one of our department directors. From the beginning of this project, the completion date was listed as the beginning of the month. While on a conference call, I discovered that the deadline was actually the end of the month. In order to obtain some clarification, I sent an e-mail to the Director asking her the proper end date; she e-mailed me back a response detailing the reason for the different dates. I assumed all was good and did not give this much thought any more. But a few days later, my assumption that “all was good” turned out to be wrong and revealed a more sinister turn of events. Unbeknownst to me, a simple e-mail about a date clarification was used by this person to somehow sabotage me. This woman went behind my back to my director stating that I was not serious about this project, because of this question I asked. The only reason I found out, was because my manager told me. When I found out, I was livid. I thought this person was one of the few decent people working at this company. She went straight to my department director (she did not even go to my manager, she went straight to the higher level) about an assumption that was not even true. In order to follow proper protocol, I told my manager my side and sent her a copy of the e-mail. No where in the e-mail did it state that I would “slow-up” on this project because of the later end date. Nor did my actions suggest that I was not taking this project seriously. Now, someone looking at this from the outside could say that I was doing something else that helped her draw this conclusion. But, I was talking to her on an almost daily basis and holding conference calls with the team weekly concerning the status of this project. So, I do not know how she came to the conclusion that I was not serious. But, I did learn some things from this experience:
• Save all your e-mails – You never know when a situation will arise where you will need proof of your actions.
• After a verbal conversation, follow up with an e-mail to summarize what was discussed.
• Make sure to document and date all incidences. Also, during meetings of any kind, take notes and make sure to include the date.
• Once a backstabber has been identified, make sure to copy your manager on all correspondence to this person.
• Keep all your personal and private matters to yourself, you never know if you are confiding with a decent person or a backstabber/gossiper.
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