My First Taste of Asphalt

Yesterday was an interesting day. I found out first hand that not only do office politics exist in my company, but they most certainly are now involving me. I was thrown under a large bus yesterday; a large bus carrying even larger people...at weight capacity.

I have made a big transition recently from supporting two managers to supporting the CEO, CAO and a Senior Manager. One can only imagine that learning the way all three of these individuals like to work, can be tricky and time consuming. But on top of that, I had to learn a whole new set of job skills some that include but certainly aren’t limited to: billing, expense reports, billing, engagement letters, billing, meeting requests, and did I mention billing?

Now, because there was such a great deal to acclimate to, I have been leaning quite a bit on a woman (she will be referred to as “a woman,” “the woman,” or “that woman,” for anonymity’s sake) who was the former assistant to the CEO and CAO. She offered a lot of training and guidance; the whole time being sickeningly nice and understanding of my seemingly endless questions (which by the way, I never asked more than once). Until yesterday, I was convinced this person had my best interest at heart and wanted to see me succeed. Man, was I way off.

I sent this woman a pretty standard email yesterday asking about a billing/engagement letter procedure. The email was sent simply to receive insight as to how the CEO likes the process to start. Some time passed and I never heard back from her. Instead, I got a visit from my manager stating that this woman had forwarded my email chain to her manager where she had in turn, forwarded it to my manager!

Apparently her “reasoning” was that she was concerned I should be going to somebody in the SF office for mentoring (She is in the MP office). I looked at my manager in disbelief, explained to him my logic behind my choice to send this particular email to the woman, after which he responded by saying that it made perfect sense.

Now, if in fact, she was doing it out of “concern” for me, why, GOD WHY, would she involve our managers? Why wouldn’t she have just sent me a quick email that said something along the lines of, “Julia, I believe this is something you should be asking your mentor about?” The answer is simple: She has an agenda and people with agendas should be avoided like the plague.

Clearly this woman wanted to make it known that she disagreed with the way I was handling things and she did it in the most inappropriate and disrespectful way possible; she fed me to the wolves, hoping that I would be reprimanded for being too inquisitive (is that EVER a bad thing?). Well, the good news is that the joke is on her. Her little stunt only made her look stupid and catty.

I was so tempted to email this woman just to tell her how I felt but decided against it. I wish to give no ammo to a person who will clearly stab me in the back again if the opportunity presents itself. I will rise against this petty attempt to get ahead and focus on my job like I should be. I will wash the track marks off my back and try to remember that the discomfort although strong at the time, is only temporary.