Good boss V a bad manager who's after his job.

[Strider440]

 

For the first time in my career I've been graced with having a manager (operations manager) who is actually not an egotistical *****, he actually does a pretty good job to boot.....

 

BUT, one of his subordinate managers is trying to replace him, he just doesn't realise it yet.

My manager is over everything, directly runs the dept I work in, the other manager runs another small dept for him.

Other manager on the surface seems like a nice chap, really friendly with everyone, very loud and chatty, always walking around making it look as though he's well liked, but he's also making silly/petty complaints about my colleagues, my manager has to act or it'll look like he's not doing his job, which results in my manager looking like the bad guy, many of us know where these complaints really come from, but because this other manager seems so popular, nobody ever speaks out.

The owner of the company sees the department as being out of control, because the mud might have no substance, but throw enough of it and it sticks, the owner doesn't trust any of us because of all the complaints, and so we wouldn't be believed if we did say anything.

I don't know if there's anything I can do, it's driving me nuts seeing this guy swanning about pretending to be this great guy, whilst stabbing us all in the back to make our manager look bad.
He really is toxic and calculating, for someone so chatty, nobody knows anything about him, he's got zero social media presence, not even Linkedin, nobody even knows what town he lives in, where he went to school, where he used to work, he hides everything, he's the most closed open book you'll ever meet.

I know it's beyond my control, i'm just curious as to where this normally ends up.........
 

[borisbeaver]

Sounds like a story for Reddit.

[ericsbrother]

Sadly this is a common thing, lowe grade manager thinking they have what it takes to get promoted and trying to be matey with their subordinates whilst slaggig them off to other workers. you may also find that there will be a select few who become part of the lower managers little group and they go out for drinks etc after work. Nothing wrong with that if firm barriers are in place but it is rarely the case with these people an their actions tend to be reactive so wont think anything about ticking someone off in front of their colleagues or tell someone they are the worst offender at some minor irritation like answering the phone too slowly in front of the whole team. they see it as just banter but it is poor management and breach of their duty of care towards their employees and breach of confidentiality.

Some of this has clearly happened at your place  hence the negative messages being picked up elsewhere.

who do you have your one to ones with? If senior manager let them know about the breaches of confidentiality, esp if people are put down in front of others, say that it is unprofessional and not good for morale wehn others in the organisation get a distored version of events from unknown sources. This will show it is a management problem and not a personal gripe.

You can also use your grievance procedure but i would advise great caution  unless a single event is so serious or urgent you cant deal with it by way of your normal review meetings.