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| what would you do? |
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| timbuktu |
| 06/27/04 at 12:27:54 |
| [slm] Here is the scenario: You are asked to join a firm and entrusted with running its semi-autonomous branch. On joining, you see it is a complete mess, with everyone from top down playing dirty politics, from HQ to locals within and without the organization. The technical and financial problems are simply huge. You persuade someone (who has been recommended to you) to leave his permanent cosy job, and together you try to solve the problems. You try out the others, but they do not help, instead stabbing you in the back. You give time to others to learn to cooperate, but they do not. You try to fire some, little by little, so as not to stop the day-to-day running, but the bosses put hurdles in your path, so a normal firing takes months of inquiries, in all of which you are vindicated. All the opponents forget their differences to eliminate you, but you survive the greatest onslaught. You realise that the colleague you rely on has a knack of antagonising others, but he is competent and he has credentials that are necessary for a recognition from the regulatory bodies. It is your considered judgement that without him or someone like him the problems cannot be solved. You are asked to drop him, but your plea is that you cannot do so while you do not have someone else with his qualifications and experience. As result of your representation of the facts with evidence, which your colleague has painstakingly compiled, your boss is changed, and both of you retain your job, temporarily. The new boss also soon takes a dislike to your colleague, because of a personality clash. You try to patch up the two, but they clash again, and you persuade them to let you act as a buffer between the two. Your opponents have acquired new powers and have regrouped, have evolved a partnership with your new boss and are now working quietly to make another attack, first by isolating both of you. They succeed in that. You realise that your opponents are now formidable, and including the new boss are cool players. The new boss has decided that your colleague is a threat to him, and that he wants unconditional, unquestioning obedience from you. Even then it is not sure he will let you remain in your job. You are again asked to withdraw your support to your colleague, and in fact to recommend firing him. You know that if you don't, you will be fired at the first opportune time. What would you do? |
| Re: what would you do? |
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| anon |
| 06/27/04 at 13:53:20 |
I would get my self checked for being delusional or some other psychotic illness. |
| Re: what would you do? |
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| al-ajnabia |
| 06/27/04 at 14:53:32 |
| [slm] What al-anon has suggested is the typical recomendation for such perceptions, which as caused me to offer new definitions for paranoid pychosis. my definition is if you know that you saw what you saw and youknow what you know and no one of any rank can cause you to interpose their reality for the reality that you percieve with your senses and that reality involves corruption in the workplace or govenment or educational system on any level you are paranoid. As a matter of fact you may even be dangerous :o what I do when I find myslef in this situation is to make sure I am right with allah, continually rehash and rehearse what I know, keep my own nose clean, and then I slurk like a crocodile in a shrinking pond, only eyes and nose above the surface of the pond, and I wait, and while I wait I go over the above activities, and I keep my senses sharp and sleep lightly, and when the time comes, I snap, and then I submerge and I roll and I roll, then I stash the bodies under a log and wait. metaphorically speaking that is. sounds like you are in for a war of atrition. |
| Re: what would you do? |
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| Kathy |
| 06/27/04 at 20:09:39 |
| [slm] Hold on to the rope of Allah swt. Take a step back and analyze your buddy. Is he really right for this job? Does this job rightfully belong to him? Has he antagonized himself right out of a job? Sure you have major responsibility for pulling him away from his cushy job... but how he performs is not up to you. Always take the high road. In hindsight I have always found that Allah swt took care of these situations, if only I was patient enough to wait and see. Turnover seems to be high, by your description... maybe there will be a few more turns in the future. Meanwhile, keep your ducks in a row, show no sides, and stick up for those in the right. there may be others who feel the same way you do, but do not have the courage to express it. At your age retirement is in high priority. Are you still marketable? |
| Re: what would you do? |
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| timbuktu |
| 06/28/04 at 19:07:24 |
| [slm] thanks al-anon, any reasonable person would think the same as you, but this is indeed a strange world. Ever heard of Byzantine conspiracies. They happened too, you know. And sis al-ajnabia, thanks for your insight. :) I do wish it were all an illusion, but sadly all of this is true. It happened the way I have described it, although I have been very less than candid, and hidden my own mistakes here, :) Remember the non-renewal of contract that I talked about in my “pray4me” post. That was a consequence of the scenario I have described. Sis Kathy, yours was a very sensible post. However, I did not for one moment think of dropping my colleague, even though I know he is responsible for making life difficult because of his attitude. He has some complexes, and is very outspoken, not a worthy virtue in a public dealing position. He had repeatedly offered to step down from the position of responsibility I had given him, but my problem was who else? I did realize that he was antagonizing himself out of a job, and dragging me down with him, but as you saw I felt responsible for him. I also had no one else to hand over his assignment to get recognition from the regulatory bodies. (This was near impossible anyway – with no one qualified to approach the regulators, it would have been certain to blow up in my face in two months). The situation is really impossible, unless the Chief pumps in money and resources to meet the challenge. He does realize some of the problems, but is more intent on establishing his authority. Maybe that is his first priority, and the solutions will follow. Well, for an update, after my contract was not renewed, my colleague pulled some political strings for himself, and almost succeeded in saving himself. The Chief Executive had been so angered by him that he overrode the Board of Governors, and issued a non-renewal letter to my colleague as well. We should indeed hold on to Allah’s rope. I had been asking for Allah’s forgiveness, and as you know I got my frozen job back within 24 hours of losing this one. As for marketability, the truth is that I have not considered myself marketable for 37 years, and that is not due to any complex. Yet Allah has given me everything that marketable people would have earned! :) With your advice sis Kathy and with hindsight, I wonder if I would have acted differently - only slightly so, I am afraid. I can see that I might have gained a “temporary respite” of a few months for both of us by playing along with the Chief Executive, and sidelining my colleague, but then I would have had to withstand a major upheaval in two to three months. So, whatever happens is for the better, insha’Allah :) Retirement is what I would love now. I have no stomach for this society’s ways, but the wife wouldn’t let me. :) Now please pray that I am able to perform Hajj this year and that Allah accepts it, and that this job is easy on me. I don’t really know what the purpose of this thread was. It was written after the events had taken place, so you can consider it sort of educational, in case someone faces similar problems. |
| 06/28/04 at 19:11:31 |
| timbuktu |
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