Freedomain Radio

 Hi everyone my name is Gerry. I am a keen listener to stefs Podcasts and thought I would sign up.

I have a question for anyone who like to respond.

I work in a 4 man office (2 male & 2 female) and every now and again
something will come up that causes the smooth working of the relationship
of 4 adult people to go pear shaped. Usually ends up with the 2 ladies not
talking to each for a couple of weeks. But then everything goes back to
normal after a couple of weeks. We have all been working in the Dept for 4
years plus and I guess we know each other pretty well.

On Friday I had reason to believe that the manager of the Dept might be
thinking of trying to get one of the ladies sacked, he is starting to
record how long she is away from her desk and generally observing her
every move. I know for sure that the lady feels very trusting toward
myself and the other male Manager as she feels comfortable telling us
things about other aspects of the company that she learns from friends
outside of the office, usually way before the manager finds out. So I
guess the manager has every right to feel as though his staff should not
have access to other information outside of the immediate office
environment. I also believe that the manager’s motives don’t seem very
honourable.

The Question is do I tell the lady in private to watch herself and advise
her of my findings and possibly risk her being very upset with herself or
the Manager.

Or do I tell one of the ladies friends of my findings so they can relay
the information to her, to watch herself.

Or do I do nothing and let it run its course, whatever course may take.

Even though we all appear to work great together most of the time, as
nobody has to be told what to do. We all know what are jobs and get it
done, so the existence of a manager did not seem to be apparent in the
smooth working relationship. But I guess you always have to be conscious
of the fact that there are circumstances where the manager can exercise
their seniority over others.

All the best

First, leave it to me to initially misinterperet the statement that the manager might be trying to get one of the ladies "sacked." (teehee)

My initial "feeling" on this is "Do whatever you feel like; you're not accountable for other peoples' actions." But do you think that, if this woman is fired, an injustice will have been done? What would be the difference between telling her directly or telling her friends?

Thanks for your response Kevin I can see now how my everyday use of the word ‘sacked’ could be misinterpreted. Well done for pointing this out.

Thinking about it some more I am guessing these type of occurrences happen everyday in corporate environments.

I like to think that my local environment at the office as resembling an organized family. That would include no one trying to control the other, We work, we educate each other, we play and so forth. But I guess this might not work in reality.

Yes, I do get the feeling an injustice would be done if she were fired, because she does her work. She adds atmosphere to the environment and yes she does moan, but what woman does not. She could be more attractive I guess she could also be more positive and have a more positive outlook on life. But in this regard I consider her my guinea pig for more positive living.

If I told her directly I guess I would risk getting a less than better salary review at the next appraisal, because she could get very annoyed and confront the manager. If I told her friend I guess to some degree I remain anonymous but then I risk adding gossip outside of the family.