You’re not going to use this company as a reference, since your name was slandered and they’d not have much good to say about you. Take the prick in a room with just the two of you and hide a tape recorder. Get him to admit he’s a liar.

I guess it all depends if you’re a decent individual what to do to the guy… I’m sure you’ve already thought of some things.

Or hey, I think this is a blog post about avoiding office politics. Have an up-front conversation with Mr. President. If it goes well – you stay, if not – you leave. It might be good to have done a little bit of a job search prior to this … You’ve already talked to LBNT in private, that didn’t work. Talk to Mr. President in private. If that doesn’t work, get the three of you guys together (don’t forget the tape recorder though…) Then sue the bastages, and make them settle out of court.

Quit. Now. Or, as soon as you’ve found a job. Beef up your resume, find good recruiters, and post yourself on Dice, Monster, Careerbuilder, et al.

It’s that simple.

Sometimes there’s just nothing you can do but that, and some cultures are so dysfunctional, or leadership so weak, which seems to be what you’re describing, that there’s nothing else to be done but go elsewhere.

It sounds to be like you’ve a very bright and multipurpose developer and engineer, you should easily be able to find another gig. Start looking now, you are fighthing a lost cause.

I was hired by a company to be an in-house software engineer, meaning that what the company needed was someone to develop software applications for in-house use. Its basically low down and gritty programming of software applications, and utilities, to be used by the service and test team. For example, my first project was to write an automated quality assurance test suite application, to test our PCI-Card product. Or, my latest was to develop an automated build application so that we can do weekly builds for all our software (like real companies have). The test and service guys, use my software and other utilities I write to test our products. I also developed our internal time-sheet, task and project management software – which everybody in the company has to use (this is where I really saw just how much of a micro-managing prick the president is, because he had me write the application to track employee activity – down to the minute).

In any case, this is all cool. I dont get the glory of customer feedback, but I get recognition for making the lives of our test engineers a lot better. Ive written programs and utilities using several languages, mainly C++ and Visual Basic, but also Java, JavaScript, PHP, and HTML as well.

However, upon hire I was also told that in addition to software development, Id have to take on some of the service tasks as well. My title is “Software Engineer” as it reads on my business card, and my boss is the head of software engineering. But as a result of developing for the service department, I had kind of a secondary-boss, the head of service, who I will refer to as the little brown noseing tattletale (LBNT). This guy is insufferable, and I knew it from day one when I felt it in my gut after speaking with him just one time.

Now, the thing about my company is that we are an engineering organization – basically no girls, and mostly older married men. I am the only guy in the company who is part of a younger generation – except for LBNT, he is the only other one of my generation. I could tell from day one that LBNT saw me as a threat. LBNT has no real skills – his claim to fame is having excellent “organizational skills” and being very detail oriented. And I will give him credit for that – he is a huge asset to the comany – he almost single handedly holds the service department together. However, he is threatened by programmers becuase its a skill he doesnt have. The older guys he doesnt mind – they are older and the fact that they have skills that he doesnt, is a resuylt of more experience,. But with me – he is threatened. Having no real skills, it seemed that he didnt want the president (who he may as well bend over and butt-fuck in front of the entire company) to discover how good I can be – how much potential I have to surpass him and his role in service. I’d always catch him minimizing the work I did, or downplaying what I get done, and even talking shit to the president about me – and the president is just as much into the butt-fucking as LBNT is. They are both so butt-fucking each other, its disgusting.

The president is a control freak micro-manager of the worst kind, and everybody knows it. He doesnt trust even the best employees to do their work, and he is constantly checking up on people, to see who he can catch taking a breather. Now – the president knows he cant do this to people as much as he needs to, and so he needs a spy to do some of his dirty work for him – and so LBNT plays that role shamelessly, spying on people and reporting on their work habits – which is really bad becuase he is not qualified to analyze the work of engineers, and worse – he deliberately tries to make others appear bad, so as to make himself look good. (like , “he took a 1.5 hour lunch on Tuesday” implication –> “you’d never see ME do that”).

LBNT never liked that fact that I was an engineer, and pulled all the strings he could, and said whatever he needed to say in meetings (in my absence), from day one to steer me into his service department – and away from engineering. Anytime I was deeply involved in an engineering project which didnt involve him – he’d run around like achicken without a head, asking when I would be done – trying to make it appear as if I was taking too long, and needed to be under his supervision. And like I said, the president loves LBNT and trusts his every word – he has clout.

This little prick, would watch my every move, on a an hourly basis and report to the president on my daily activity. Now my immediate boss, head of software – was happy with my work, and didnt need to monitor my houly activity, because he saw that my projects got completed – and completed very well, and in a timely fashion. He trusted me to do my work, because I never gave him any reason not to – he trusted me to manage my own time – and if I took an hour for lunch, or took a 10 minute breather, it was no big deal to him – as long as my work got done. LBNT could not stand to see me chilling, because I finished my work and he had no say in the matter. But this didnt last long – as he chipped away at the presidents ear with nonsense about me, and ultimately told the boss that he was overwhelmed as head of service, and desperately needed more help – “Didnt we hire Tom to do some of this ?”.

He eventually got his way – and I was placed to work under him. This was his glory day – the day I was technically placed to work under his management. My immediate boss, was compliant because this came from the president – who was influenced by LBNT and his shinnanegans.

This little prick, takes notes on my daily activity – writing down almost every move I make. He makes asumptions as to what I know and think, and usually gets it wrong. He deliberately condecends me in fromnt of people explaining things that he knows damn well he doesnt have to – just so that others can see and hear him bossing me around. It has become an impossible environment to work in.

One day in a very professional manner, I asked him into the conference room – where I layed it all out, in a very judicial and professional way. He changed for that day, and went right back to all his crap the next morning. This kid has literally stumped my career here, and has become my main obstacle for advancement. He actaully said (threatened), “you know Tom, I will be your supervisor when review time comes”.

I have heard of manipulative pricks in the workplace before, and never really had to edure one – now I know that these people do exist, and can make you life hell. Its been a power trip with him – Im the kind of person who keeps to themself and works very hard. He is the kind of person who gets in everyone else’s business, and seesm to have a lot fo time doing things that are not tangible projects (spying on others, trying to peek at my screen, reading my outgoing emails, checking my web activity, checking the modification dates on code files I work on, seeing if my hands are on the keyboard, etc). The problem with him and I is that it has become totally personal, and so others in the company dont see any of this. If I were to explain it to anybody, they’d most likely be puzzled, like “LBNT isnt like that, I havent had that experience with him at all…?” And they’s be right – because he only pulls this nonsense with me.

He has already managed to paint me into the image he needs to in the eyes of his god (the president) in order to keep me down. He is the most insecure and manipulative prick I have ever met – and nobody knows it but me, as a result fo the way it has become personal. It is so frustrating.

What to do ?