The Power Trip

I’ll keep this short, I’m neck deep in analysis for the upcoming Wave report –while trying to balance client needs and projects, I’m busy.

When I worked at web startup in the first web boom, all kinds of people came to power that didn’t have the credentials or experience. The demand for leadership in this fast growing company resulted in immature professionals quickly moving to middle management. I remember two distinct instances where the power went to their head and I now tell their stories for all to learn:

Mr M. and the Weekly Porn Emails
Although we were in IT/Software Engineering Mr M. wasn’t from tech, and in fact, had very few technical skills, so his talent became managing one very talented technical worker. He spent most of his time causing drama, going out to lunch, and surfing and sharing porn at the office. In fact, every week, he would gather his favorite porn screenshots from playboy (I think he and his college buddies had an email list) and he would forward it to his friends. Sadly, friends and colleagues aren’t always the same, and in his mis judgement he repeatedly sent it to those under him –including me. In his wisdom, he even sent it to his subordinate, the talented tech guy. It only took a few months for this to get back to HR, and he was soon in crying his eyes out to keep his job in the VPs office while the rest of the office laughed at him for months –and still do today.

Moral of the story? Friends and colleagues aren’t always the same –respect the boundaries.

The Ego of Mr W. comes full circle
Mr W, was actually often in conflict with Mr M, they’d both moved into middle management in IT, yet by far, I’d prefer to be friends with Mr M. Now, Mr W on the other hand, through his psuedo-power around constantly telling everyone “I”m a director” and expecting us to kowtow to him with our foreheads buried to his entry of his window facing cubicle. He abused his power, taking over people’s projects –taking credit for them. I always remembered when he wanted something, he would come by and act so nice, so sweet, then BAM, here comes the Friday afternoon work request. Eventually, he used his power to intimidate the young girls, he didn’t realize it, but I was in the cube next to him when he told two female colleagues how he’d “love to get between them” and chuckle. He even made unsavory comments about my girlfriend (I had her picture on my desk), which were quite stinging. Years later, Mr W ended up working for someone that’s related to me (the valley is a very, very, small place) and IMd me and apologized for his behavior, I accepted, but will never forget.

Moral of the story? You’ve moved into power, so now act like it, and do something to improve yourself and those around you. Part 2: Be nice to everyone, you never know who will be in power.

Your turn…
Wow, that felt good. Now’s your chance to let it fly, jump on to the Jeremiah couch, and feel free to rant and rave, but two rules: 1) don’t give away the name of the offender or company name. 2) Give a moral of the story, so we can all learn. If you feel like being anonymous, I’m ok with that too.

20 Replies to “The Power Trip”

  1. I worked for an “interactive agency” during the boom. We had one product that we were good at building and customizing and that our customers liked and got a good ROI on. But gradually, we started getting fewer and fewer requests for this product.

    It turns out the salespeople didn’t want to sell it anymore because it wasn’t new enough. It wasn’t internet-y enough. They wanted to sell web site development. Never mind that there were all kinds of ways to integrate our product with the web – it was software, not a web site, so it wasn’t cool anymore, so the salespeople wouldn’t touch it. One saleswoman we asked about it said as much.

    The company, which had built a really good niche around this product, became just another bloated web agency and suffered the fate of a million others during the dot-com bust.

    Moral of the story: doing what seems cool and trendy isn’t always the best business decision.

  2. Oh, so many stories come to mind. But most recently, there’s the boss who, when I asked her why I was passed over for a promotion, told me (and this is almost verbatim) that it was because I’d been out a lot to take care of my son when he was sick. (My husband had been travelling a lot on business.)

    Keep in mind that “a lot” was maybe 5 days during a year, and that during those 5 days, I would always log in while my son was sleeping so I could meet my deadlines.

    This same boss also asked my former manager whether I was trying to get pregnant and if so, whether I was planning to come back to work after I had the baby.

    Was this a startup? No, it was a major Fortune 500 company here in the valley, and my guess is that HR would have been horrified had I told them. As it was, I bided my time and got a better job at another company.

    Although I find that repeating this stories sometimes imbues them with more power, wow, it felt good to get this off my chest.

    And I haven’t even touched on the born-again Christian boss; the boss who had a hit put out on him by the jealous husband of the co-worker with whom he was having an affair; the boss who wouldn’t let me go to the bathroom on a business trip; or the “Devil Wears Prada” boss.

  3. Ha ha, I just love this. Here is the saddest story of them all. I worked with two, previously wildly successful Stanford Grads, both who had extraordinary resumes and some serious Valley swat. One was a gem, and the other a seriously “funny little man”.

    We had a VP of Biz Dev (Mr. V) who seemed to be one of the only ones who knew what was to come (great guy btw), kept saying, “just wait, this is not going to last”. We “refocused” three times while I was there, watched the company below us sadly pack up and go while one of the Founders literally clapped his hands in glee whilst he engaged in some serious Schadenfreude.

    It made my physically ill to see his behavior, people were losing their jobs, their investments, you get the picture.

    Needless to say, maybe 5 months later we were all packing up our things – honestly I could barely contain my eagerness to get out of there.

    Moral – There but for the Grace of the flippin Universe Go all of Us.

  4. Years ago I managed a very talented in-house web team for a large Fortune 1000 company. The team had great rapport and an even better work ethic. Built from the ground-up, the team stayed on for the creative energy and culture of the team — even at the height of the first dot.com gold rush.

    As the site grew in quality, traffic and prominence, adding leadership was required.

    The best candidates were chasing money at internet start-ups, and it was difficult to find a solid candidate with the right credentials or experience to consider a corporate environment.

    Into this creative and productive environment came Ms. K.

    Ms. K’s background checked out fine, references and former employers shared good words (more on this later) and her interview seemed solid – not just jingoistic jargon.

    Yet things went south after her probationary period ended. Her helpful and supportive facade shattered and was replaced with an abrasive and condescending version. Her ambitions outpaced her abilities and “where’s there’s smoke, there’s mirrors” became the team’s slogan for her. Team in-fighting ensued, and I stepped up to actively coach her on people skills nearly every week after some “incident”.

    Not long later, as the first dot.com wave broke on shore, we contracted a web developer (let’s call her Ms. X). Ms. X’s face contorted and a horrified gasp escaped to the words “My god! What is SHE doing here?” when she first saw Ms. K. walk down the hall. She shared that she had worked with Ms K. at her previous job and the management team there had decided that laying off an entire team was the only way to rid themselves of the poisonous Ms K. without her pressing a lawsuit.

    As development plans for Ms K. were being considered, a layoff round provided the opportunity to rid ourselves of the same Ms K. – but only after the damage was done and talented team members left. So hated was Ms K. that former team members returned for a happy hour to toast her departure and share horror stories.

    Moral of the story? One hire can be a deal breaker – even with the best background and reference check. Make the probationary period count – exercise the new hire’s management talents early and often and fast track a development plan if required being sure to dot your i’s and cross your t’s.

  5. Was bullied around quite a lot in my early twenties.
    Heard one day that one of the bullies was coming for an interview at a company where a good friend of mine is HR manager.
    I told her what I thought about him, and she asked “do you think I should give him the job?”¨
    “No”.

    Feels good.

  6. Upon this, I would have dealt with him quietly and swiftly during off hours.

    “unsavory comments about my girlfriend”

Comments are closed.