I so hate office politics...
Really. It does nothing but create a negative atmosphere and saps productivity. After landing this job, seems that it finally caught up with me. And it was not pleasant at all.
What started it came when I first joined and somehow, got to know this person, A. He is a little bit abrasive and also talks a lot. Now, because I was new here, I have to be very careful in who I friend and who I do not. Since he's a long term staff, I lowered my guard a little but still, I was very wary. Because when it comes to some things, I realised that people used the friendship to cloud your judgement and/or force you to look at things their way.
So it happens that A was in charge of a project with a December deadline. Its a very important project which even the GM has emphasised the deadline many times. And so, in order to help him, I told him one of my ideas where we would help him by taking the system and deploying it on site while he installs the software in the office and also perform on-line maintenance when the systems are up. Not only would this lessen the workload but it could actually meet the deadline. However, as days turned to weeks, we waited and waited for the systems while he was 'busy' with other things. Finally, I took him to a corner and asked him about his project since I can see where he is going but I was rebuffed and also, I was told that everything is under control and there is no more deadline. Right, but I know this is not true since the GM has not said anything.
So, we sort of left him alone and went about our tasks until one day we received the email stating that we are now required to deploy the systems at certain locations. Here, I made a mistake of forgetting to inform him that my offer stops after December, and which he took as carte blanche. And so, after some terse emails from me, things around the office suddenly started to become hostile.
[Update 08042013]
OK, this is getting too long but suffice to say, the situation has changed. B is now gone, and A has lost his marbles. And I have been pulled out of my cosy Dept and into his, to help deploy those software as fast as I can. Something which is very out of my league but I was told, I am the most qualified person right now. And so, I had very limited time to learn how to install the software, deploy and perform on the spot training.
So, OK. Its not that difficult after all. But the most difficult was to glean information from A who doles out bit by bit. And in some cases, A will conveniently 'remember' how to do things/info once you found out the hard way. Me, I don't care about this anymore as I have my targets to meet.
But right now, I really cannot see where I am heading. And people are starting to assume I will be taking over B's post in which, I am actually not qualified at all. But I am not going to worry about these things right now, even if I need to use his room to install the software before I can deploy more. Yeah, people walk past, whispers and before you know it, they ask, "Are you really taking over his job since you're now in his room? Can you fix my printer/email/password, etc?"
Yeah, outstation trips, here I come!
