Have you met that “guy”?

Have you met that guy?  

You know the one I’m talking about.  He swaggers into work exuding confidence and brags about his prowess at his job.  

The way he talks with the boss, he acts more like a co-manager than a co-worker.  He just seems to know the right thing to say and the right way to say it.

You look up from your desk and just want to hit him.

Then, you’re assigned to work with him on a project and find out that

1.  Every chance he gets, he tells you that your ideas are c%@p.
2.  When he presents his ideas to the boss, you find they were actually your ideas.
3.  He gets a promotion for his innovative thinking.

If you try to report it, you find out that

1. He warned the boss you were treacherous.
2. He told the boss you would say it was your idea.
3. You’re fired.

It doesn’t matter that you saved your drafts.  He’ll say you stole his ideas and you’re trying to make him look bad.

I ran into someone like that 4 years after I started working as a secretary/office assistant.  That particular treacherous piece of sh…  uh, stuff was a woman.  I was in college 2 days a week and worked for 3.  She was given an important piece of paper to give to me and instead of putting it where I could find it, she stuck it into the middle of a stack on my desk.

When the boss asked where it was, I didn’t know.  Ms. Treacherous looked through my stack and said, “Here it is.  She probably didn’t think it was important.”

She had two days a week to plan and execute her attack.  When I was called on my poor performance, the boss didn’t believe me.

I was fortunate. A few days later, the man who would become my 2nd husband proposed to me and I turned in my notice. Instead of being fired, I moved to another state and found a different job.

I learned later that Ms. Treacherous was given my job and she was so bad at it they fired her.

There is only one thing I can celebrate these days:

Karma has a way of finding Mr. and Ms. Treacherous, but until then, every piece of intellectual property that can possibly be stolen is either © or password protected.