It’s “where are you now?” month at Ask a Manager, and all December I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past.
A lot has happened since I last wrote.
First, I’d like to clarify some details. I didn’t write the self-evaluation, and at the time of the letter, I didn’t even know who had written it. I read it because it was stuck on a whiteboard that I needed to use during a meeting, and the person helping me move the whiteboard read it too. We threw it away afterward. I know that the malicious self-evaluation was also posted on the bulletin board, on the kitchen wall, and mixed in with other documents. It became popular partly because Rhonda isn’t well-liked at the company and partly because it was written in a humorous style. So even those who didn’t read it directly heard quotes from people who had.
One commentator said that this fake evaluation was distracting from the real issue, and you said Rhonda was a terrible manager and likely to continue doing awful things in the future. You were both right.
Some of us went to HR to question why flexible hours were no longer available, and Rhonda claimed it was all a misunderstanding. She said she only suggested stricter hours and that we weren’t required to follow them. I asked HR if it was possible to review my evaluation because I disagreed with some of Rhonda’s points, and I wasn’t the only one. To say that Rhonda didn’t like this would be an understatement.
The level of micromanagement after that reached absurd levels. She would interrupt people at random times, and we had to give her a complete report of everything we’d done since the last time she asked. This happened several times a day, and Rhonda expected lengthy or detailed responses, or she would interrupt you again and again. She also replied to emails vaguely, forcing you to talk to her in person for a proper answer.
Rhonda was also determined to blame someone for the letter. She interrogated all of us in groups and individually about it. She tried to figure out which groups of people typically went out together after work and concluded that a group who regularly drank together after hours was responsible. She told everyone that she knew who the culprits were, and so did we, and that the cover-up was only making things worse. Things escalated between her and this group. Rhonda claimed they deliberately scratched her car; the group said she was stalking them during lunch breaks. I’m not sure how much of this made it to HR — I tried to stay far away from all the chaos.
Fortunately, it lasted only a few months. One of the employees Rhonda was harassing as the supposed culprit missed an important deadline on a project. Rhonda didn’t notice until it was too late. We lost the client, and when Rhonda tried to put all the blame on the employee, she ended up being penalized herself for not realizing there had been no progress on the project for a significant amount of time. She and the employee had a very public argument during which the author of the letter was revealed (and it wasn’t the employee involved in the argument). Voices were raised, insults were exchanged, and both of them were escorted to HR and never came back.
The author of the self-evaluation claimed to have received a warning from HR and a compliment for their writing skills. I can’t say if that’s true, but I find it amusing to think so.
HR didn’t allow the evaluations to be redone, citing that there was no one available to redo them. This accelerated my job search, and I’m happy to say that I recently found a new job and have left all the drama from that company behind.
I thank you and the readers for the advice.
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