Tag, You're It!

I have been observing a lot of people at work for the past year. I have noticed a lot of these people seem to think they have much more power in their job titles than they actually do. Business etiquette has been pushed aside and lack of civility and basic kindness toward fellow employees has crept in the workplace.

Some people think because of whom they report to, this gives them the power to disregard professionalism and civility. I have worked for vice presidents and presidents in various jobs I have held in my lifetime. Never once would I take it upon myself to insinuate my bosses’ power over others. Never once would I try to humiliate fellow co-workers in front of others. Email etiquette is the latest tool to which has fallen away from professionalism.

My latest observation is that people at a lower level in the organization, who seem to think they have power, feel it necessary to copy numerous people on emails which don’t have anything to do with these other people. In a very kindergarten way, the writers of these emails seem to think that by copying the world about a perceived wrong, they are taking it upon themselves to shout out the perceive wrong to the world, thus trying to embarrass a colleague in front of their fellow employees. I am the latest victim of one particular person and I'm trying my best not to come down to their level and play dirty. I'm fairly certain, in the world of email etiquette, one should ask if it alright to copy or forward a private email to other people. This person has decided she is the judge, and by copying others, they will make up the jury. Again, I wonder, what happened to innocent until proven guilty? We all know what it means to assume anything, and I will not write out the definition of "assume" so as not to offend anyone.

This is not the first time this person has done this. I know of many instances with other employees that this person has tried this same tactic. In all cases, the "victim" has chosen to keep quiet and not make waves. Being the mature person I am, I decided to block this person from my Facebook account. By doing this, I will not be tempted to reply to the negative and rude comments this person continues to make.

The frustrating part of this situation is that this person's boss has been made aware of these emails, and does nothing to stop the assistant. Because the boss appears to allow this behavior to continue, most people do not engage the boss about the assistant, because they know the behavior will be allowed to continue.

The post is my vent. Hopefully by tomorrow, I will have calmed down enough, but I don't think so. I'm not ready to deal with this person (via email, phone or in person) at the moment. You have to pick your battles, and I'm not sure I'm willing to go to war over this one (although it would feel pretty good to continue the skirmish).