How to Get Your Boss Fired

by Suzanne Lucas
Monday, March 7, 2011
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Dear Evil HR Lady,

My coworkers and I are all miserable because our manager is, in a word,
terrible. While I'd love to list her shortcomings (they are many), I'll just say
that in the seven months she has been here, she single-handedly ruined
what used to be a fantastic, high-functioning groupFinally, one of our
coworkers (we'll call her Tanya) approached HR about the problems we've
been having. This launched a little investigation into our team. Over the
past eight weeks or so, HR has been meeting with each of us individually,
Tanya and our manager together, and the manager's boss (who visibly
bristles every time this woman talks) separately. We were sure this
investigation would culminate in our manager's termination. Yet, she
persists.
As far as we can tell, our manager is railroading us at every turn, and HR
is blaming Tanya for being insubordinate. They also seem to think the rest
of us are all on edge because Tanya and our manager don't get along.
Dumb. It seems completely infeasible that they don't see what's really
going on, but they've shown no indication that they're going to do anything
but develop more "process" for us and mediate the conflict between Tanya
and the manager. We're feeling pretty helpless right now.
We're all actively looking for other jobs (and helping each other look), but
we'd really love to salvage the situation here if at all possible. Is there
anything you recommend we can do as a group to tactfully communicate,
"You're about to lose an entire team of people if you don't get rid of the
boss"? We're vaguely considering approaching HR as a group, but we're
not even sure how that conversation would go. Any insight you can give
would be greatly appreciated.
I put some phrases from your email in bold.
"We were sure...As far as we can tell...They also seem to think..."
Notice that you all are sitting and hoping that your brave coworker, Tanya,
solves the problem for you.
If the HR person and the manager's manager thinks it's just because of a
conflict between Tanya and the direct manager, it's because none of the
rest of you have given them any reason to think otherwise.
Yes, I frequently tell people that if they hate their jobs, they should look for
new ones, and you're doing that.
But in the mean time, you're miserable even at the same time you have
someone from HR actively looking to help you.
Do you know how many people would love for a response from their HR
department?
Heck, just an acknowledgment that someone, somewhere, is actually
concerned about the success of this department, would be welcome.
So, get off your rear ends and all of you who are helping each other look
for new jobs, instead help the HR person know what is going on.
I know you want to make sure you do it the "right" way.
This desire for the perfect, risk free solution where bad manager goes
away and everyone else lives happily ever after is not likely to happen.
If you wait until you have the perfect solution, you will miss all of the good
enough solutions.
Here are 5 things you should do.
1. Document, document, document. You said you had a whole host of
complaints about your manager. Document these, but not just as a list of
faults, but as a list of examples. So, you don't write, "Manager is rude."
You write, "On March 1, Manager interrupted Tanya 6 times in a five
minute discussion. She raised her voice and called three people idiots."
2. Talk directly to the HR person who is investigating. Don't rely on
Tanya to relay information. Don't assume the HR person will come to you if
she wants to hear your side of the story. Make your own appointment, or
grab the HR person in the hall, but go and talk to her now.
3. Encourage your coworkers to do the same thing. If all of you explain
what's going on, the powers that be will be better able to understand what
the true problem is.
4. Make sure you are direct and clear. People tend to downplay the
problem when asked directly. So, when you go to the HR person say
clearly, "This is not about a conflict between the boss and Tanya." Then
refer to your documented list of problems. Do not sugar coat it with words
like, "sometimes" or "I feel" or "maybe." You don't say, "I feel like the
deadlines she gives are unrealistic and that causes stress." You say, "The
deadlines she gives are unrealistic. For instance..."
5. Be prepared for nothing to change. The manager's manager isn't
taking care of the problem. One of the reasons why this happens is that
this person made the hiring decision. If she acknowledges that this
manager is an idiot, she also has to acknowledge that she made a poor
hiring decision. People don't like to admit their faults, so they tend to ignore
this type of problem for as long as possible.
I know it's unpleasant and scary. But, it's clear that the "wait and see"
method isn't working. Speak up and speak up now. And keep your resume
up to date.
Suzanne Lucas is a longtime HR professional who blogs for BNET as Evil
HR Lady.
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50 Indian billionaires in global richest

club

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Topics:
o Commodities
Arun Kumar, On Thursday 10 March 2011, 10:56 AM
Washington, March 10 (IANS) Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and Reliance
chairman Mukesh Ambani were counted among the world's ten richest
persons as 50 Indians made it to the Forbes list of World Billionaires 2011.

Here is a complete list of Indian billionaires in order of India Rank, World

Rank, Name, Net Worth, Age, Source:

1..

6 Lakshmi Mittal $31.1 B 60 Steel

2..

9 Mukesh Ambani $27 B 53 petrochemicals, oil & gas

3..

36 Azim Premji $16.8 B 65 Software

4..

42 Shashi & Ravi Ruia $15.8 B 67 Diversified

5..

56 Savitri Jindal & family $13.2 B 60 Steel

6..

81 Gautam Adani $10 B 48 commodities, infrastructure

7..

97 Kumar Birla $9.2 B 43 commodities

8..

103 Anil Ambani $8.8 B 51 Diversified

9..
110 Sunil Mittal & family $8.3 B 53 telecom

10.

130 Adi Godrej & family $7.3 B 68 Diversified

11.

130 Kushal Pal Singh $7.3 B 79 real estate

12.

154 Anil Agarwal $6.4 B 57 mining, metals

13.

159 Dilip Shanghvi $6.1 B 55 pharmaceuticals

14.

182 Shiv Nadar $5.6 B 65 Information technology

15.

265 Malvinder & Shivinder Singh $4.1 B 38 healthcare

16.

310 Kalanithi Maran $3.5 B 45 media

17.

347 Uday Kotak $3.2 B 51 banking

18.

376 Micky Jagtiani $3 B 59 Retail

19.
393 Subhash Chandra & family $2.9 B 60 media

20.

440 Pankaj Patel $2.6 B 57 pharmaceuticals

21.

440 Indu Jain $2.6 B 74 media

22.

440 G. M. Rao $2.6 B 60 infrastructure

23.

512 Cyrus Poonawalla $2.3 B 69 biotech

24.

540 Rajan Raheja & family $2.2 B 56 Diversified

25.

564 Desh Bandhu Gupta $2.1 B 73 pharmaceuticals

26.

595 N.R. Narayana Murthy & family $2 B 64 Software

27.

595 Gautam Thapar $2 B 50 engineering, paper

28.

595 Sudhir & Samir Mehta $2 B 56 Diversified

29.
595 Aloke Lohia $2 B 52 chemicals

30.

651 Venugopal Dhoot $1.9 B 59 electronics

31.

651 Chandru Raheja $1.9 B 70 real estate

32.

692 Nandan Nilekani & family $1.8 B 55 Software

33.

736 Ajay Kalsi $1.7 B N/A oil

34.

782 Rahul Bajaj $1.6 B 72 motorcycles

35.

782 Senapathy Gopalakrishnan & family $1.6 B 55 Software

36.

833 Brijmohan Lall Munjal $1.5 B 87 motorcycles

37.

833 K. Anji Reddy $1.5 B 69 pharmaceuticals

38.

879 Vijay Mallya $1.4 B 55 liquor

39.
879 Ajay Piramal $1.4 B 55 pharmaceuticals

40.

879 Vikas Oberoi $1.4 B 40 real estate

41.

938 Baba Kalyani $1.3 B 62 Engineering

42.

938 Rama Prasad Goenka $1.3 B 81 Diversified

43.

993 Keshub Mahindra $1.2 B 87 Diversified

44.

993 K Dinesh & family $1.2 B 56 Software

45.

993 Rakesh Jhunjhunwala $1.2 B 50 Investments

46.

993 Brij Bhushan Singal $1.2 B 74 Steel

47. 1057 Yusuf Hamied & family $1.1 B 74 Pharmceuticals

48. 1057 S.D. Shibulal & family $1.1 B 56 Software

49. 1057 Bhupendra Kumar Modi $1.1 B 62 telecom

50. 1057 Mangal Prabhat Lodha $1.1 B 55 real estate

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)

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