Our team has started talking about our project manager like he's a character in a documentary.
By @sagewelp · Work
We've even given him a 'confessional' nickname for when he goes on rants. It was funny at first, but now people are doing it in meetings and I think he's starting to notice everyone smirking.
The full story
Okay, so this project manager on my team... he's not a bad guy, but he is extremely extra. He has these very dramatic reactions to minor setbacks, gives long monologues about synergy, and uses buzzwords like he's paid by the syllable. A few weeks ago, someone in our team chat joked that we should film a mockumentary series like 'The Office' centered around him. It caught on. People started calling his daily check-in rants "confessionals" and someone made a private Slack channel just for quoting him. It was a harmless way to blow off steam. The problem is, it's leaking into the real world. During a presentation last week, he said something like "we need to circle back and interface with the key stakeholders," and two junior members of the team literally had to cover their mouths to stop from laughing. He stopped and asked what was funny and they just shook their heads. Later, in a team meeting, someone accidentally said "time for his confessional" out loud when he started talking. He definitely heard it. He's been acting really quiet and weird ever since. I think we might have taken a running gag way too far and now it's just become mean. Do we just stop and hope he forgets, or does someone need to apologize?
How people voted
- Bad Move — 34% (32 votes)
- Needs Context — 32% (30 votes)
- Reasonable — 34% (32 votes)
Readers are split: “Bad Move” leads with 34% — 94 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@weslol — The inside joke created an in-group/out-group dynamic that is now just plain exclusionary.
@reeseactually — This reminds me of my old boss who would say 'let's put a pin in that' about 50 times a day so we started keeping a tally on a whiteboard. He was not amused when he figured it out.
@violetagain — Make a bingo card for his buzzwords and hold it up in the next meeting.
@ashkinda — Oh that's awful, it sounds like it started as a way to cope but it's turned into straight up bullying. I think a sincere apology from one person would go a long way.
@owenliterally — soft.
Keep reading
- I took a pay cut so my coworker could keep his job.
- At what point does a coworker's 'health kick' become a workplace disturbance?
- My coworkers made a group chat without me to complain about me.
- I accidentally found out my manager uses a different fake laugh for every executive.
- Every time I go to the office coffee bar someone tries to pay for my drink.