The writing on the wall

CorpWorld is an odd place. Most times - people are unfailingly polite. I believe that CorpWorld culture mandates this, a sort of enforced cheeriness I've taken to calling "North Korea Nice."

Your tech contact will politely smile and nod while you say your peace - then tell their manager that you are causing problems on the project. This will become obvious to you when your manager shows up out of the blue to discuss topics that could only have been suggested by the aforementioned tech contact.

In theory at least, conflicts are resolved by proxy - and no one loses face. Of course, the reality is that plenty of face is lost, and any lag in the system means that people will keep doing whatever got them in trouble until they eventually find out. This fact is compounded when those making the complaint know you're in trouble before you do.

This can make for some interesting meetings, as you sit with a roomful of people all wearing smug expressions on their faces.

Which brings us to a person called JR. JR is going to be fired.

This is fact in the same sense that a person who steps in front of a Mack truck is dead. A miracle could happen, Superman could do the fly-round-the-world thing he does, but odds are - they're pretty much toast.

So it is with JR, but they don't know it yet.

JR's been slacking and it's starting to show. I've seen their face time in front of clients get pruned back again and again, and they are being asked to do more grunt-tasks and less brain-tasks. Rather than seeing this for what it is, they have chosen to feel persecuted.

Worse, they are committing the one truly unpardonable sin in CorpWorld - they are making their department look unprofessional. Our department’s higher ups will tolerate an awful lot. However, if they have to choose between an employee and their own credibility, they'll pause a moment - if they like you - and then fire your ass.

Being in meetings with JR has become a little surreal. Ostensibly, nothing has changed and they are still responsible for running some internal meetings. But it's obvious to all that JR is in trouble. I may be the only one who thinks that JR's condition is terminal - but I've seen this same pattern twice now, and all the signs are there.

Having drunk the Kool-Aid, nobody tells JR a thing - we just smile and carry on. The moral paragons of the world would offer a warning - surely a warning isn't out of line - but I'm not stepping up any time soon. I'm right, but I can't prove it - and anything I'll say won't change a damn thing.

I can't say I have much sympathy for JR - management has been (from what I can tell) fair. But the fact that this situation has carried on so long essentially makes co-conspirators out of everyone who works with JR. We discuss the issue when they aren't around, and hush up when they show up. Nobody has hard info from a reliable source, but we're not stupid.

JR's going to "see their account rep" sometime in the next month or so - and we'll all just keep smiling until it happens.

Just another day in corporate land.