11.3.2001

Colorado Labor Market Information, Current Labor Force Estimates

"A business development consultant relates this story of a feud that erupted between former coworkers Sarah and Liz (not their real names) at an international media firm. Sarah resigned and while she was training Liz to take over her position, tensions flared between them. This was compounded by that an outside contractor working closely with the company had doubts about Liz's abilities. Liz began to sense she was not held in such high regard. Right after Sarah left, Liz "very unscrupulously went to IT, got deleted correspondence, and used it to wreck this woman's reputation," the consultant says. Liz went through Sarah's recovered messages until she found one from the contractor to Sarah stating it would be difficult to work with Liz. Sarah replied, expressing sympathy for the contractor. Armed with this, Liz went to the managing director in tears, telling him she found the message lying in the printer where other people could see it and that Sarah's remarks were damaging to her. Even though Sarah was no longer at the company and tried to assure the director that she'd deleted all the messages before leaving, the director called Sarah on the carpet for her lack of discretion, and Sarah's relationship with the company was damaged. Sad as it may seem, betrayal is a tactic for survival as well. Not every office dispute is doomed to turn into a workplace brawl reminiscent of Susan and Kelly. Most people want success, but will not go out their way to harm someone else to get it. His advice is to be aware of what your coworkers are doing, but focus more on what you can do to help yourself. "People with a purpose and an agenda have the power," he says. Because ultimately, succeeding in that jungle we call the office depends on keeping your instincts for survival razor-sharp.

From the OSRN Newsletter"

The only observation that a Job Fairy can offer on this is that we've never seen anyone wait until after their co-worker left to smear them and thus gain the advantage.