lick a**es and people who play politics in work

steddyeddy

There's a girl I used to work with who would do anything to brown tongue her way up the ranks. She played up to any one who had any sort of power. She even went as far as to make friends with the boss' daughter. She bad mouthed other staff to people when she was up for the same promotion as them.

The thing that gets me about this is a lot of the time the bosses fell for it. Myself and other people won't work with her because we know what she's like but I can't believe it's not clear to more people. The thing is this girl did absolutely no work and what she did do was useless.


Who was the biggest brown tonguer you ever met and did people see them for what they were?

diomed

As she moves up the ranks her boss will call it mentoring.
The boss will gather a bunch of brown-nosers around him/her and rule all.
You thought working hard mattered?

Sir Arthur Daley

Wouldn't sleeping the way to the top be a lot more hygienic than licking asses?

kfallon

Loads of them in every walk of life, let them off, if they want to get ahead by doing it I'm not bothered. I've prob gone the other way, fell out with a couple of senior mgmt and have paid for it.

C'est La Vie!

I used to work with a guy who was a living breathing version of Gareth Keenan from The Office.

He used to be a demon to anyone below his rank, but anyone above it he was a lickspittle.

Very hard to put into words all the subtleties that made up this "personality" but just thinking about him I can feel my blood start to boil.

steddyeddy

diomed wrote: »

As she moves up the ranks her boss will call it mentoring.
The boss will gather a bunch of brown-nosers around him/her and rule all.
You thought working hard mattered?

Ultimately results matter. If our team are full of people not afraid to call each other on stupid decisions then we'll get better results. I seen this girl in a meeting situation and she's afraid to open her mouth.

BikeQueery

You've just described every manager I know. Avoid work and kiss ass. It's disgusting but these people are generally the ones who climb the management ladder. Anyone who's actually doing their job they won't want to move.. it's a deeply flawed culture that rewards social aggression and back stabbing.

porsche959

See, this is why I can never return to an office job.

steddyeddy

I don't work in an office job and never had. I just want to see how common is it across the board.

Phoebas

steddyeddy wrote: »

She played up to any one who had any sort of power. She even went as far as to make friends with the boss' daughter.

The thing that gets me about this is a lot of the time the bosses fell for it.

Networking. Works.

steddyeddy

Phoebas wrote: »

Networking. Works.

It works when stupid people are in charge frankly.

dd972

This type of person, OP is the 'worko', they're as happy, relaxed and comfortable in an office or a call centre as they would be in a restaurant or sat at home with a glass of wine in front of the telly, being at work has no discernible change on their personalities, I'd love to be one of them but I think they're born not made.

Adamantium

Op, you're not one of those people who in 2nd school who used to call people lick arses in school and somehow forget that those 5 years, a few people might have been just getting along well to make the experience slightly more bearable.

While not putting in the extra effort yourself and then wondering why things weren't going your way. I remember ye.

Edit: OK, I re-read your post, she sounds like a ****, Sorry.

AnonoBoy

Sir Arthur Daley wrote: »

Wouldn't sleeping the way to the top be a lot more hygienic than licking asses?

If you do both at the same time you rise through the ranks really quickly.

Believe me - nothing gets you promoted faster than a rimjob!

daithi1970

..the next meeting, ask her for her considered opinion on a topic she is not up on and watch her squirm as she gets found out..simples:D

steddyeddy

daithi1970 wrote: »

..the next meeting, ask her for her considered opinion on a topic she is not up on and watch her squirm as she gets found out..simples:D

I actually plan to. Last Saturday she was in a pub drunk telling me "no one like John and I shouldn't work with him". Next meeting is tomorrow I'll be asking her on her opinion on work related things and not what people think of other people.

stateofflux

complete assholes usually have more enemies that will be 'waiting in the long grass' when the time comes.

pragmatic1

steddyeddy wrote: »

I don't work in an office job and never had. I just want to see how common is it across the board.

My work is primarily lab based but some office work for data analysis, presentations, etc. I've found it in every job I've ever had. A lot of managers have big egos and anyone willing to inflate their ego will go far unfortunately.

pragmatic1

stateofflux wrote: »

complete assholes usually have more enemies that will be 'waiting in the long grass' when the time comes.

Hell yeah. Every dog gets their day.

I Voted For Kodos

Is it me or do a lot of people who never make it very far in their jobs/group activity/college/school call every other person who does succeed a lickarse?

steddyeddy

I Voted For Kodos wrote: »

Is it me or do a lot of people who never make it very far in their jobs/group activity/college/school call every other person who does succeed a lickarse?

Yes is is. Who else would it be?

suicide_circus

For all of you who havnt had your ass licked, I suggest you try it, it's breathtaking.

AnonoBoy

suicide_circus wrote: »

For all of you who havnt had your ass licked, I suggest you try it, it's breathtaking.

Especially if they've been chewing Extra right beforehand.

Spunge

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Especially if they've been chewing Extra right beforehand.

:eek:

Clareman

I saved a person's life by licking their a**e, it was only afterwards that I discovered it wasn't called the Hind Lick Maneuver .

steddyeddy

steddyeddy wrote: »

There's a girl I used to work with who would do anything to brown tongue her way up the ranks.

/puts down Twix.

steddyeddy

Candie wrote: »

/puts down Twix.

Can I have it?

steddyeddy

steddyeddy wrote: »

Can I have it?

Help yourself, lost my appetite

my teapot is orange

steddyeddy wrote: »

There's a girl I used to work with who would do anything to brown tongue her way up the ranks. She played up to any one who had any sort of power. She even went as far as to make friends with the boss' daughter. She bad mouthed other staff to people when she was up for the same promotion as them.

The thing that gets me about this is a lot of the time the bosses fell for it. Myself and other people won't work with her because we know what she's like but I can't believe it's not clear to more people. The thing is this girl did absolutely no work and what she did do was useless.


Who was the biggest brown tonguer you ever met and did people see them for what they were?

Are you sure they really were falling for it? This girl appears to have two advantages to a bad manager looking after their own future position. She's not too good, so if she is to be the managers potential future competition one day, she's a good choice. Secondly, she has displayed loyalty to the managers and aligned herself with them. This characteristic could come in handy at any point.

AnonoBoy

Spunge wrote: »

:eek:

*Minty fresh*

Davarus Walrus

There's a lot of resentment about 'lickarses' on these forums recently. I cannot help but feel that much of it comes from resentment for fellow employees who are doing 'better for themselves'. I arrived into my company on a graduate scheme. It wasn't even the best one on offer in terms of pay; but it offered benefits in terms of pension, city center parking and discounted utilities.

I worked hard, made sacrifices, and demonstrated my ability to deliver strategic benefits to the organisation. I now make a serious wedge of money (before USC and VAT). The issue isn't with the calibre of employer; it's with the calibre of the candidate.

steddyeddy

She's not doing better than me. She's lick assing to me and everyone else while bad mouthing other employees.

AnonoBoy

Davarus Walrus wrote: »

I worked hard, made sacrifices, and demonstrated my ability to deliver strategic benefits to the organisation.

After a while I stopped seeing the rimjobs as sacrifices and started enjoying them.

my teapot is orange

Davarus Walrus wrote: »

There's a lot of resentment about 'lickarses' on these forums recently. I cannot help but feel that much of it comes from resentment for fellow employees who are doing 'better for themselves'. I arrived into my company on a graduate scheme. It wasn't even the best one on offer in terms of pay; but it offered benefits in terms of pension, city center parking and discounted utilities.

I worked hard, made sacrifices, and demonstrated my ability to deliver strategic benefits to the organisation. I now make a serious wedge of money (before USC and VAT). The issue isn't with the calibre of employer; it's with the calibre of the candidate.

I don't really understand your point. This thread is specifically about the situation where someone gets ahead by playing politics when they are not genuinely the best. I don't buy into the idea that the world is fair and anyone who complains about not doing well just hasn't worked hard enough. People play tricks all the time.

Mickey H

daithi1970 wrote: »

..the next meeting, ask her for her considered opinion on a topic she is not up on and watch her squirm as she gets found out..simples:D

Poetry!

jimgoose

Davarus Walrus wrote: »

There's a lot of resentment about 'lickarses' on these forums recently. I cannot help but feel that much of it comes from resentment for fellow employees who are doing 'better for themselves'. I arrived into my company on a graduate scheme. It wasn't even the best one on offer in terms of pay; but it offered benefits in terms of pension, city center parking and discounted utilities.

I worked hard, made sacrifices, and demonstrated my ability to deliver strategic benefits to the organisation. I now make a serious wedge of money (before USC and VAT). The issue isn't with the calibre of employer; it's with the calibre of the candidate.

Less yuk more suck, boy.

Gandalph

I brown nosed my way so high up the ranks that I got a nosebleed and had to come back down, now I look like Rudolph the sh1t nosed reindeer.

Davarus Walrus

my teapot is orange wrote: »

I don't really understand your point. This thread is specifically about the situation where someone gets ahead by playing politics when they are not genuinely the best. I don't buy into the idea that the world is fair and anyone who complains about not doing well just hasn't worked hard enough. People play tricks all the time.

Apologies if my point wasn't clear. I've worked in the US, Canada and Ireland. The idea that people somehow use politics exclusively to rise to the top is preposterous. The most intelligent and strategic people tend to make the C-Function. Loads of people are good at their job; it's the 5% who have long-term strategic vision who rise up through the ranks. No politics, conspiracy theories or ideas about fairness come into it.

steddyeddy

Davarus Walrus wrote: »

Apologies if my point wasn't clear. I've worked in the US, Canada and Ireland. The idea that people somehow use politics exclusively to rise to the top is preposterous. The most intelligent and strategic people tend to make the C-Function. Loads of people are good at their job; it's the 5% who have long-term strategic vision who rise up through the ranks. No politics, conspiracy theories or ideas about fairness come into it.

Absolutely nothing to do with what I'm talking about. I am ambitious and know what I want but I can do so without telling people in power exactly what they want to hear and bad mouthing other employees.

my teapot is orange

Davarus Walrus wrote: »

Apologies if my point wasn't clear. I've worked in the US, Canada and Ireland. The idea that people somehow use politics exclusively to rise to the top is preposterous. The most intelligent and strategic people tend to make the C-Function. Loads of people are good at their job; it's the 5% who have long-term strategic vision who rise up through the ranks. No politics, conspiracy theories or ideas about fairness come into it.

I agree that it would be impossible to get to the top of any field without real talent. I agree with the part about strategic vision when you are talking about success at that level too. But I think that the rungs on the lower half of the ladder are not always occupied in order of merit. Promotion decisions at low levels are not considered in the same way or by as many people and sometimes people are picked on popularity with a single decision-maker.

Davarus Walrus

steddyeddy wrote: »

Absolutely nothing to do with what I'm talking about. I am ambitious and know what I want but I can do so without telling people in power exactly what they want to hear and bad mouthing other employees.

You don't need to do either. Waltzing in with solutions on how you'll resolve the world won't work either. It always smacks of the man out of college with the plan. Corporate life invariably involves compromise.

steddyeddy

Davarus Walrus wrote: »

You don't need to do either. Waltzing in with solutions on how you'll resolve the world won't work either. It always smacks of the man out of college with the plan. Corporate life invariably involves compromise.

I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not trying to resolve the world. You think I would complain about a girl at work who compromises with other employees?

Davarus Walrus

my teapot is orange wrote: »

I agree that it would be impossible to get to the top of any field without real talent. I agree with the part about strategic vision when you are talking about success at that level too. But I think that the rungs on the lower half of the ladder are not always occupied in order of merit. Promotion decisions at low levels are not considered in the same way or by as many people and sometimes people are picked on popularity with a single decision-maker.

Hi. Again, I don't know career you are in. And there is sentiment involved in most decisions at the bottom rungs of the career. Hard work, organisational knowledge and a willingness to learn are always very attractive attributes though! Just avoid the whole 'I've got a degree so give me a job' mentality.

steddyeddy

Davarus Walrus wrote: »

Hi. Again, I don't know career you are in. And there is sentiment involved in most decisions at the bottom rungs of the career. Hard work, organisational knowledge and a willingness to learn are always very attractive attributes though! Just avoid the whole 'I've got a degree so give me a job' mentality.

I get the impression you're extrapolating a pet hate of yours to this scenario. It has nothing to do with the above.

Davarus Walrus

steddyeddy wrote: »

I get the impression you're extrapolating a pet hate of yours to this scenario. It has nothing to do with the above.

Nothing could be less from the truth. A first, or a high 2:1 from three selected universities in Ireland are the very minimum expected. It's not snobbery. It's making an investment in employees who offer long-term strategic benefits to the company.

steddyeddy

Davarus Walrus wrote: »

Nothing could be less from the truth. A first, or a high 2:1 from three selected universities in Ireland are the very minimum expected. It's not snobbery. It's making an investment in employees who offer long-term strategic benefits to the company.

Great well you're veering from point to point. It generally varies on the company. I don't see what that has to do with lick-assess though?

Gandalph

Davarus Walrus wrote: »

Nothing could be less from the truth. A first, or a high 2:1 from three selected universities in Ireland are the very minimum expected. It's not snobbery. It's making an investment in employees who offer long-term strategic benefits to the company.

You've gone so far off track you'll be arriving at middle earth anytime soon buddy haha

steddyeddy

Gandalph wrote: »

You've gone so far off track you'll be arriving at middle earth anytime soon buddy haha

Gandalph are all your posts going to involve Middle Earth puns :P

Gandalph

steddyeddy wrote: »

Gandalph are all your posts going to involve Middle Earth puns :P

I couldn't think of a place that was more off track for a destination, I was originally going to go with Narnia or Hogwarts (because it has actual tracks to it!) but wisely decided against it. I didn't feel many people could relate to those places being totally off track...some people actually want to go to Narnia or Hogwarts.

BofaDeezNuhtz

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Especially if they've been chewing Extra right beforehand.

...and then...

porsche959

Davarus Walrus wrote: »

There's a lot of resentment about 'lickarses' on these forums recently. I cannot help but feel that much of it comes from resentment for fellow employees who are doing 'better for themselves'. I arrived into my company on a graduate scheme. It wasn't even the best one on offer in terms of pay; but it offered benefits in terms of pension, city center parking and discounted utilities.

I worked hard, made sacrifices, and demonstrated my ability to deliver strategic benefits to the organisation. I now make a serious wedge of money (before USC and VAT). The issue isn't with the calibre of employer; it's with the calibre of the candidate.

Any day now you will be able to lease a BMW 316!