Career personal dynamics

[Fruitbat]

Long post guys but your perspectives welcomed if you can be bothered to read.
Something I’ve struggled with in my career. I work in a very dog eat dog field with a high percentage of dark triad - and I am not dark triad by nature.

I have learned sound techniques to deal with those who smear and intend to lower the social capital of others and I have successfully altered my persona to accommodate this. Mainly by protecting information and avoiding interactions with DT. They have moved on to someone else, I make it very hard for them now.

the issue I get is with those with authority.
my modus operandi is to never show weakness and fight fire with fire. I used to turn the other cheek but I now know you have to fight. However, you have to be careful fighting as if you do, your reactions will be used against you, so you have to be somewhat unpredictable and never overtly hostile.

I have a guy who is senior to me who is hostile. He is aggressive and won’t let up.
If he was my contemporary I would square up the guy, but I can’t. I’ve therefore kept a ton of evidence of it (he is sloppy, I have email chains of him being rude and toxic)

the reason he is this way is the rest of the team kind of submit to him and I won’t. I know I am more intelligent and competent. He is where he is to large extent because he’s a bully.

So I either have to submit to this guy, which I won’t do, or leave, or fight.

This guy might be promoted to my boss. This presents a massive issue for me.

At this point I will consider leaving but I don’t want to. He wins. I am very good at my job and the whole beef is because he can’t handle the ego injuries I’ve given him by being my own man and not just agreeing with him.

So, how do you deal with guys senior to you with toxic traits?

My country has a lot of worker protections. If this guy is made my boss I can raise the evidence with HR and say basically this guy isn’t going to give me a break. I have email trails with him using sexual swear words against me essentially. The only issue is he has cronies in the team who will back him because he’s senior and they think they’ll get rewards.

I don’t want to leave this job but soon I may either have to leave or fight, and none of this is due to my performance, it’s purely personal beef and companies making the mistake of internal promotions

is it worth fighting with HR? I could potentially stop the guy getting the job if he’s on record abusing staff he’s about to manage.

I believe there is absolutely no chance of mediation. If I left and got a new job, do you think I could get constructive dismissal if they allowed it to happen?

I don’t want to leave the job and if I have to, I need to be redressed.

or would the court case make me unemployable - do new employees automatically assume you’re a problem employee?

 

[AureliusMaximus]

If he was my contemporary I would square up the guy, but I can’t. I’ve therefore kept a ton of evidence of it (he is sloppy, I have email chains of him being rude and toxic)

Send it to your CEO and let him deal with it. If you really have strong proof then it should be enough to backup your case.
Its always best to send the shi't to the top and then let him release the shi't flow downwards.. That way there cannot be any arguments, bickering, fights about it from lower management/other employees etc as it is the CEO that is aware of/know the case and seen all the information etc.
So they have nothing to say and just have to bend over and take the sh'it coming their way.

 

[Fruitbat]

Send it to your CEO and let him deal with it. If you really have strong proof then it should be enough to backup your case.
Its always best to send the shi't to the top and then let him release the shi't flow downwards.. That way there cannot be any arguments, bickering, fights about it from lower management/other employees etc as it is the CEO that is aware of/know the case and seen all the information etc.
So they have nothing to say and just have to bend over and take the sh'it coming their way.

CEO is way too high for this kind of thing. I could send it to the National manager who is my bosses boss, who essentially would be the guy doing the hiring.

the issue is that it would be marking me out as a troublemaker but being honest, the way my business works, if this guy gets the job then I’m in the shyt. If I then brought it up when he was abusing the position it would be weaker and they would ask “why didn’t you bring this up before I guess”

this guy doesn’t know I have this evidence BTW. My current boss accidentally sent it to me on a trail.

hence currently this guy is dropping hints i will need a new job in 12 months etc on the quiet. Just little jokes which suggest it without being direct.

I spoke to someone else and they said basically if you had superiors calling you names on an email trail then I could have sued the shyt out of them already. I don’t really care about this guy, I like the company, I can work alongside him I just don’t want him essentially in control of my career development and prospects

 

[Bokanovsky]

CEO is way too high for this kind of thing. I could send it to the National manager who is my bosses boss, who essentially would be the guy doing the hiring.

the issue is that it would be marking me out as a troublemaker but being honest, the way my business works, if this guy gets the job then I’m in the shyt. If I then brought it up when he was abusing the position it would be weaker and they would ask “why didn’t you bring this up before I guess”

this guy doesn’t know I have this evidence BTW. My current boss accidentally sent it to me on a trail.

hence currently this guy is dropping hints i will need a new job in 12 months etc on the quiet. Just little jokes which suggest it without being direct.

I spoke to someone else and they said basically if you had superiors calling you names on an email trail then I could have sued the shyt out of them already. I don’t really care about this guy, I like the company, I can work alongside him I just don’t want him essentially in control of my career development and prospects

it's hard to give you advice without more context. Did he say something in those emails that is clearly inappropriate? Can you give an example?

 

[Fruitbat]

it's hard to give you advice without more context. Did he say something in those emails that is clearly inappropriate? Can you give an example?

so the email exchange actually was as part of my complaint to my manager.

Essentially he was withholding information from me about something, and then forwarded something to my boss (which made me look bad but was unfounded)

below In the trail, another colleague was asking who looked after such and such account and this guy said it’s “x” (using a derogatory sexual slang word - which is not my nickname and is only used by him)

I immediately raised it with my boss and said it was massively unprofessional.

that was the end of it essentially

 

[AureliusMaximus]

Then contact one of the big swinging di'cks in your office, if you office structure is that complex, mate? @Fruitbat
I dunno about UK, but if this happened to me back home in Denmark I would just go the big boss. Less headache.
While this is doable in Denmark because the culture is very direct in the way we interact, it might not be the case in UK.