Former Community – We Moved
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Asshole "jokingly" one-ups the boss, gets "jokingly" demoted
Another interesting group situation.
Once again, none of these dynamics are surfaced, it's all in the jokes and innuendos, but the power dynamics are in full swing, full effect, and with real consequences.
Same business as from this thread.
And the same guy that I had earmarked as a "poor leader" for being slightly too confrontational and one-upping.
As the leader in that e,xample he was also the main culprit for fostering a competitive, tense environment.
Now, this is interesting because he's not the leader, but he still keeps that confrontational attitude.
And he played the wrong power move on his boss.
Obciously, it didn't go too well:
(....)
Troy (associate editor): (...) clearly you two felt different, right?
Tom (content editor): I don't know, I was just throwing it out there to get the ball rolling
Troy (associate editor): (knows it's not true, but instead of keeping up with the game or being more tactful in his self-defense, he goes all out on attack) that's a bunch of crap because you were spewing all kinds of nice things about this bike earlier before when the cameras weren't rolling
He is kinda of joking, but it's uncalibrated.
It's too rapport breaking, too aggressive and dominant, and too disempowering.
So:
John (editor at large): well I think we're gonna have to vote him down as a sport bike editor (goes ahead to frame-impose and provide reasons why the bike Troy hates is actually good and Troy is wrong)
Troy has been (deservedly) put in his place for running his mouth at the wrong time.
He cannot reply now without this covert thing turning into an actual, surfaced, out-in-the-open argument where he'd end up losing far bigger (potentially bad enough for actually losing his job).
Luckily, the others are not out for blood and Tom is actually nice to re-empower when he little later says "Troy is actually right... ".
Still, as his boss, this is a guy I'd sit down with to explain what he's doing wrong.
And if he can't get his act right, he may have to go, or else the low-level toxicity he promotes prevents the team from growing closer.
