bendandsnack

Account Exec

How to fight politically when someone's treating you sexist?

Hello all,

I have a colleague who took it too far today and is trying to fuck up an event we're planning with a shared client this week.

For context, he got fired for being a douchebag earlier this year and was hired back by a different team. The client reached out to me months ago to co-plan the event. Now said colleague is pissed there aren't more of our sessions(the client has their own sessions) in the agenda, and is pushing for random things that don't align to what we've discussed with the client.

He even yelled at the client on a call yesterday.

Today prince charming:

Tried to change the agenda we've been working on for months
Took 3 of my ideas in a meeting for his
Took 1 idea from our female colleague for his
Threatened to report me
Treated my male boss differently when he hopped on the call - he wouldn't listen to me on keeping the agenda, but listened to my boss(it is not his boss). He also blatantly said to my boss "are you coming to the happy hour? let's take the top 5 clients to dinner after"
Said "I feel like you're cutting me off" every time I spoke

Now I think he's trying to politically build a case to get me taken off the account.

I have a much better relationship with the client. After his outburst, the client started solely inviting me to prep calls.

How would you get this guy taken down politically without putting yourself in the line of fire? I say "colleague" but he doesn't work for my company, HR is not an option here.

🏰 War Stories

☁️ Software Tech

🏙 Corporate Experiences

17

20 comments

Sort by:

oldcloser

Arsonist

8

💀

In addition to the above ass-covering. It might just be time for that talk. The talk that goes like this “listen motherfukkeee, you’re steamrolling me. If this affects my income in any way, I’m going to make a sport out of ruining your career.”

Bullies do back down.

HVACexpert

Politicker

6

sales engineer

His lack of masculinity is clearly threatened by your very existence. When it comes time make sure to tell him to fuck off, and do it with witnesses. Make sure everyone knows what this douche is all about.

oldcloser

Arsonist

2

💀

I endorse this message

Sunbunny31

Politicker

5

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Where’s your manager in all this?

bendandsnack

Politicker

3

Account Exec

That’s the other part - he was playing Switzerland to try to get this guy to work with us so we could get through the event & maybe do business in the future

Sunbunny31

Politicker

5

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

So the dude is working for a partner. Yeah, I’d continue the prep with the customer. Have your manager communicate to ahole what his/his company’s role is, and ensure you have exec coverage to keep things moving at the event.

If you have a partner manager, it is a great time to engage that person to go over this dude’s head to maintain the relationship with the partner. If you don’t, what’s the worst that can happen? You lose potential additional business with this guy?

bendandsnack

Politicker

2

Account Exec

Lol it gets better - my partner manager(who is a fucking boss) has been helping plan the whole event because the initial rep had been fired off the account.
He's done the same shit to her, took credit for one of her ideas, yelled at her on the call.
We're treading lightly until after the event so it goes smoothly

Sunbunny31

Politicker

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Good luck on pulling this off. Unless this dude is gold, he’s going to find a way to lose this role as well. If he’s angered the customer, alienated your team - he’s a liability.

jefe

Arsonist

0

🍁

People like this tend to take care of themselves..

CuriousFox

WR Officer

3

🦊

Take all of these facts and everything in writing to your manager and possibly HR. Cover your ass.

Fenderbaum

Politicker

2

Retired Choirboy🪕

Yep, document everything and submit it all to your manager. Keep submitting subsequent actions of Prince Charming. If he threatened to report you like you said, to whom? I'm not so sure HR is not an option... Like Foxy said, cover your ass.

jefe

Arsonist

2

🍁

Shitty situation that no one should find themselves in. I'd go with what @Sunbunny31 laid out.

If that doesn't work? Swift kick to the groin.

wolfofmiami

Opinionated

1

🐺

This is tough, bc you can try to like out douchebag him or have the talk but it might make you look bad. The other thing you can try is just sit back and listen and that way you don’t have to deal the interrupting thing. And it sounds like the client is already solving the problem by only inviting you to the meetings.

That’s just a tough situation to be In sorry you’re dealing with that sounds annoying asf.

If the event is in person and he’s gonna be there you should put some eye drops in his drink when he’s not looking.

Pachacuti

Politicker

1

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Document the sexist stuff and bring in HR. That’s all. His “record” will incriminate him and your manager will have to react to HRs involvement.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

1

Sales Rep

Let him dig his own grave

SgtAE

WR Officer

1

AE

why the hell was this person re-hired?

lajefa

Good Citizen

0

Enterprise Account Executive

EXACTLY. This is the bigger problem. Do you want to continue working with a company that would hire this guy back? I would not.

Irishman

Catalyst

0

Business Consultant

I'm confused, it's a colleague but doesn't work for the same company? I doubt his company would appreciate them being represented by this asshat particularly as the client doesn't sound will ever want to work with him after he shouted at them

Lurking

0

Account Executive

Situations like these are very hard to navigate. I wouldn’t jump to sexism, guessing he would this to anyone he thought he could.
As bad as he is in person, he’s worse behind your back. He’s definitely undermining you to leadership.
Because he’s gotten fired before you may have a decent shot to turn the tables. But, if leadership has more confidence in him than you, you’re fucked.

dialmonkey

Member

0

AE (Account Executive)

Is your manager on the same page as you?

Bravado is a community of trusted sales professionals endorsed by their customers.

Products

The War Room Jobs Salary Guide Tech Sales U

Company

About Us How It Works Blog Bug Bounty

Contact

© 2024 Bravado Inc. All rights reserved.

Privacy Policy Legal and Privacy Center Sales Jobs

If you are hired as a contract sales rep by a Bravado customer, we may ask you to prove access to the employee email account provided to you by that customer. This data will be shared with customers to track your sales productivity; customers can use this data to confirm you meet the minimum activity requirements to pay out your ramp stipend and commission.