This Poor Newbie Has No Idea What He’s Getting Into

There is an event that we are planning to sponsor, so my boss wants us to set up a booth there. For the most part, he sets it all up and gets all the appropriate details before he tasks the new guy with it and asks me to help as needed. All of this is shared in the morning meeting with [Coworker] present for two weeks.

A week before the event, [Coworker] pulls [Newbie] aside and talks at him about it for thirty minutes, insisting that he confirm the details that have been set in stone for two weeks now. Frazzled, he comes downstairs and shuts my office door.

I volunteer to contact the appropriate people as I have worked with them before and he has a very important client presentation due the next day that was supposed to be [Coworker]’s job. We get back all the details, and they confirm what [Boss] has been saying for the past two weeks, so we are good.

Well, [Coworker] doesn’t like this much, because now she looks incompetent, and rightfully so.

Coworker: “You’re changing the game plan and running interference!”

Me: “Nothing has changed.”

Coworker: “Well, it doesn’t seem like [Newbie] knows what is going on.”

Me: “Yes, he does.”

After the meeting, she texts both of us that she and he are “out of the loop”. I remind her again that nothing has changed and I send her a follow-up email listing four very vital points:

1. [Newbie] knew what was going on. I spoke to him yesterday about it.
2. [COWORKER] asked him to send the email in the first place.
3. [Newbie] asked me who to send it to as she had told him “appropriate people” as a response.
4. I had volunteered to take over as he was busy preparing HER presentation.

I copy her boss and Human Resources. I also inform [Newbie] that I am sending the dang thing as he is rightfully confused and worried about how she is portraying him.

The next day, [Coworker] decides to call [Newbie] into her office.

Coworker: “[My Name] has been slandering you, [Newbie], and I have this email as proof!”

It’s the same email where I said he knew what he was doing but I removed it off of his plate since he had something more pressing.

Newbie: “I knew about it; [My Name] was trying to help me.”

Coworker: “No, [My Name] is trying to get you in trouble with [Boss]. But don’t worry! I protected you.”

Of course, this got back to me, because when you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes. Additionally, this wasn’t the first time she had pulled this and tried to blame me for her actions, so I naturally filed a harassment report against her — the second one in three months.

From the sounds of it, no one is backing her asinine story of me slandering her — I mean, [Newbie]. Here is hoping she is out of a job by the end of the week!