Chapter 94. Be Above Interdepartmental Warfare

I once worked for two bosses at the same time. They were two directors of the company and they hated each other. Each had an agenda. Each fought a vicious campaign against the other with us managers—and staff—as their foot soldiers or pawns. It wasn’t pleasant. They had their own areas of responsibility, and if you worked solely in any such area you were happy, because you had one boss. But if you, like me, had to cross over frequently from one director’s area into the other’s, then life was made intolerable.

The two directors countermanded each other’s orders, played dirty tricks on each other, wouldn’t speak to each other, and generally behaved like small children. I learned, and learned fast, to be a diplomat and a tactician. One director worked upstairs and one downstairs. I was sent up and down and learned to stop on the landing half way and stay there until each had forgotten what particular bit of interdepartmental warfare was going on. I also learned to play them off against each other to get what I wanted—but that was naughty.

I guess that was about as bad as it got, but I’ve also worked in companies where the rivalry between departments was extreme and interfered with productivity, kept staff on edge and contributed, I think, to high staff turnover. You would have thought the directors would have stopped it, but in my first example, you would see that even directors are capable of being silly and childish.

Don’t you go the same way. Steer well clear of it all, if you want my advice. Be open and honest and upfront in all your dealings, and then you will get a good reputation, and no one will accuse you of being underhanded.