<p>I have a meeting on Monday with my CEO and I’d love some CC perspective on what to say.</p>
<p>Briefly, I provide technical support for a product and am teamed up with a sales/customer support guy. He gets requests from customers, then passes them on to me to resolve. We’ve worked together for about five years, and over the past two he has more and more come to me with his guess at the resolution instead of the basic request. This drives me crazy because 1) he is wrong nearly all the time and it wastes both of our time, and 2) it shows a lack of respect on his part for my 20+ years of experience and expertise with the product, not to mention my access to diagnostic tools. I’ve told him several times to just tell me the request, but he hasn’t changed.</p>
<p>Things escalated a few weeks ago when he started saying that I was wrong and that his resolutions were better, requiring me to get into very detailed technical explanations with him before he will back off. Last week I finally became so frustrated that I checked out my finances and told the company I was leaving.</p>
<p>The CEO (it’s a pretty small company) arranged a meeting with me to discuss why I am leaving. In a nutshell it’s a lack of respect but, unlike sports pros, this is not code for “more money”. I feel that I am paid well and in all other respects am very happy here. Unfortunately, we are the one team that works on this product, so a transfer is impossible.</p>
<p>So, what should I say at the meeting? I’m tempted to just give some lame reason and move on.</p>
<p>The meeting could be for many reasons. The CEO may indeed sincerely want to know why you’re leaving so he/she doesn’t lose experienced employees in the future. They may be afraid you’ll sue (not that you would, but companies often do exit interviews to find out if there is some underlying issue they’re not aware of). </p>
<p>In the meeting, you can describe exactly what happened, but if I was the CEO, I would ask why you didn’t bring your frustration to a manager. Is it such a small company that they don’t have those kind of communication channels? Is there any way this unsatisfactory job situation could have resulted in something other than you leaving the firm? </p>
<p>On another note, is there anything the CEO could say or do that would make you stay? Not to second guess your choice, but maybe have an idea of what you’d say if he asked what it would take to make you rethink your resignation.</p>
<p>I’m tempted to tell you to tell them the truth.</p>
<p>When I left my previous job, I told my supervisor that I had found a job that was closer to my professional interests – which is true, but it’s not the reason why I left. I left because (1) my old job had so much unpredictable overtime that it was impossible to make plans for an evening or weekend; (2) employees were made to feel guilty about taking vacation time even when their request had been made and granted months earlier; and (3) nobody was ever allowed to work from home, not even during blizzards – you were docked vacation time if you didn’t come in, even when the state police were telling people to stay off the roads.</p>
<p>Now, I regret not telling them why I really left.</p>
<p>It’s kinda hard to diagnose the issue without hearing all sides (ie, yours, his, CEOs, customers, etc.). Perhaps hypothesis is the best we can do. Here’s mine.</p>
<p>For reasons undetermined, the sales/CSGuy doesn’t like you. If he liked you he’d tell you where he thinks you’re going wrong … and clearly he’s not doing that. And since he doesn’t like you, he’s doing what he can to encourage you to quit. He knows he’s found fertile ground by telling you how to solve technical problems by giving you technically baseless “solutions” that don’t work, then waiting for you to react them.</p>
<p>So what can you do about this? If the company is small, very little. Word gets around in a small company … I’m pretty sure the CEO knows what’s been going on. (He’s probably heard from the Sales/CSGuy.) If the CEO wanted reconciliation he’d have had you and the Sales/CSGuy in already.</p>
<p>The only thing I can suggest for Monday is … don’t burn any bridges. When you’re gone perhaps there will be a better appreciation for your past contributions. Perhaps the Sales/CSGuy will fall out of favor when he no longer has a technically savvy partner to resolve customer problems. You never know. In a month or two you may get a call from the CEO.</p>
<p>One thing I have learned in business is that most people do not want to hear the truth - or at least, your truth. You need to be truthful with yourself: Do you really want to leave? Is there anything the CEO could do or say that would make you change your mind? </p>
<p>If the answers are yes, and no, respectively, then just be nice and tell the CEO a pleasant untruth, such as thanks for your interest in my future plans, I really appreciate it; but I want to move on to other professional challenges. </p>
<p>If the answer to those questions is either no to the first or yes to the second, think through the possible responses. Be prepared to tell the CEO what he can do to keep you. When discussing your co-worker, be general. Things like “our communication is not as good as it could be”, or “it can be challenging to work together”. Nothing more negative than that, under any circumstances. The CEO has asked you in to make his/her life better, not to make your life better. If making the CEO happy (by keeping people, ironing out problems, etc.) ends up making you happy, that’s a by-product. CEO’s are not HR people - they’re all about moving the company forward, and making their own lives easier so they can focus on what they want to focus on. If an interview like this turns into a gripe fest, that ranks really, really low on a CEO’s bucket list. The more negative you were to sound, the more you convince the CEO that you’re the problem, not your co-worker. Therefore, remember to couch any problems you have in terms of a business solution. i.e, "we could be more productive if . . . " or " we would increase client turn-around time by . . . " etc. </p>
<p>Never forget this interview is about solving the CEO’s problems, not yours. I don’t say this to be negative about your CEO, but just that’s how business works. </p>
<p>I recently left a job because I felt undervalued, and I seriously considered telling the director the truth … but I chose not to be completely honest. There were other reasons for leaving, all of which were truthful, and I gave those instead. I realized that in order to tell the truth about why I felt undervalued, I would have had to explain who and what and why … and I realized that a good director would already know what was happening in his or her office. In the end, I decided that this person didn’t really want to know the truth. In keeping my comments from being personal, I retained the level of professionalism I pride myself on possessing. I tend to subscribe to the theory that some environments are not going to change, and we are better off accepting that & moving on.</p>
<p>If you can be honest about the situation without being the “tattletale” … that is, if the CEO already knows what happened and puts it on the table for discussion … you might have a good opening for discussion. Be careful how you state your position, though. You don’t want your frustration to be misinterpreted. You very well may want a good recommendation from the CEO in the future & will not want to burn any bridges.</p>
<p>He may ask you, “What can I do to get you to stay?” so be prepared with an answer. Your answer may be, “Nothing.” but be prepared for the question.</p>
Granted we don’t have full info, but the way I would interpret this is that the CS guy, after working on the product for 5 years, believes he knows enough to solve hard problems and is trying to help by suggesting a solution. I don’t think it is malicious at all. Who has time for nefarious plots like that? </p>
<p>It sounds to me that the OP is resentful that the customer support guy is infringing on his “territory” so to speak, by trying to come up with solutions. His “fiefdom” is being invaded. But, by taking the time to educate the CS guy instead of being antagonistic, he becomes a better support person and will actually shield the OP from the more mundane stuff.</p>
<p>I deal with customer support people every day as the “technical resource of last resort”, and I love it when they try to solve things on their own or suggest solutions for me to verify. Even though they are often wrong, they get a lot right, and they get better at fixing things without my involvement. For me to “silo” my knowledge and request that support do nothing more than pass along questions is not in the best interest of me or my company.</p>
<p>I am also bothered by the “I’ve got X years of experience” attitude being used to put the CS guy in his place. So what if you’ve got 20 years? It’s what you can do that matters, not how long you’ve done it.</p>
<p>"Who has time for nefarious plots like that? "</p>
<p>Oh, about a third of the office mates I’ve worked with. I think “the tell” here is that the Sales/CS guy isn’t offering to help solve problems, but is insisting that the technical guy “do it the Sales/CS guy’s way” … to the point where the technical guy HAS to defend his expertise in order to get the problem solved. JMHO of course. And as I stated originally, there’s not enough information provided to form certain conclusions.</p>
<p>So far, I’m just hearing that the sales guy is bugging the OP by the things he is saying. Can you just smile and nod, then do what you want to do? Is there some reason why you are required to listen to his crap? Give the guy 30 seconds and then back him out of your office. Are you letting him get under your skin when you could be ignoring him?</p>
<p>It is difficult if not impossible to provide any meaningful advice to you. Congratulations if you are hearing what you want to hear. On the other hand, YOU might be the problem. Many employees often see themselves as more (if not far more) valuable than they actually are. While the employee may feel undervalued (which you apparently do not feel) or disrespected, the employer may feel just the opposite. Be prepared to leave your firm since you have walked out on a limb. If you change your mind you will get even less respect than you have now. If your CEO has put the company in a position where there is no replacement option if you leave, shame on him or her. I don’t believe there is a path toward a meaningful/satisfying resolution in a meeting between you and the CEO. If there is going to be an effective change, it should come about between you and the sales person.</p>
<p>I disagree with some of the other posters based on a previous experience of my own. I was a long term employee who had conflict with someone who was brought into work on my team. I finally had enough and gave notice. The CEO asked the two of us to go out of the office for coffee and discuss. We did and determined that we just didn’t want to work together. the other person was in a more management positions it was me that was leaving. Long story short the CEO didn’t want to lose me and created a brand new position specifically for me. I reported to him and no one else. Loved the new job. Stayed for several years and though I left ten years ago we are still friends. What I chose to do was be completely honest about what would and would not work for me. No drama, no high emotio, no personal attacks.</p>
<p>I was ready to quit many years ago over a reorganization and went to workout in the morning and ran into an older friend of mine that was retired. We talked about it for a while and he convinced me not to quit. The reasons I wanted to quit were more emotional than they were rational. Many years later, I did the same thing for a friend. He was having all kinds of problems unrelated to his work but he thought that changing jobs would solve those problems when they really wouldn’t.</p>
<p>I think that people problems can get worked out in the vast majority of cases but the path there isn’t always clear.</p>