No! Leave Cpt. Awkward alone!

I have mentioned quite a few management techniques and ways to alienate employees previously (whatever management, bigfoot management, management by humiliation (yes, he left btw) and power harassment immediately comes to mind) but today I encountered a new way.

The sales director; Mr. I-have-a-cunning-plan, who I get along fine with and who always have a cunning plan out of any pinches he might find himself in (they don't always work, but by that time he already has a new, even more cunning plan and it doesn't seem like he's running out of them in the near future) has started a new cunning underground project and has let me in on the basic plan since I believe that he cunningly has realized that it's best to keep me informed so to keep me on his good side.

The problem is that his little project really should include Cpt. Awkward as one of the key people, but in the communication with me he asked me to please let him do this without Cpt. Awkward's involvement; "let's not include him for now, I wouldn't want to take his attention away from the important things that he's working on now" being the official reason, but obviously the real reason is because he finds it difficult to work with him...

Now, as faithful readers of this blog might realize, he has a point in Cpt. Awkward perhaps not always being completely on top of things and his tendency to make things awkward. But I have a soft spot for him, he might not be the easiest guy to work with, but at least things don't get boring.

This is basically the corporate version of the cool kids freezing out the awkward guy with the huge glasses. In a way it feels a bit comfortable knowing that even as we grow older and "professional", things never really change much in the end. But I will do my best to sneakingly insert Cpt. Awkward in the project since it will get a lot more interesting then!