Egoistic Colleague

One of my colleague, who is in charge of the civil structure of the building, is rather egoistic. Let's call him Twoheadsnake.

He is good in smooth talking, and he is very good in handling situations. But he always like to look good in front of others.

Anyway, the story goes like this.

I have sucessfully handed over the projects on my hand back to Mr. Cockroach this morning, in front of the MD and my engineering boss, aka technical boss. Mr. Twoheadsnake was also in the meeting, who was caught off guard by being called into the the meeting without any preparation.

I was rather surprised to have him taking over my projects, which in a way, I know Mr. Twoheadsnake will not be happy about.

Mr. Twoheadsnake had never met the customer before, and yet after the handover meeting this morning, he told me this:

"Vinegar, I guess it is better for you to tell the customer that you can't handle this project well, that you are now calling in some colleague who are more senior than you to take this over." Followed by a few suggestions of what he thinks I should do to make his life easier.

My first instinct was, this is wrong. The more he said, the more I felt that his words are full loads of rubbish.

So I answered, "No, I am not going to say that to the customer, cause it is going to make your life difficult." He continued his plans etc, I was rather annoyed and started frowning and raised my hand to ask him to stop.

First of all, I knew the customer well enough to know what to say. He had never met the customer before, yet suggests me what to do with the customer?!

Then, I was transferred into the project department, under the clause that it will end by the end of July. Though I anticipated that this deadline will not materialise, I tried to push for a handover back to Mr. Cockroach. In the end, I got to transfer out. It has nothing to do with my capabilities in handling projects.

I was transferred to this department with loads of shytes thrown at me, without any direction and help on how to solve them. I have tackled one by one, and now left only this one and only difficult customer who tried to fish me to their company.

Third, if I were to tell the customer the way he wanted. The customer would have a very high expectation of him. He is just going to get a tougher life from the customer!

Forth, Twoheadsnake thought that he is much better than me, cause though being two years older than me, he has worked for 10 years. I admit that he is more well exposed than me, but I do not agree that he is more superior than me. And I certainly do not think that I need to lower myself to feed his ego in front of the customer.

When I was faced this customer, I wasn't even introduced properly. My first meeting regarding this project was a contractor meeting, where everyone was too busy shouting across the table, I looked too puzzled to figure out what'd happened. My first meeting with the customer was with my consultant, and I made my own introduction to each and everyone in their office.

When I do this handover to Twoheadsnake, I told him that I will guide him for a month or so, and told him to feel free copying me into the email loop even after I am off the project. I told him I will do a formal introduction of him to the customer, and will attend the regular meetings with him for the next month, and will guide him closely from where I handed over today.

Yet, my effort is not appreciated. I guess I just have to do my part, and let things flow by itself. I guess sometimes, it is just hard to please a person who is unhappy.