Chapter 2 - What a web we weave..

"Huh?, What is it about?", was all that Deanne could say as Kane's remarks caught her by surprise. "The company does not appreciate shirkers, and you are one of them. Being a senior does not mean that you delegate all your work to your subordinates. You must take responsibility for your work.", Kane continues.

"Kane, you need to elaborate more because I do not know why you say that I am a shirker. I am not a shirker and I would like to know why it is being portrayed as so." says Deanne.

"You know what happened, I don't need to tell you. You are a senior staff, I expect more from you, especially when it comes to work responsibilities and delegation.". "I will not tell you what the complaint is about because I have to keep my word to the complainant to keep their identity secret. I will not have you approaching the complainant about it.", says Kane as he continues with the rebuke.

"Without further elaboration, I won't know what it is about and will not be able to give you a clearer picture and I won't be able to tell you my side of the story", says Deanne. "I don't need to hear it, you just need to know that you need to improve your work!", says Kane. "You are a senior staff and you should take this as constructive critism and improve yourself." he continues.
"You should allow me to defend myself against these accusations or if you feel that I am in the wrong then you should tell me the circumstances so that I can see and understand what it is about.", says Deanne. "I am not going to repeat myself and I will not tell you what the complaint is. Just know that you are a senior staff and you are shirking from your responsibilities so you need to change that. Being a senior staff does not mean pushing the job to the junior staff while you just sit back and relax. Remember that I don't like getting complaints.", says Kane.

Katherina was walking back to her office as the conversation in Kane's office continues. Katherina is the Sales Support Manager. Her department offers support services to the Sales team on the technical aspects of their opportunities, and it includes helping the Sales team prepare for presentations and proposals. Her office is located next to Kane's. Although Kane is the IT Manager, their offices is located on the same floor as the whole subsidiary occupies one whole floor of the building.

Katherina smiled to herself upon seeing Deanne in Kane's room. From Kane's expression, it looks like another complaint about Deanne was made. She congratulated herself for contributing towards it. Although Katherina has only joined the company recently, her years of experience has helped her tune and improve her natural skills at office politics. Knowing what to say in front of the correct people helps a lot. Doesn't matter that the few who knows the truth thinks she is a hypocrite because she is proud that these skills has helped her get what she wants.

She started using these skills on her first day of work at SRIMOF Services. Kane is the IT manager at SRIMOF but Katherina finds that she can handle him easily. Similarly, Peter the Business Manager at SRIMOF is also fooled by Katherina and the both of them believes whatever she says. She congratulated herself when she realise that Peter believed her without a doubt late into her second week of work there. It took a bit longer with Kane. It was easier with Peter because Peter likes to sweep things under the carpet and hope that they will go away.

Deanne though is a snag in her territorial plans in the office as Deanne could see through her act after the third week, so Deanne has to go. Luckily for Katherina, it is easy to build prejudice against Deanne because of Jeenie's gameplan. She can see that Jeenie is manipulative and is against Deanne because Deanne is aware of Jeenie's actual work capabilities and is therefore a risk to Jeenie. Jeenie reminds her of herself when she first started work after graduation.
It is unfortunate that she is a few years away from retirement, otherwise she can play career ladder climbing games instead of just territorial games to ensure that her place in the office is comfortable until her retirement.

Earlier that morning, Katherina met Nellie at the elevators and they had a good casual chat. Nellie is one of the Directors in the company and her words carry a lot of weight. Only a few weeks ago, Katherina mentioned to Nellie that Deanne was very rude and screamed at her. Immediately following that, Nellie sent an email to Kane about it. With some persuasion, Katherina was able to get Kane to keep quiet about it and not to mention it to Deanne. Kane listened to her and kept quiet about it which is what she wanted because if it is leaked out, Deanne would know that it is not true. Although Deanne is not a political player, a direct confrontation with her is too soon at this moment although Katherina has laid some good groundwork, especially with Nellie.

It took some late nights to get the opportunity to impress Nellie with her long working hours. Katherina made sure that she is around when she knows that Nellie will look for her. By doing that, Nellie failed to realise that Katherina were not in the office during the day and gets to the office in late afternoon so that she can stay late. Furthermore, the late nights allowed her private access to Nellie to gain her trust as the office is usually quite empty after office hours. Unfortunately Nellie does not deal directly with executive staff as she believes that it should be handled by the managers. Otherwise, Katherina would have been able to get Deanne into bigger trouble.

Katherina has realised from quite early in her working life that laying good groundwork is essential in politics because colleagues who are friends are usually "blind" towards a "common enemy" and will believe a "real" friend as she has been nice to them.

One of the ways to get a staff to resign is to make life miserable for that person in the office so Katherina started her plan by socializing and becoming friends with all the executive level staff, and at every right opportunity, she will share with them about how un-cooperative Deanne is and how difficult it is to work with Deanne. Being nice to a person earns a person trust easily and that is exactly what she has done with most of Deanne's colleagues. Some of them is starting to be influenced by Katherina.

Riding on this wave of success in deceit, Katherina has mentioned to them about how rude Deanne is and how Deanne had screamed at her. They just listened and took it as it is, although there is disbelief from some of them. The good thing about starting a rumour is that people listening will not repeat it but they will believe that there is a degree of truth to it. It is her words against Deanne's and since she is a manager, her words carry more weight.

"Hi Patricia, how can I help you?" asks Katherina as Patricia entered her office. "Good morning Katherina, Nellie has asked me to pass these reports to you. She asks you to give her your feedback by end of tomorrow." "Hmm.. Kane doesn't look very happy, wonder what's wrong..", Patricia remarks casually.

"I shouldn't say this but since we are friends rather than colleagues, I can share it with you. Someone made a complaint against Deanne but that doesn't surprise me since Deanne is not co-operative and not a team member." says Katherina. "Really? I didn't know that", replies Patricia showing interest in the conversation. "What did she do?".

"Let's not go into the details but it is because Deanne is not co-operating with the rest of the team. She withholds information and doesn't share it with her team. All she does is give work to the others and she doesn't do anything herself." says Katherina. "Please keep it to yourself, it won't be good if Human Resource hears about it."

"Ooohh, I heard Jeenie and the guys talk about it the other day. She is always giving work to Jeenie and pressuring her but Deanne herself is not doing any work. I didn't know that she is not co-operative and withholds information from her team. I wouldn't want to be in her team." says Patricia. "Yes, just please don't say I told you." saysKatherina. "Oh, don't worry I won't. You are a nice person and has always been nice to everyone, I won't get you into trouble." Patricia replies.

"Come to think of it, maybe we can get more information on Deanne from Ellie." says Patricia. "Ellie?, you mean Ellie the senior manager in the Corporate office? I didn't know Deanne knows Ellie..." says Katherina in surprise as this is news to her. "Oh yes, they have known each other for quite a while, I have seen Deanne going into Ellie's office quite a number of times. Plus, I have seen them chatting at other times. I also know that quite a number of colleagues share their work frustrations with Ellie as it is quite easy to chat with her." says Patricia. "Well, I got to go, Nellie could be looking for me, see you!" Patricia says as she leaves Katherina's office.

"Well, this is news to me.. I didn't know Deanne and Ellie are friends. Hmm.. I need to do something about that. This would require some thinking.." Katherina thinks quietly to herself. After a few minutes of contemplation, Katherina starts to smile silently as an idea comes to mind. Since Deanne and Ellie are friends, Deanne may have shared with Ellie about the words or rumours that Katherina has been spreading about Deanne. It was repeated back to Katherina that Deanne calls them "bad mouthing" and "back stabbing". Because of this, she cannot say anything bad about Deanne in front of Ellie so that Deanne will appear to be the one who is stabbing Katherina in the back. Ellie will then believe in Katherina instead of Deanne. It will also place doubts on their friendship as Ellie will start to doubt and disbelieve Deanne. Ellie may even change her good impression of Deanne and will think badly of Deanne.

Katherina will have to start making "friends" with Ellie and share with her the problems that Katherina is facing with Deanne. This time she will praise Deanne in front of Ellie. She will feign ignorance about Ellie and Deanne's friendship. She will also feign concern on Deanne's not being receptive to Katherina's efforts to help her. If she says something to the tune of "If Deanne is more receptive to my efforts, we can make things work.", it will put Deanne in a bad picture and Katherina in the good. She will also need to make it appear that Deanne is prejudiced against Katherina and is not helpful when it comes to work.

"Ha Ha Ha, I must be careful of what I say so that Ellie will not know that I am aware of their friendship. She will believe what I am saying and maybe I can make use of Ellie to gain more information on Deanne and also to help me "persuade" Deanne into believing me. I will say that Deanne is not receptive to my efforts. Whether Deanne is"persuaded" or not, at least I know I will have Ellie believing in me and I can make use of that. Am I devious good or what?" Katherina thinks as she smiles and praise herself quietly. "I have to start chatting and "sharing" with Ellie later today ...".