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I'm working in a instrument manufacturing company now. There are only product manager now, my colleague and I. Our manager had already assigned responsibilities for both of us when we join this company.

My background corresponds with all products in this company, in both collage and past working experience. However, he only knows how to operate the instruments, but does not know all the fundamental principles.

At first, I was angry about his behavior - constantly interrupting whenever I'm talking, describing wrong concept/workflow/principle to customers and taking over my product line.

In fact, he really is a nice guy, and is very friendly to me. I think he's not aware that he's doing something makes me uncomfortable. So I decide to keep a little distance from him.

Yesterday, someone called him for instrument calibration. According to his conversation, I instantly know the customer owns a product I'm in charge of. However, not only did he not pass it to me, but kept talking wrong things to that customer.

For instance, he said "Well, we don't provide calibration service for such product, since this product isn't that accurate as [his products]."

However, both products have exact the same accuracy. The only difference is that mine is designed for handheld use, and which will contain unavoidable error caused by user. But if its setuped on a tripod, there will be no significant difference on accuracy compared to his product.

Getting more and more upset about this, but don't want to cause any damage to anyone. What should I do?

高崇軒
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2 Answers2

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This situation is ridiculous:

You need to talk/escalate to your manager, and impress on your manager the importance of you doing all the talking until your colleague demonstrates that he knows what he is talking about.

The fact that your colleague is a very nice guy is irrelevant. What's relevant is his ignorance, and his ignorance is a menace. In fact, his ignorance seems to be so deep that he doesn't even seem to realize that he is ignorant. His constant habit of interrupting you seems to indicate that either he is not listening to you or his listening skills are extra poor, and that he is full of his own ignorance.

If you want an immediately actionable answer, it is this: have your manager keep him well away from the customers, and if customer contact is unavoidable, have your manager tell him to clear with you anything he is planning to say to the customer.

Vietnhi Phuvan
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Our manager had already assigned responsibilities for both of us when we join this company

The responsibilities are clear. He is responsible for some products, you are responsible for some other products.

I think he's not aware that he's doing something makes me uncomfortable. So I decide to keep a little distance from him.

It seems you did not intervene in your colleage's actions. Being passive will not change the situation. You have to do something.

Talk to your colleage, diplomatically but decided, and tell him to stop interfering in your affairs. It's not his business to talk with customers about your products or to generally work on your products. Ask him to refer customers of your products to you, if they approach him instead of you.

After that, see if he complies. If he doesn't, talk to your manager. Explain the situation to him, including that you already asked your colleage to stop meddling in your business. Your manager has to take care of this problem.

prockel
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