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Dealing with passive-aggressive consultants

Chuck71

Anyone have any decent tips with dealing with passive-aggressive consultants?

The ones of the project I am working on have a list of excuses as to why they haven't performed that changes every week, but is consistent in ever avoiding dealing with problems that have come up over the past 2 years.

I've tried to engage, highlight problems, ask for help (I'm the site Architect of a separate team), written reports as to the problems we are finding in documentation, but am being ignored or sidelined each time.   If I don't ask for proper design, or write a report, then of course, it's "you should have told us".

The Architect who likes to claim he is "design director" is no better. Ignores email, promises but doesn't ever deliver, tries to get you to do his work, and so on.

Our client is (for all the project value is >$500 million) clueless.

Any suggestions beyond fire the lot of them and start again (my recommendation to my boss)?

Or quit and find another job?

 
Mar 6, 17 12:03 pm
archietechie

Was just about to highlight the red flags and suggest quitting till I saw your final sentence, lol.

I'm inclined to believe your side of the story but out of curiosity, you seem to have a lot of problems w/ everyone: koreans; portugese; consultants etc.

Mar 6, 17 12:11 pm  · 
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starrchitect

LOL. Good call!

Mar 7, 17 9:46 am  · 
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I've worked on projects like that, and the one thing that kept me sane was the support of my boss/principal.

At the end of the day, your boss is your (actual) client. He/she hired you to help them manage this project. If you do what you can to stay on the same page as your boss it will make the project a little more manageable. 

Good luck. 

Mar 6, 17 12:37 pm  · 
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mightyaa

Go to  your boss and describe the situation and what you've tried to remedy.  I'd recommend your boss calls their boss and gets someone reassigned to work on it.  I've done that multiple times.  Personality conflicts happen and you need a team player as the lead from your consultants.  And basically, if your firm brought them that large of job, you'll have some major pull since they don't want to be blacklisted by your firm and give up all future contracts over what amounts to a employee conflict.   

Mar 6, 17 3:31 pm  · 
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MyDream

I have a project I am working with a structural engineer on and he is treating me similar. I paid him a fee to start, a small fee, and I was told I would have redlines over last weekend it is only Monday, but still I  paid him and he is late. He does not have much to do I mean I detailed the hell out of that drawing: floor plans, elevations, wall and building sections, electrical plan, roof etc, he did however say that he was going to hook me up with some hvac drawings and has a few subs that are going to help out a lot when we actually go thru with this project for my mother.

Mar 6, 17 10:25 pm  · 
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