Susan Sheppard, Creative Design Manager at Word-of-Mouth Marketing Group, is consistently bullied by her colleague, Alexandra Woodward, the boss's sister. Alexandra has been working at the firm a little over a month, after quitting her job as a Rare Artifacts Curator at the Museum of Indigenous Culture. During her short time at Word-of-Mouth, she has shown a propensity for “self-governance” and defiance. Extra work has been heaped on Sheppard, and she has had to face sarcasm and a constant barrage of inappropriate comments from her newly appointed subordinate.

Profile

• Susan Sheppard, Creative Design Manager, Word-of-Mouth. Sheppard has been at Word-of-Mouth for four and a half years and was appointed manager of the Creative Design Department seven months ago.

• Alexandra Woodward, Creative Design, Word-of-Mouth. Woodward is the boss’s sister and is the newest and least qualified recruit.

Backstory

The Word-of-Mouth Marketing Department is eight people strong, including Sheppard and her new colleague Woodward, the newest and least qualified recruit.

Woodward shares the boss’s family name, and presumably feels she shares the boss’s default authority, too. She came to the company six months after leaving her job as a museum curator. Only one month into her new career, she is already dictating her own workload and that of others; she dumps work onto Sheppard and is bullying and inappropriate.

In the last two weeks, Sheppard’s desk has been littered with unfinished work originally assigned to Woodward, including design layouts, annual report figures, copyright disputes, and print schedules.

Twice, Sheppard was left with design layouts to complete within three hours of their deadline. On one of those occasions, Woodward had done barely more than sketch text boxes, leaving Sheppard with more than a day’s work to accomplish within an hour and twenty minutes.

When asked to obtain the copyright to publish a particular photograph (featuring a celebrity’s home), Woodward skipped over the details (not even filing the request), almost trashing a print-run of 70,000 brochure covers as well as leaving Word-of-Mouth open to possible legal action. Luckily, Sheppard picked up on Woodward’s oversight and gained permission from the relevant parties before any damage was done.

Woodward point-blank refused to write the annual report figures, saying that as an “Artistic Consultant” it was insulting to ask her to file facts and figures. In fact, Woodward doesn’t have a job title, which is something Sheppard cannot address.

The print schedules, which Woodward was supposed to deliver a week before the commencement of the Approval Stage, arrived on Sheppard’s desk with one day to spare, and, as with the design layouts, were so incomplete, they required Sheppard to put aside her own work and concentrate on getting the schedules out in time.

During a recent meeting with a photographer, Woodward undermined Sheppard continually either by contradicting her suggestions or through disrespectful gestures and sighs.

Whenever Sheppard approaches Woodward’s desk, Woodward initially completely ignores her and then does little to engage in conversation, deliberately avoiding eye contact.

Just four days ago, when Sheppard issued instructions to another member of the team, Woodward took it upon herself to approach the team member and, on “Sheppard’s behalf”, retract the instructions.

When Sheppard initially asked Woodward into her office for a discussion, Woodward created such a scene of angry complaints and accusations of bullying, that Sheppard had to back out of her intention to diffuse the situation.

At every opportunity, Woodward has been bad-mouthing Sheppard to other members of the Creative Design Department.

How effective was Sheppard in handling the meeting with Woodward?