Over the course of my career, I have been hired twice by different companies to take over a project or role that was being handled poorly. In both cases, the person that I was 'replacing' was under qualified for the role that I was to take, but well-liked around the office.
The first was an art student that was hired to be a programmer. The other was a secretary that was asked to be a webmaster. In both cases, the person was reassigned to do other things.
This created a lot of tension for me and made it difficult for me to do my job. Difficulties included:
- General ill-will and arguments with the other person.
- Difficulty getting information on my project's past.
- Constant negativity directed towards my project and my decisions.
- The other person attempting to regain control of the project.
- The other person feeling the need to fight for their continued employment.
I had no coping strategy whatsoever. The best I could manage was to try to ignore the other person.
In the end, things sorted themselves out after a month or two. However, I feel that the interactions I had with these people hurt my attitude and created other problems around the office. What would have been a good strategy for handling this situation?
Edit -
In general, how to you act professional and positively towards someone in the workplace that feels threatened by you.