It's November, Part 2, or: The Rise of Passive Aggressive Man

As expected, our latest department 'chat' was veeeeeery interesting. I admittedly came to stir the pot, which was in desperate need of it, and overall things worked well. That is:
1. More than 2 people attended
2. Topics were addressed and interesting and important discussions insued
3. No one was harmed no matter how annoying, insipid or passive aggressive they became (specifically the person 'running' said 'chat/informal meeting')
4. A junior colleague is going to work with me to get support for moving (FINALLY) on a hire that his grants support and require, but which our 'leader' has let slide for A YEAR!
5. There was agreement that informal meetings are not working (no one comes and no decisions can be made - they are merely information gathering by the 'leader' - read 'idea generator' as he seems to come up with none on his own)
6. We need to (re)institute at least 2, or more as business requires, formal departmental meetings complete with agendas, minutes and at least 1 week notice to members; and
7. There was agreement that the standing committees, particularly the curriculum committees, need to actually be called to meet and USED to take care of numerous issues and tasks relating to curriculum.

Yippee. Is it just me or does this sound like well ... basic institutional management?

Most interesting was that (and I don't think the individual in question realized this) they 'revealed their hand' to me. Let's just say I called this person out on a mistake they made - which I learned about through other colleagues in other units (who are highly respected and very reasonable people who came to me, confused by the reaction of my unit head). First, I asked a week prior to the meeting about said decision in an email, and in it presented reasoned arguments for NOT making the decision they were reported to have made. Importantly, there was no reply. None - emails about other things but no mention of this item. When a brief agenda was circulated for yesterday's meeting (only 2 days before, sigh), I asked for the topic of this decision to be added, in order for this decision, and the larger issue, to get some needed discussion. OK you say, what is the 'revealed hand'?
So in the 'chat' I start to give a brief explanation of the issue, only to be interrupted by who forever after we will call Passive Aggressive Man to say 1) there is no issue and there never was, what am I talking about? 2) my colleagues are simply wrong (so there must be some issue after all, or what are they wrong about?, and if anything they are at fault for not meeting with him (they were given about 48 hrs only to do this and are busy professionals), and 3) talked over me in what I can only describe as a 'pissy' tone that the people to take this up with are my colleagues in another unit - it's their problem! I kept calm through all this, emphasized that these are senior and well-respected academics who would not raise something they did not find concerning. While this specific situation may now be settled for this year, there is a larger issue that is the rightful focus of the curriculum committees (and I reminded the group that that they have not met in over a year!). As an explanation for this non-use of the committees,  P.A. Man actually said they 'needed a rest after all the great work they did last year'. 'Scuse me? Yeah they did a lot but the work of an academic unit doesn't 'rest'!!.

So get to the point right - what was revealed? As I see it, Passive Aggressive Man really REALLY did not like the fact I caught him out and called him on a bad decision, a decision others know he (tried) to make and should not have. I criticized him, and then rather than letting me know before the meeting it was settled (i.e., reply to my email), waited to try and embarrass me in a meeting to get back at me. Which another person might have been, but not me...because I know the truth of what happened. He thinks I tried to make him look bad / incompetent / just plain wrong - seriously no trying is required he does such a good job himself. And well - it didn't work because it was apparent from what others at the meeting said that they understand what was going on and that yes, this is an issue that should not have been handled the way it was. So Passive Aggressive Man just ended up looking ineffectual and pissy, surely not his goal.

And me? Forewarned is for-armed. Try to intimidate me? Really? REALLY? Game on mister.