Complaint Review: E. Wayne Rose Bowie State University - Bowie Maryland

Im writing this letter not as a rant but more as a heads up for the folks at Bowie State University the new home of E. Wayne Rose. I had the unfortunate chance of working with Wayne from 2003 to 2011. Let me summarize Wayne in one word: Lazy. Let me do it again: Bullsh*tter. Wayne is brilliant at one thing: social engineering.

He can bullsh*t his way out of any situation, especially if its going to make him look good or land him a job. Wayne is not a leader, he is a delegator. Hell, he is the delegator.

Let me explain his MO. He continuously takes credit for others work, sitting back in his comfy chair and just waiting for things to happen while he browses the internet for numerous hours or while he is on the phone talking to friends during business hours. He is the most passive manager you will ever encounter, however, first impressions will mislead you to believe that he is actually the opposite. For example during an interview process, hed be very impressive and thered be a false sense of excitement about offering him a job. However, and I tell you this from my own experience, once the honeymoon period is over, everyone is going to realize what a lazy, awful, poor manager he is.

And thats when Waynes BS comes into play. Show time at Waynes theater.

He will talktalktalkand talk some more for hours and he will sugarcoat everything that comes out of his mouth just to justify his existence. But thats it. As Waynes manager, you will think that things are moving forward and that you made the right decision in hiring him, but if you really get under the covers, you will see that anything that gets accomplished on his watch is actually the hard work of his team, not him. With a smile, he will give you reports and mend the truth to make it look like he is leading, but I can assure you that he is the most inefficient IT manager or mentor you
will ever deal with. The janitor will do exactly the same Wayne does for a fraction of his salary.

How did I come to this conclusion?

I never reported to him but we worked together on different groups for years. Every time that I had to deal with him I felt sick of my stomach, because I could read his BS a mile away. I could see how his team was overworked just to make him look good and especially I could see him taking credit for stuff that he had just learned about maybe 5-10 minutes before meetings.

As an IT auditor, Im used not to take anything at face value. This is where the conflict began. I would ask Wayne about basic and I mean BASIC stuff like milestones, roles, responsibilities, change management strategies, or anything else related to a particular project, and his answers were alwayswellfull of it. I could NEVER get a straight, honest answer from him. Either he gave me the 30 minutes run-around or tell me that he would get back to me. This didnt happen once but hundreds of times during the course of the years. We used to joke around this fact at the Agency and came up with the phrase lets ask Waynes guys meaning lets not ask him directly, because in
the end, he will just pass the buck to his workers.

Another thing: Wayne is 100% delusional. I cannot stress this enough. Its scary.

Theres got to be a psychological or pathological underlying problem on his head, but he will always tell everyone these incredible stories to sound like a million dollar. We used to love the whats to come fib he used all the time in order to have people respect him. For example, at the Agency he would tell everyone, and we heard this for years, that he was going to be the Agencys next CIO or CTO. It was done, he already had the interview, they just needed to make it official, he was working undercover, blah blah blah. Clearly this was far away from the truth, but he would use that to terrorize others into doing his job or to have people sucking up to him so they could be on the good grace of the next god-almighty CIO.

Fortunately, upper management didnt buy his BS. He was turned down numerous times after applying internally for the job. Look at it this way, Wayne is the ugly wife that you cant get rid of because you are scared about what would follow. I perfectly remember that after more less his first 6 months of employment, everyone wanted to get rid of Wayne but they couldnt because he was good at pulling, between others, the racial card. I know, nasty. For the record Im also black, but I would never use that as a career booster. He did, indirectly, and he made sure that upper management would know about it. This is between other things why his BS was somehow tolerated.

The end result? pretty simple. He reached certain level within the administration and got stuck in there for years. Paycheck after paycheck, letting things happen without a sense of being proactive. Instead, FULLY reactive. Everyone was really waiting for him to resign but that never happened because he was clearly unable to land a job. There were all kind of interviews with other Agencies, non-profits, companies in general but nobody wanted Wayne.

Now he finally found his next heaven at Bowie State University. Poor people. Specially the IT guys. They dont know whats coming down for them. Im sure there were hundreds of qualified candidates applying for the CIO job at Bowie but Wayne, once again, was the best at bullshitting his way in.

Whats to come:

- Therell be a grace period where he would look like the right fit. Accolades, pats on the back. Soon it will be over and reality will set in.

-He will start learning about his direct reports weaknesses: who can he manipulate and who cant or in other words who will follow his BS unconditionally or not. Watch out because if you push back or call his BS, he will just look for any excuse to fire you.

-He will start re-inventing the wheel, focusing on areas that might not need improvement. This is part of his BS strategy, to justify his existence. Complex projects, amazing reportsall a smoke curtain.

-He will start taking credit for everything that his team does. At the beginning, it will be at close doors, like he tried to do with me. In the end, he will do it publically once he is finally surrounded by IT personnel that would not raise their concerns to HR.

-He will continuously try to make alliances with big bosses in upper management most of them not even related to his role or his responsibilities. People in high places within the university will love him, because they only deal with him 5 minutes at a time. This will position him as a winner and will work as an exit strategy if needed (now you understand those incredible references?)

-Within a few months (usually happens when you bring outside entities such as consultants, etc), the doubts will start at all levels. Did he do this? did he actually commit to this? wasnt he supposed to deliver that? did he just contradicted himself? was this his direct reports work?  etc.

-Female employees: watch out. He is Mr. harassment-lawsuit-waiting-to-happen. Smooth, quite, charming but once hes obsessedhe IS obsessed and wont let go like a dog with a bone. I experienced it first hand

Folks:
Im not trying to smear someones reputation. I have no hidden agenda. Im not a disgruntled employee, nor have any personal beef with Wayne. You can contact me anytime. Im using my real name and email address. I dont hide like Wayne. Im just astonished by the fact that ooops he did it again. He BS his way into an organization, looking like a hero. Employment references? the greatest!...why? because everyone wants to get rid of him. Again, wouldnt you tell your best friend that your ugly wife is the best just to get rid of her?

I wish everyone at Bowie State University the best. Mark my words that you will come to the conclusion, on your own, that everything Im saying here is the truth and nothing but the truth. Good luck Wayne with destroying another IT organization. You are the best at what you do!