Foot in mouth!

[GooseFeather]

Need to dig myself a deep hole and bury myself in it!

On a Skype call with two colleagues about a presentation we are putting together as a team. We are reviewing another colleague's section (which massively impacts my area and the entire project) and he has got some fundamental details the wrong way round. I have discussed this with him earlier in the project, so I know he knows how it should be. Just as I say 'I am going to speak bluntly here, he should know which way round this should be by now, we have discussed it before', (with a bit more project specific detail) because I am frustrated at this not being the first time, we have already spent a load of time correcting his spelling etc, said colleague speaks up 'hello, I am here'. He has joined early for a subsequent call and clearly heard me.

I am very fond of this colleague because he is a kind and fun person to work with, but he has no capacity for detail. He is one of those people who expects to be able to do a basic job and then someone else will finish it off to the required standard. And much as I like him, I shouldn't have to keep doing it. But that is no excuse for being unprofessional and speaking badly of him. I have never ever done something like this before and I am acutely embarrassed.

Argh! Tell me it is going to be ok when I have a 1:1 with him tomorrow to finish off updating his section.

I would own it. He should know which way round so he needs to make sure he bucks his ideas up.

Tomorrow, I would front it out but be quite blase about it 'as I said yesterday, you do really need to spend a bit more time on the details, as it affects the group project' etc.

You are probably right, I probably need to learn to be more direct.

It doesn't sound like much written down, but that moment of 'oh fuck, how long has he been on the call, what was my previous sentence'....

It is the culmination of months of stress, new management, changing directions. I have spent a lot of time trying to defend and protect people, have had to put up with others claiming responsibility for work I have done but cannot speak for without it sounding like sour grapes, tidying up after other's work and I have had enough.

You didn't speak badly of him. You stated the facts. He's sloppy and he should be called out on it. As you said, this is not the first time you've had to address this. I wouldn't feel the slightest bit bad about what you said.

The follow up call with him was actually hilarious. He tried to claim he had made changes and they hadn't been saved back to the master file and said he completely understood why we were frustrated, as he was really disappointed that we had seen his contribution in that state. I asked him when he made those changes (thinking it was a SharePoint glitch, although still crap that he had mixed so many things up). He then said 'this morning', which makes no sense given that it was yesterday I was mouthing off.

Now I know just how full of shit he is, the jokey fun personality is covering for incompetence and bull shitting. Not that we are in competition as we have different functions, but we were both in front of the same promotion panel this year. They had a unanimous verdict one way for him and the other way for me. I now have a better understanding why and I feel much less guilty about my outburst!