Apologies, long one - rant mainly but any advice on what you would do next is appreciated.
So today I received a work email from someone I’m supporting though a programme. The email was about me and not intended for me to receive, no idea who the email was supposed to be sent to. It made out like I “again” wasn’t doing my job and this person was having to wait for me to do tasks and I was giving excuses for not doing jobs. It was swiftly followed up by an apology and an overwhelming week etc.
I went through every piece of correspondence I’ve had with this person since September. I’ve never missed a deadline I’d say I’d make, never failed to do any task and not any email I have sent has contained any excuse. The work has all been done. I went through my inbox and never once has this person asked me where a task was or anything that would imply they have chased me up in regard to anything.
I replied taking the moral high ground that I was unaware of these feelings as all correspondence I have are within the given time frames (some much earlier than stated) and although at times I prioritise my workload it has never impacted on my ability to perform this support role. I apologised for any misunderstanding that I wasn’t aware of and offered someone new to support them as they were clearly so dissatisfied with my approach and effort to date.
Of course, instantly came another email asking for forgiveness, the messaged typed wasn’t even true as I’ve been a great support, it’s been a hard week etc. I said we will move on and continued to offer support and a reply came telling me how wonderful I am.
It’s been about 7 hours since that happened and I’m still so mad for a number of reasons.
1. The word “again” used in the email suggests she has sent things like this before with zero grounds to do so and I have all the correspondence to show.
2. I have no idea who this email was intended for. I am more senior to this person in general but not directly to them so I can’t exactly go through the same routes as I would if it was someone directly in my department. If this was aimed at someone my position or above it will make me look bad for no given reason.
3. I don’t believe for a second they’re sorry, they’re sorry they got caught.
4. I’ve had bad weeks but never felt the need to send a bitchy email which is completely false.
I’m due to see this person face to face in the next week or so and I don’t know how I should act. I have a feeling they will either be very sheepish or over the top apologetic. I want to know who this email was intended for as I will be livid if it was to someone more senior than me and I will get directly in touch with them and show them all correspondence. The chances are I’ll never know though and that’s annoying me more.
Ah well tomorrow is another day... away to drink my wine and stew some more!