At colleague taking credit?

[uptheauntie]

A director asked my colleague, who reports to me, to do some work for her. My colleague then came to me as she was struggling to work it out. I suggested an alternative way of doing it.

Lo and behold I see an email to day from my colleague, to the director, and several other staff, attaching the work and explaining how she had come up with an alternative way of doing it. And getting lots of praise.

She has not acknowledged it was my suggestion. It is not a major piece of work but it just pisses me off a bit. I'm not in the office until next week but am tempted to thank her for getting it done and say I'm glad my suggestion worked. AIBU?

[GreenPetal94]

I'd just let it go. Everyone should pull together and you don't always need individual recognition all the time. People will still see your good work too.

[MsAspreyDiamonds]

That's happened to me several times so now I don't help and I keep my bright ideas to myself at team meetings.

[Supercosy]

Well, I think it is odd of her not to acknowledge it even to you. Of course it's not the end of the world but it would make me wary of someone, she could still have received praise for the project but acknowledged your contribution in some way. It's dissapointing when people behave towards you in a way that you would not behave towards them.

[Pilgit]

I have a colleague who does this - it's bloody annoying. I have yet to find a non-petty way of pulling him up on it. Still trying....

[Joysmum]

I like Nomama's approach. The 'that looks fabulous, you've done a great job. Let me know if there's anything else I can help with. '

[Dorris83]

I really don't see this as an issue- I agree with bookish - you look good if your team performs well. I wouldn't expect any of my direct reports to give me credit for helping them with their projects.

[uptheauntie]

Fairy, basically she said she realised that the way originally envisaged by the director wasn't going to work for x and y reasons, so she did it another way which she thought would work much better for a and b reasons. All of which I came up with.

I'm not going to lose sleep over it, it is just irritating and disappointing

[Fairyliz]

So how did she explain how she came up with an alternative way of doing the job? Did she tell an outright lie and she thought of it?
Otherwise you came up withvthe ideas but she did the work.

[scurryfunge]

I've been in the situation where my supervisor took credit for an idea I suggested. I was pleased he saw value in my suggestion. Although he had praise for "his" idea from the hierarchy, we both knew it was my idea. I didn't care. Nobody died.

[Rauma]

Being unprofessional wouldn't benefit you OP, let her have her moment but quietly let her know a little than you would have been nice..

[bookishandblondish]

I actually think it's your job to do this. She did the work - an if she's in an admin role, she isn't being paid to be strategic. I bounce ideas off my manager all the time - and am highly paid strategic role. He gets more money partly because his job involves helping me to be more strategic. On the other hand, at his performance review, I will probably say x was great - I got to learn y and z and I talked through abcdefg with him.
Get used to management - your biggest success is from your team outperforming everyone else ( and I've been on one of those teams where my manager gave us the credit but took bigger credit for developing the team that outperformed everyone else in every metric possible)

[lessonsintightropes]

Erm as a Director I would think that you were both petty and undermining of your staff member, and would have expected her to talk to you about it in any case. An email as suggested upthread makes you look pretty immature. Let it go.

[GlassCaseofEmotion]

And praise on this project might give her confidence in herself to work out an alternative herself on the next problem she needs to deal with.

[GlassCaseofEmotion]

Do you need the credit that much? If you are her superior let her have her moment. Trying to take credit away now will look petty. Karma works.

[PicaK]

Would you be rushing to take the credit if they'd told her off for doing it differently to how they asked?

[whatwhatinthewhatnow]

Wow funky, your advice actually sounds quite menacing.

I would NOT be doing that. I would be chatting to her over your next 1 to 1 about whether she needs training or guidance in that area, and that you were pleased to contribute to the teams success.

[Minshu]

I'd let it go. You'll have other opportunities in the future and she may not have the ability to progress further on her own.

A placement year intern at work has just done this, claiming all the glory but not acknowledging a colleague of hers, not realising the management team already knew the full story from the colleague (who had praised said intern). This is one reason we don't expect to be offering the intern a permanent job next year...

[FunkyBoldRibena]

I would call her into your office, and say you were a little worried that she took the credit and didn't volunteer the credit you made to her issue and to be a bit careful about doing that again as other people aren't quite as understanding as you and they might take it badly which could impact on her future career.

Meaning of course - you are not understanding and have not taken it well.

If she is that thick skinned all you can do is to make sure that is communicated should the opportunity ever arise and make sure you document the assistance you give in future.

Or reply all and say exactly what you said in your initial post.

Not sure what the relevance of her working in admin is.

[CashmereMouse]

I think Nomama's wording is the best. It reminds her that you helped her, acknowledges that you're aware of what she's done (ie taking the credit for the idea) but stops you from looking petty, especially as you have a senior role to her.

[Poppy67]

You need to drop her in it soon, but in a nice way. Her taking the credit is wrong. You never know what's around the corner and if there were job cuts this may help them make a decision. I got screwed once, via never to let it happen again.

[Supercosy]

Well obviously it IS about team work but it's also about being gracious and honest. This week my school received an award for teaching a subject that I and one of my colleagues teach across the school. We are both passionate about the subject and both put a huge amount of energy into our teaching/resources etc. We are both really pleased about the award but my colleague applied to have our work assesed, put lots of evidence together, made a fantastic photo album of our work and hosted the assesor as she came on a day that I do not work. On the day that the news came through people were congratulating us both. It would have been very disigenuous of me not to acknowledge that my colleague had done the lionshare of the work in getting us this award and I let my colleagues know that this was the case.

I think it's really important to do things like this fairly and graciously. I would indeed congratulate her but also make your point in a subtle way as you have suggested. I wouldn't treat a colleague like this and I don't expect to be shafted by a colleague in this way either.

[uptheauntie]

I certainly will continue to help her in the future is she needs it, that is part of being a supportive manager. And I guess on reflection, part of being a supportive manager is letting someone know when they haven't done things quite right. I won't make a big deal of it, I won't involve other (but I suspect the director will mention, in passing, next week about what a brill job my colleague did, I which case I may just say 'yes it looks great, we had a good chat about how to best approach it'), but I will just say something about how our chat was a helpful. And leave it at that.

[minibmw2010]

I would let her know you're aware of what has happened, gently, no need to be too annoyed about it or involve others higher up, but it'll be a good thing for her to know that if she were to do this again others may not take it in such a good vein.

[Forgotmytiara]

I think that yabu unless she has a habit of claiming other people's ideas as her own to fulfill her own agenda.

"I would leave it but not offer help again and tell her why"

If you worked in my company I would not be happy about your attitude. As her line manager of course she should be able to come to you for help. If she does well, it will reflect well on you in extension. A company will only do well if people freely share knowledge; it's not about you as an individual but what you as a team can do to help the company be successful. This time you helped her, perhaps next time she will help you or somebody else. It's called team work.

I have helped many people at work and more senior colleagues have helped me in the past. It's the only way to learn and grow and for business to do well.