Was I in the wrong?!

[Supermagicsmile]

Don't want to give too much away as it will out me. I am one of the head's of a department at work. I met with another department to get some input on things we need to do before data transfer and was planning to cascade this information to my team on Friday morning at our weekly meeting.
One of the ladies who works in my team found out I had this meeting without her (she deals with the data everyday but is not head of the department) and was not happy. I explained that I was going to share the information on Friday and she said that she wants to hear it direct from the department and will find them herself to ask.
At the time all I could think about was how I had upset her but having talked it through with my dp, it's been pointed out that actually what she said was rude to me as she clearly doesn't trust me to pass on the information.
I felt I acted appropriately as i have overall responsibility for all data and transfers and am still planning to share with the whole team Friday.
AIBU? Been worrying about it all evening as she can be a piece of work if you get on the wrong side of her.

Presumably she doesn't trust you to understand the day to day detail. Does she have a point? As head of department you're not expected to know everything, and it's perfectly reasonable to take along/deputise to someone who does.

Or maybe she's just an arse.

texas going forward OP could reach out to her colleague and negotiate a win:win deal.

I agree with WellThatSucks, partly because my work has done something similar and it's been useful having people closer to the operation to discuss any impact.
However, if I were in the team member's position, and I'd found out about the meeting after, I'd probably accept that you have overall responsibility and would communicate to wider team. At which point, any questions could be raised then, and you could make the decision if further input would have been useful, a good manager would learn from that and ask next time. The way she reacted was rude, was there ever any impresssion she would have been given this responsibility?

Almost embarrassed as well that the word "cascade" didn't register as wanky corporate term as well- we end up using it so much at work I'm worried one day that I'll ask DH to cascade information to our (future) children.

If you are her superior then she has no place in demanding anything! You, as HOD, have made the decision and whether she likes it or not she must accept that.

And that's exactly the sort of attitude that makes the difference between a good manager and a bad one, between a good working place and a bad one. I wouldn't stay long in a place where the manager thought the role of the employee is to listen and nod.

I agree, WellThatSucks. If someone is involved with the data, let them be in the meeting and ask the questions/ raise concerns rather than you 'cascading' the information later. They might not know as much as they think they do, but it saves them trying to wrong foot you.

Cascade is perfectly normal corporate language.

The specific data transfer is irrelevant to the OP.

The member of staff was rude and inappropriate in speaking to her boss. She should be worrying about getting on your bad side not the other way round. It sounds like the relationship is out of balance.

However that doesn't mean she doesn't have a valid point. She handled it very badly though. As did you OP.

You should have provided her with the information and then asked her to raise any questions or concerns with you. If there were any specific issues ask her to set up a call/meeting with the point of contact in the other department for you both to attend.

This is all pretty standard stuff to be honest.

YANBU as HOD to go to a HOD meeting without your team, but YABU to not have at least informed the team member in charge of day to day handling of Data that you were off to a meeting that would be focusing on Data/Data Transfer.

She may be unhappy because she had some specific data questions for the other department that required information only they and their team would have; she could have wanted to ask them something where the specific wording/detail of the answer was important so she didn't want to rely on a 3rd party - in this case you - to pass it on if it wasn't guaranteed to be 100% verbatim; she might be annoyed that you had information pertinent to her job on Wednesday and had no intention of passing it to her, despite having the opportunity to at least give her the heads up, for another two days; she might feel like you're not appreciating that she's the one who is the most involved in the day to day specifics and therefore it is as important for her to get the information asap as it is for you to have it.

I am a supervisor in retail customer service, I report to my department manager and the store manager. There are daily meetings for all the department managers, and they pass relevant information down their chain via a weekly department meeting with their individual teams. Working on Customer Services, it is important that we are kept up to date on all new and changes to existing policies ASAP because we deal with customers and issues relating to every aspect of the store and are expected to know these things. If our department manager knows that there will be a management meeting regarding store policies, she will usually inform me beforehand so I can pass her any queries/questions I have, as a colleague on the shop floor working with the CS team on a daily basis, to be addressed in the meeting. If our scheduled department meeting isn't for another few days, my manager will at the very least try to get the answers to my questions back to me before then so I can review them and start working out how the new policies will be put into practice on the shop floor. That way, once the entire team is briefed at the weekly meeting I will have had time to formulate a basic procedure for them to follow as soon as they walk out, rather than us all finding out the information at the meeting and then I either need time to build the process - delaying its start- or make it up as we go along so we can get it in place ASAP.

Another one agreeing with WellThatSucks.

There is nothing 'wrong' with corporate speak, and it may be normal in 'the office' (see also TV show 'the office' for reference) but even in the office, it's pretty wanky.

But I don't want to teach you all how to suck eggs....

Doesn't the term 'cascade' mean something specific in office speak though? You tell your direct reports then they tell theirs and so on and so on, so you don't have to email everyone personally? It's used a lot with emergency and security procedures too, for example you have a phone number of one person to contact, they have a phone number of another who in turn tells another.

There is nothing wrong with it as a phrase if it's conveying this specific process.

Unless the OP is using it wrongly I don't see why the need for derision. At least she's not 'reaching out' which definitely deserves a slap.

I think what she said to you was rude. She could have politely explained that she would have found it really helpful to be there herself because of x and y, and next time could you let her know so she can try and come along.

There is someone at work on the same level as me. Their team has been providing information for my area which is essentially wrong, and been caught out on it. When I asked for the outcome from a meeting they had with people in my area I got told the conversations were 'highly complex' and they have done everything they can not to tell me what's going on, when it's my area

Love working in an office sometimes...