AIBU Re threatened Disciplinary

[MrsMaxwell]

Manager (who will no longer be so in a few weeks as having a new manager) was asked by their manager to send an email to organise a meeting.

After 3 weeks she hadn’t done it and asked me to do it as she was about to go on leave.

I did it as it needed to be done urgently as was regarding the project I run no longer being funded.

I asked what she wanted me to say (she was vague and unspecific) so I wrote it, got a colleague to check my wording was ok (about the LA no longer funding this project and looking for a way forward) and sent it to various invitees.

Senior management (and elected members) saw it have gone ballistic. New email sent by managers manager basically saying the same thing I did but longer and more corporate.

My manager now has done my PDR with me and said that she has spoken to HR and decided not to take me to disciplinary but has written several things on it re my “attitude” being mindful or emails and communications I send (apparently it was a direct attack on a desicion that was made) and being disrespectful about senior management (we went through a restructure and everyone including me was slagging off the manager who delivered news to staff in a huge meeting that they were being made redundant and we all said how disgusting it was).

What the fuck do I do? Ignore as she will no longer bey manager? Send an email in reply to PDR outlining that the task was actually hers to do in the first place and she didn’t support me when I asked her to or go to my Union?

I don’t agree with those who are saying if it was delegated to OP it was her responsibility. If we were all able to effortlessly do the tasks of our managers then there would be no need for management!

Managers are human and will sometimes try to foist something off without thinking it through.

The manager was obvs asked to write the email because she knew the subject matter, had been on a corporate communications seminar specific to their company and was senior enough to hold some clout.

The OP only knew roughly what was meant to be detailed in the email and asked for help but didn’t receive any. She has a level of communication skill expected for her role, she did not attend the communications course that seems to be so important to her organisation. Also, it was a task intended for someone above her pay grade. None of this is the OP’s fault.

She wrote it to the best of her ability, got a colleague to check it for her, asked for support and received none. In my book she did everything possible to do the right thing. The fact that people replied to the email asking why another was sent as hers was sufficient is another endorsement that she did it correctly just not as they wanted. Their expectations would have been met if the manager had just written the email in the 3 weeks she was given.

If the OP didn't think the task should have been delegated to her or was 'above her job description' she should have said that from the outset and flagged up that she didn't feel up to doing it.

The fact that she did accept he task, and then got it wrong, means the responsibility does lie with her.

Perhaps the manager felt it should have been well within the remit of the OP? There isn't enough detail but it does sound as though the email was perhaps badly worded and possibly contained information about funding etc that shouldn't have been included?

Take it in the chin, learn from it and for goodness sake, don't involve a Union over something so trivial!

Fgs, what's the issue with asking for advice from her union rep? My DH is a union rep and a senior manager, so there doesn't need to be any antagonism involved. If it comes to a disciplinary the union rep will be called upon so there's no harm in asking for advice now.

I don't know the format of your PDR, but do you have a right of reply section, somewhere you can put forward your review of yourself over the same period? If so, I'd be inclined to use that section rather than stir the pot any harder with senior management - if you stir now, it'll be read and possibly acted on, whereas if you calmly respond in the PDR, it'll be there for future managers to read both sides.

In terms of what to put, suck it up a little. Rather than directly refute what has been said or attacking the person who should have done the job, make it that you will be using this situation as a learning opportunity - that you accept criticism is a valid part of development, that you will seek additional training in communication, that you will ensure a senior manager approves similar formal announcements in future, etc.

She asked for help and wasn’t given it. Her manager then left at 2pm to go on leave which is why she had to ask a colleague to check it. If she wanted to flag it, doesn’t sound like she had much of an opportunity.

The colleague that checked it thought it was fine to send too which leads me to believe nobody else on the team would have faired much better if they were delegated this task.

Perhaps the manager should have done her job in the ample time she was given to do it. Or OP should have copied her manger’s example by waiting 3 weeks before delegating it to the person on the rung below her.

But it was the OP's project! OP already works on it and would see communications about it, she'd know the style used normally.

OPs name is going to be mud with her new manager if she pushes this much further. No way is her old boss going to keep quiet about this.

If my boss asked me to do something that wasn't part of my normal duties, gave me virtually no advice about how to do it, then had a go at me for "doing it wrong", I would kick back too!

The expression "setting up to fail" comes to mind. OP, I think it's time to start looking for a new job.

I'm also dismayed, though I can't say I'm surprised, that there are people in business with such thin skins and fragile egos that they make a fuss over the tone of an email.

The OP said the company view on the email she sent was that it was a direct attack on a decision that had been made (I assume the decision was about the project funding being stopped).

Maybe there's a possibility that the email she sent wasn't very well worded and could have caused further problems for the company if that was how it came across?

That's nothing to do with the task being above someone's job level. All the OP was asked to do was send an email to arrange a meeting about a project that she has been working on, the email didn't need to include the reasons behind the funding being stopped etc which it sounds as though it did.

The OP also confirmed that she had previously been heard 'slagging off' senior managers so maybe there's some concern over her professionalism at work which has led to this conversation about behaviours?

No disciplinary action was taken and sounds as if the manager was trying to give her an informal warning that she needs to recognise these issues and address them. Sounds like reasonable advice to me!

I slagged off a senior manager with a load of others (including managers above me) after a meeting where people had been told they were being made redundant in front of people they were line managing.

Hi OP. Totally appreciate that, I read your post. However, the fact that you did it alongside loads of others doesn't make it right.

If you had an issue regarding how a meeting was handled (despite I assume not being in it yourself?) there are ways to handle that more professionally than 'slagging' people off publicly.

Perhaps that previous incident now combined with this email has highlighted to your managers that your communication style isn't quite what they would expect?

And should have also said, that doesn't for a second mean I agree with how the senior manager you mention handled the redundancy situation!

If my boss asked me to do something that wasn't part of my normal duties, gave me virtually no advice about how to do it, then had a go at me for "doing it wrong", I would kick back too!

According to the OP, it was an email scheduling a meeting. It isn't exactly rocket science, is it? Obviously I don't know the exact parameters, but something along the lines of "Pursuant to the termination of PROJECT, we'd like to meet to discuss our next steps. Here are some proposed dates: " It's hard to imagine what might have been said that was objectionable.

We were having a bitch in the office within the team after the meeting within the confines of the office and my manager was there andvsi was another more PC manager who even commented.

At the risk out really outing myself. It’s a project I set up 7 years ago (a counselling and sexual health project for teenagers) for the LA. The management of it has been handed around to various different departments, each time I have had no say and each time have had to prove my worth while single handedly running the project.

Lastest Manager (last 18 months) has been the worst, trying to take credit for everything “saving” me etc etc - no my hard work has.

The email was about the way forward ascyhe LA are no longer able to pay for the building we operate out of which is basically what I said “after X date X will no longer be funding X project to operate out of X please let us know if you would be interested in attending a meeting in looking at a way forward, ideas etc”.

And been asked to take massive “back seat” in the closing down of the project which is fine, but my manager had none of the contacts.

Appreciate that you are maybe hacked off that a project you set up and have worked on for so long is no longer being funded so maybe that’s clouding your judgement on this?

Still seems perfectly reasonable your manager asked you to send the email and by the sounds of it perhaps you weren’t expected to divulge that the decision had been made to cease funding or the reasons behind that etc?

Either way, think a more positive and solution oriented approach would be to ask your manager for feedback on what you should have written so that you know for next time. Probably more effective than referring to it as “bolloxy corporate communication” and thinking you know better. Maybe you don’t because it sounds as though senior managers & possibly councilors (you refer to others who saw the email) also thought your email wording was unprofessional and inappropriate.

OP, thanks for the further detail. Could you also explain how the email was re-written - what was changed?