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AIBU?

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Original poster

Colleague keeps changing my work

58 replies

Stopitjuststopit2018 · 01/05/2018 21:02

And it’s doing my head in.

I work closely with a colleague who isn’t my line manager on paper but who I report to and work on projects with day to day, I’m like his 1-2-1 support manager. I have been doing this job for 10 years (although only working directly with him for 2yrs), and of the other 6 or so “support managers” in our division, I hold the most senior status out of all of them and often get rewarded/recognised for my work by the company on a national level - not bragging, I’m just trying to add some context to show that I’m not a newbie to the role.

Anyway for the projects we work on, we write tenders, sales pitches and have to do fancy presentations, which he will always delegate to me (it’s expected of our role) and which im more than capable of doing, yet no matter what I produce, he will always change things!! it’s always something small, and that’s what pisses me off.

Eg I could write “the boy sat at the table and ate sandwiches” and he’d change it to “at the table, the boy took a seat where he ate some sandwiches”. That kind of thing, nothing ever revolutionary

I’d say that 99.9% of the time his changes will make no difference to our clients who read it

Last week I made key words bold in a PowerPoint to make them standout. They were also blue. He changed all of them to italic and a slightly darker shade of blue. It made fuck all difference. One time I wrote the word “Euros” several times in a doc and he changed them all to EUR. But in a subsequent one where I wrote EUR instead, he changed it to pissing Euros!

I I find it so undermining and I’m starting to resent doing things for him, or i’m spending even longer formatting and re-writing things and trying to second guess how HE wants it to look/read rather than using my own creativity and having free reign. It’s denting my confidence really.

Apart from that he’s a really nice guy! How should I address with it him without making it awkward!

OP posts:
Unescorted · 01/05/2018 21:07

We have people like that...it is done to cover up their ineptitude. If they knew what they were doing they wouldn't bother with grammar/ syntax amends.

BobbinThreadbare123 · 01/05/2018 21:09

Password protect. Or, save everything sent to him as a PDF. Or, have it out with him. Particularly since his change to your sentence wasn't grammatically pleasing.

MargeryB · 01/05/2018 21:10

Maybe he wants to prove that he actually read it? Just have the conversation with him and ask.

fuzzywuzzy · 01/05/2018 21:12

My manager does this it’s to then claim it as ‘his’ work.

I was delighted to hear this year’s audit went very badly as I was on maternity leave and he had to prepare for it and supervise it instead of me. He’s utterly shit at his job.

SabineUndine · 01/05/2018 21:13

I’ve worked with people like this, it’s their way of showing you who’s boss. It’s never the competent people who do it. I think the only thing to do is ignore it.

MmeButtox · 01/05/2018 21:16

Agreed, Sabine

Pecano · 01/05/2018 21:16

I have a line manager who does that, she has to tweak something in every single piece of work so that she can say she’s had an input. Definitely a power thing

Slightlyperturbedowlagain · 01/05/2018 21:18

Agree with PP about showing he’s in charge. Someone mentioned similar in a thread the other week about their manager always changing wording of an email for no legitimate reason. You could ask him why if he’s being inconsistent- as in the case of the euros, or tell him you think it was better as it was (changing type-face).

Slightlyperturbedowlagain · 01/05/2018 21:19

fuzzywuzzy that sounds very satisfying Grin

Original poster
Stopitjuststopit2018 · 01/05/2018 21:20

I have made a jokey comment before like “so what was wrong with the way I wrote that slide” and he laughed it off and said he’s always been a control freak. I felt like sayin “well do it your f*ing self then next time” Hmm

OP posts:
Aria2015 · 01/05/2018 21:25

Euh I hate this. It's not changing things because they need changing but for preference sake and I suspect so he can feel like he had some sort of hand in it. Does he have to preview all you do?

Slightlyperturbedowlagain · 01/05/2018 21:25

Could you point out it’s a poor use of resources to have him nit-picking?

MeOldBamboo · 01/05/2018 21:27

My boss does this. I have to run an email “summary” past him which has an attachment of a full slide pack which I have worked on. Although the company standard is to try to keep things concise and bullet pointed, he will always change my concise email into waffleybollocks war and peace. It looks so shite. There’s no point in arguing though, because he’s been doing this for 30 years man and boy... It does indeed highlight his insecurities and the fact he knows I know he is crap at his job.

Doobigetta · 01/05/2018 21:31

I have a stakeholder whose need to stamp his authoritah on everything is so pressing, he once returned a PowerPoint presentation to me where the change he had made was to reduce the font size by 1pt throughout.

Pinkprincess1978 · 01/05/2018 21:35

We have a manager who is like that. We have been known to reuse a certain regularly used bit of text that they wrote (we just need to change the dates) and each time we use it they have to change it slightly.... even though they wrote it themselves 😂

Original poster
Stopitjuststopit2018 · 01/05/2018 21:36

@meoldbamboo it’s just insulting isn’t it, what’s the point of spending your energy producing a high standard piece of work. I can’t even produce a pile of crap and let him make all the changes he wants to as i rely on him to recommend my appraisal grade to my line manager.

@aria, not everything entirely but he usually would insist the important stuff (that I take a lot of time trying to make it high quality) goes through him, as ultimately they are his clients (although I treat them as my clients too, as is the nature of our industry)

OP posts:
boywiththebrokensmile2 · 01/05/2018 21:37

Personally I would leave it, since he is not making major changes and silly little pointless things. I am thinking it is an aspect of his controlling personality, I know ppl very like him who always have to have their touch on things.

In my experience, addressing very trivial annoyances over colleagues just makes everything more awkward. Try bitch about it to mates etc always helps. Pick your battles as they say.

MeOldBamboo · 01/05/2018 21:39

@stopit Exactly. If I was a 16 year old apprentice, fair enough. But he is massively threatened by my intelligence and also has a few issues with women (which he would never openly admit) that I am aware of.

Oldraver · 01/05/2018 21:41

Some people are just annoying controlling twats.

My colleague will always without fail slightly move the boxes I put on a pallet. She will also move any stack of books my other colleague makes...sometimes only turning them 180 degrees.

There is absolutely no need for her to do this. It's very trivial but I could see steam coming out of colleagues ears when her stack of books were moved 6 inches

Sparklesocks · 01/05/2018 21:42

Agree with PPs that as irritating as it is, it might be best left alone as to not create a difficult work environment.

Perhaps if it really gets too much you could continue to make light of it in front of him and colleagues, but in a very light/jokey way so it’s not pass agg but clear that you’ve noticed.

Gabilan · 01/05/2018 21:49

having free reign

It's "rein" as in giving a horse more rein to do what it wants. (Yes, I know this is the kind of thing that pisses you off. It is also something I would correct in any piece of work to be made public.)

Anyway. I think if generally you get on with him, I'd leave him to it, on the proviso that faults are then his. If he does other things which are bullying/ controlling that's something different. I'd also stop trying to second guess him, since it appears it may be a control thing on his part.

He may slip up at some stage. A colleague of mine, who is a bully, once changed another colleague's work, "correcting" biennial to biannual. Give that colleague two was referring to an event that happens every two years, colleague one was in the wrong.

StringandGlitter · 01/05/2018 21:51

I had someone like this and onetime I wanted her to approve the framework I’d designed for a new intranet site, so I made all the buttons hideous colours so she had something to change...

She loved it and it’s the only piece of work of mine she ever approved with no changes! 😂

Butchmanda · 01/05/2018 21:52

Oh God, that would wind me up. But, as several PPs say, best pick your battles so try to keep calm, on the outside at least.

Could you suggest having a house-style guide? That should at least make it clear whether you write EUR or Euros: from the examples you give it seems a) he's got the memory of a goldfish or b) he really is a mean wanker who will change something - anything - for the sake of being a total knob.

Smile sweetly and point out it'd be really helpful to know the style he prefers (and ditto with italics / colours / bold).

Failing that, can you request a transfer / sideways move to a different dept / role?

Butchmanda · 01/05/2018 21:54

Stringandglitter: that's bloody hilarious.

kmmr · 01/05/2018 21:55

My manager used to write and rewrite and rewrite everything. It made me less motivated really, why bother with anything more than the basics when he would wordsmith every single syllable. He'd end up changing his own words. I felt like a was just his typist, trying to interpret his scrawls. Now I review others work and make a real effort not to change things just for form.
In my current job it took me ages to regain faith in my own ability. It was so refreshing to prepare a report and someone to just say 'yes, that's good. Maybe refine one section, but I'll leave it to you to decide how best to do it'.

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