Stolen idea at work?

[thiswaytothemoon]

I saw a flaw in the way we were working a particular section of our job and had a meeting with my manager today why I advised of the problem and a work around. It was agreed I would try the workaround on my own and report back after a week to see how it worked and then potentially rolled out to the team.

A few hours later my manger called a team meeting and said him and the seniors were implementing a new way of working from tomorrow using my exact idea ..... except they never mentioned my name.

When I questioned this privately my manager said they don’t want people to know it was me in case it didn’t work.

Our working culture and appraisal is very much dependent on how well you’ve done the basis of your role but also on projects or ideas you’ve implemented on your own and it’s actually upset me that they couldn’t give me any credit.

I will email my manager and copy in all the others to say thanks for taking my idea on board, I am happy to see that it’s a great idea blah blah blah

Your manager is lying, they have appropriated your idea. Nobody higher up the food chain has any idea you brought the idea forward!

It sounds like your manager has told the seniors that it was his idea!

We work from home sorry should have mentioned in OP if holds any relevance but the conversation over IM pretty much went like this -

Me - just to confirm I’m no longer working on the project now?
Him - no, decided it would be better for everyone to do it
Me - right, it’s just you didn’t mention my name at all in the meeting either
Him - no, we wanted to wait to see if it worked before mentioning you.

You may have to let this one go but learn from it. You could send an email stating you are glad they took on board your suggestion and hope if this is successful you get the recognition for your idea.

Next time draft an email setting out your idea, suggest it in a meeting and the send the email immediately so there is an audit trail it was your idea.

Sorry this happened to you. I’ve been in this position too and it is really frustrating! I agree with the suggestions of keeping an audit trail of ideas/conversations in future (including the IM you mentioned above). If your suggestion does improve the team, I would ask your manager how this will be reflected in your appraisal.

Don’t email him and the team as suggested above. Presumably no-one else knows it was your idea and so it won’t go well!

I'd copy and save that IM conversation. Then bring it up after it's shown it works if he tries to deny your involved

@Iniyat

I will email my manager and copy in all the others to say thanks for taking my idea on board, I am happy to see that it’s a great idea blah blah blah

This, along with thanks for their offer (over IM) to not mention your name in case it doesn’t work, but that you’re confident in your idea and happy to have your ‘name above the door’ etc etc.

Sit back and watch him squirm.

Seriously, people like this need to be put in their place, you’ll get far more respect in the workplace if you nip it in the bud now...

He is lying. You should save the conversation and if you ‘happen’ to meet your skip level manager and strike up a conversation, be sure to mention that you are half to see your idea taken on board. Be subtle but don’t let it go.

Well, you have the IM to prove it was your idea. When the new process works ask him to inform everyone it was your idea, reminding him of the IM.

Wait it out and if he refuses I would go over his head to his manager.

I absolutely agree with @GreenWillow to do this.
There is a type that does this.
Nip it in the bud now.

Has the email advice worked in real life for any of the posters in the past? Publicly criticising the manager in front of the team in a written, traceable way sounds terrible to me, especially as the idea hasn’t worked yet. The manager may react by deliberately making the idea fail and then putting all of the blame on the OP. If this is the first time your manager has done this it really would be better to keep an audit trail (which you already have) and then decide on the best course of action when the idea has worked.

@snowy0wl

Has the email advice worked in real life for any of the posters in the past? Publicly criticising the manager in front of the team in a written, traceable way sounds terrible to me, especially as the idea hasn’t worked yet. The manager may react by deliberately making the idea fail and then putting all of the blame on the OP. If this is the first time your manager has done this it really would be better to keep an audit trail (which you already have) and then decide on the best course of action when the idea has worked.

Also a good idea.