To be pissed off that someone else has got credit for my work

[treetops46]

So last week, I cancelled my days off and worked all hours on a presentation that I was leading with my boss today.

I wrote the entire presentation, developed the strategy, designed it - literally everything, because it had to be done so quickly and we are all busy so I just took it on the chin and made it happen.

There is a (wonderful and lovely) more junior team member who proofed the deck and is usually part of this team but was too busy to help last week. This week she is off sick so couldn't attend the presentation either.

We just did the presentation (my boss and me) and it went brilliantly. The clients said numerous times how much they loved the deck and the ideas, I was so happy that all my hard work had paid off.

Then straight after the presentation, boss messages me and more junior girl on our Teams chat saying 'brilliantly presented, TreeTops, and Junior Girl, they loved your deck!'

Now I know because I am quite senior that I should just try to let this go but it's annoyed me so so much!! I can handle not getting much praise for it, but to give credit to someone else entirely just really stings. Ugh.

I feel like I will be being really petty if I mention it, and doubt junior girl will really notice the message amid the mountain of stuff she'll have to catch up on when she gets back so probably won't correct him either. Gahhhhhhhh!!!!!!

@emmyren4

Except that in his later email to OP, he praised her again for the delivery, making it clear he didn't think she had created the content.

I think you need to let this go, it’s petty. We have similar situations at work - it would never be assumed that junior member came up with the strategy, Sometimes when “just proof reading” they can come up with some interesting points, Sometimes senior members of the team have to pull a presentation together because no one else is available, if you want a day off in lieu ask for it. Your need to ensure your boss knows exactly who did what will look bad on you, especially if this is your frequent way of working. If your boss doesn’t already know your value - you will not convince him this way and if your boss does not realise your value, maybe you need to look elsewhere else maybe in a less collaborative environment?

Op needs to write something back as he apparently thinks she was on annual leave.

If someone who worked for me, cancelled annual leave and didn't tell me and only brought it up a week later, I would be absolutely baffled to say the least.

When she brings up that she actually cancelled her annual leave to spend the whole week on the presentation, then that's when it will come up.

And I really wish people would stop saying 'it's OK for men'. If anyone replied with 95% of the responses here, regardless of their sex, they would look like tits to most people.

Good point if he thinks you were on holiday...

@treetops46

And yes, appreciate that 'deck' is hugely irritating (sorry about that 😂)

It isn't irritating to me. It is was many (US?) businesses call it.

If you are setting the policy and strategy you would need to create original or proprietary content. Certainly in my industry.

@Valeriekat

If you are setting the policy and strategy you would need to create original or proprietary content. Certainly in my industry.

I'm curious, what's proprietary content?

@Miraloma

Everyone needs to stop with the faux bafflement over the term 'deck'

I'm trying to work out when we started saying 'slide deck' exactly, but that's the norm now and 'PowerPoint' is a bit antiquated.

Don’t be ridiculous. Of course people haven’t heard of it, otherwise they wouldn’t be asking, and to hear people say PowerPoint is antiquated and only used by people who only do one presentation per year is hilarious when you have people using it daily who’ve never heard of the phrase. It sounds like it might be a business term for it - so why would you know that if you don’t work in business? Feels a bit like ‘blue sky thinking’ ‘run it up the flagpole’ ‘portfolio’ type speak

[quote Hercisback]@caranjo

What counts as a long deck?

I write mostly original content on my teaching slides.

There is a whole other world out there I know very little about so it's really interesting to hear people spend so long preparing for one presentation.
Does the same person write the content and do the "design" work?[/quote]
Same questions! I can prepare a two hour lecture of original content within about 4 hours (maybe 5 if it’s really complex), but admittedly the only ‘design’ I do is selecting ‘design suggestions’.

[quote Hercisback]@caranjo

What counts as a long deck?

I write mostly original content on my teaching slides.

There is a whole other world out there I know very little about so it's really interesting to hear people spend so long preparing for one presentation.
Does the same person write the content and do the "design" work?[/quote]
If you're presenting for over an hour your deck could be 50 slides or more, plus an appendix with back up tables and figures, that wouldn't necessarily be shown unless asked.

For design - it might be minimal if the company has a good template to use. If it's a bespoke design for that particular presentation then a designer might be involved.

So doing a deck can be simple, or really involved. For example pitching for business - you need to find out all about the other company, what their needs are, their competitors, the solution you are proposing to offer, a blurb about your own company. And make it a design that will appeal to that particular company.

And the term deck - first started hearing it about 6 years ago, don't know if it's peculiar to professional services companies or American companies. I did think it wanky the first time I heard it, think nothing of it now.

It is easier to prepare a presentation / training on something you know well and you are just 'delivering content' than something where you have to collate data, work out how best to present it, work out what will 'sell' your message etc. In the latter case you have to think about every phrase, every message etc.

It sounds like it might be a business term for it - so why would you know that if you don’t work in business?

I haven't been in business for a very, very long time and even I could work out what it meant. It really wasn't hard in the context of the presentation.

The way people then went on to criticise the OP for using what was clearly an accepted phrase was ridiculous.

@Arabellla

You should absolutely private message them and say this was your deck.

A man would do this.

This.

Just set him straight. It's important. He's your boss. He needs to know this was you.

It's not about taking praise from Junior Girl - she wasn't there and actually had zero input into this.

Just speak up, privately, to him.

Now I am confused... OK does say that there was a 'more junior team member who proofed the deck' so it certainly sounds to me as if this person was involved - and others obviously read it that way as well. Was this a typo OP? If they did actually proof the deck then they should definitely have had some recognition. I work with people who are much more senior to me ( and I am not particularly junior) and it does grate somewhat not to receive any recognition on work in which I have been involved, which is most of the time. It does mean that when I do get recognition it is even more welcome.

Actually this just needs for the junior to come back and then message you both saying thanks Bob but actually it wasn't my (deck ....) - I was away and TreeTops developed the whole thing on her own, even cancelling leave.

That's what I'd do if I was Junior.

@SoupDragon

It sounds like it might be a business term for it - so why would you know that if you don’t work in business?

I haven't been in business for a very, very long time and even I could work out what it meant. It really wasn't hard in the context of the presentation.

The way people then went on to criticise the OP for using what was clearly an accepted phrase was ridiculous.

Were they criticised or were people just bemused by a new term for something they’d never heard of before?

@Caranjo has captured it perfectly above, also the reason why doing this can take so long - presumably there’s a lot of money attached to this project, so it makes sense why so much more time would go into it.

If anyone has any links to resources to help make PowerPoints / decks more professional looking (and less like you’ve just used the design wizard) please share!

[quote Hercisback]@caranjo

What counts as a long deck?

I write mostly original content on my teaching slides.

There is a whole other world out there I know very little about so it's really interesting to hear people spend so long preparing for one presentation.
Does the same person write the content and do the "design" work?[/quote]
For us usually, the whole team will feed into a presentation to a client, the content and design are part of the same package - design is how you get complex ideas across - it's not just about looking pretty.

The number of slides is kept to an absolute minimum, flicking through countless slides is distracting and dull - so every word, image, chart is carefully chosen for maximum impact and clarity.

A good proof reader is essential too - it's a team, everyone has a part to play, that's why I think the OP was being off - we know the value members of our team add, it would be really odd for our (male) senior manager to feel the need to highlight what they'd done separately - we'd feel the need to dig further and wonder if he was needing a break - maybe prioritise that holiday they'd missed.

I really hope you reply to his private message and set him straight, lightly, but clearly.

The idea that having cancelled leave, and spent a 50 hour week on a project for it to be petty for it to be coreectly acknowledged, is just ridiculous.

I think you are being a tad too passive about this. This is why some women become invisible in the promotion race against their male peers. I reckon a man would make sure that credit was attributed correctly.

Sorry, but I wouldn’t be pleased with someone taking the glory for something that I spent 50 hrs on
Junior, should have made it clear that she proofread the presentation, but didn’t actually write it

@30mph

I think you are being a tad too passive about this. This is why some women become invisible in the promotion race against their male peers. I reckon a man would make sure that credit was attributed correctly.

Absolutely

If a junior was able to write the presentation to the standard the OP believes she produced it to, someone would have noticed, the junior would be seen as a superstar - no one seriously believes junior jointly produced the exceptional presentation - unless she usually does and then maybe op has a point - but a very weak one and if I was the OP I'd be watching my back because that exceptionally talented junior will be overtaking you - whether you make a song and dance about your input or not.

People are so picky and unable to think outside of their own norms.

We use 'deck' all the time in my business and in fact I'm working on right now that I have about 80 hours allocated to. Just because you've done a 'really long' one for a lecture, you can't imagine a situation where one might take longer to create?

I'm adapting and creating new training material, pulling in loads of resources, changing the design/look/feel as I go, changing the structure, etc. When you're the main writer on one it's common to feel a bit of 'ownership' over it, and if you're the one who's done all the work, it would be annoying to be overlooked.

I do suspect in this case the email was badly written, but it would wind me up too!

Back to my deck... (btw I can flex my hours so can make this time up later!)

@Innacurate dream - I agree. Some of these responses are peculiar. Of course you can spend 50 (plus) hours on complex training. Some technical and training delivery goes on for a day and a half and is being presented to a wide range of public services. It can take a lot of work to get it right.

Suggesting that the OP is ineffective and unable to work quickly and get it done in 4-5 hours means you are probably in a different area of work. Not sure why people can't grasp that.