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!!!!!!

I would just leave it tbh as it would look petty to clarify.

I don’t see the problem with using the term ‘deck’. I have always considered it quite a standard term and widely used where I work.

You will have an opportunity to see if the Junior member of staff is trustworthy and honest, if they take the Credit for the presentation you know that they are out for themselves so at least you will have learnt something from the episode and be pre warned for next time.

I think that's unfair. Junior colleague may have read it differently or feel uncomfortable correcting a very senior member of staff and not be sure what to do or how to handle it.

Sitting back waiting for the Junior to fail this test, when op (who is more senior) isn't sure how to handle it is a bit shit.

Frustrating as it is (and I totally get that) it's very hard to see a way to clarify that's not going to seem petty, especially as more and more time passes since the praise was given. If I were you I'd perhaps use the presentation as a piece of work you're particularly proud of to bring up in your next1-2-1 and then you can explain the process of working on it, and it'll be clear then to your manager that it was all you - but you can do that without actively pointing out that Junior Girl Did Nothing Actually because that does sound petty tbh. Also, let's face it, throughout everyone's career there are bound to be times when the shoe is on the other foot, when you're praised as part of a team but in fact other individuals did most of the work. It's swings and roundabouts.

@thisplaceisweird

Are you actually 'quite senior'? Doesn't sound like it. As someone senior, you should no longer be interested in credit, but in helping those who do good work in your teams be recognised and to help them move forward. You should be motivated by the business's success, that's your measure of success when you're senior, not little tasks like creating presentations.

Let this go and boost the junior lady (not girl, I assume she's an adult!!!!)

Ha. Because women will get the career progression they deserve?

I think people are misreading your bosses message and not getting that he complimented you on the presentation but the junior member on the deck (not you both).

That would really wind me up and I probably would go back and say “Actually this one was all me but so glad it went well in any case” but I’m petty like that (I hasten to add that if I was the junior member of staff, I would immediately go back and correct the misunderstanding too!

Whatever you decide to do, well done on your work paying off OP - don’t lose sight of that!

@Associatepeggy

You will have an opportunity to see if the Junior member of staff is trustworthy and honest, if they take the Credit for the presentation you know that they are out for themselves so at least you will have learnt something from the episode and be pre warned for next time.

I think that's unfair. Junior colleague may have read it differently or feel uncomfortable correcting a very senior member of staff and not be sure what to do or how to handle it.

Sitting back waiting for the Junior to fail this test, when op (who is more senior) isn't sure how to handle it is a bit shit.

This - especially as Junior Girl is off sick and may not be back for a while, by the time she's back she may feel she's missed the window to respond. It's not her fault the manager acknowledged her as well, and it doesn't even necessarily mean he doesn't realise OP did most of the work, it's quite normal/polite to acknowledge all team members, and especially to want to give a morale boost to someone junior.

If you're due to meet with your manager soon I would discuss it then. Just say you're glad the time you spent writing it was worth the effort etc and that xx was great at proofing it.

@thisplaceisweird

*But the junior staff DIDN’T DO THE GOOD WORK.

You can’t get credit for things you don’t do*

It doesn't matter. Boss congratulated the team. Say thanks and accept your hard work as part of a team and accept that it's the junior's time to shine be recognised. Senior people shouldn't need praise for such practical tasks.

He didn't though, he said directly to her 'they loved YOUR deck' (yes I know re the word deck, but let's overlook that for now!)

It wasn't hers, her only role was to read it for typos

I don't think it is petty to want credit for your own time and effort either. It would be if eg. You put 60pc into it and the other person put 40pc into it.

I think people are misreading your bosses message and not getting that he complimented you on the presentation but the junior member on the deck (not you both).

I think you could read it either way, and if he was complimenting them both on the deck it means OP trying to correct him might come across differently from how she intends. It's one thing if he credited completely the wrong person, but if he's essentially saying "Well done team!" piping up to insist all the credit goes to you might make you seem petty/not a team player. No point OP busting a gut to do a good piece of work - which her manager has acknowledged - only to make it look like you have an attitude problem five minutes later (which your manager will also notice).

I'd probably be petty and reply with 'Thanks! Yes, Junior did a great job proofreading it for me as is gone totally blind to mistakes after so many hours looking at it! Was a real help.'

Christ all these suggested replies to the message are like a cosplay version of what people think a corporate environment is like.

meh. Where i work now, and places i have worked in the past - making a great presentation, including the actual presentation, and people knowing about how good you are at this kind of thing is what gets you noticed. And getting noticed is the game here, it's how you get the good jobs, the good promotions and all the rest of the shit stuff that you have to do in a dog-eat-dog corporate world.

Yes, teamwork is good, but promoting yourself isn't bad. And as for "juniors need recognition" yes, they do, but unless and until they are putting in the hours and their years of knowledge and experience, they can get thanked for helping, proofing or whatever.

I have been in no end of meetings with men who are very happy to take credit for everything from actually turning up, spelling the name of the venue correctly etc etc. And so i do the same. I expect to be praised to high heavens for knowing not to use slide transitions and all the rest.

I'd* ironic

You are resentful you had to put in more work last week. It’s not your boss’ fault or the junior’s fault that you allowed them to trample over your boundaries and now feel hard done by.

Don’t correct it. There is now way to phrase it that isn’t petty because the sentiment itself is petty and a little ugly. Take your cancelled leave instead.

Just to add a thought on the other side - my senior bosses would probably be a bit puzzled if a senior manager was spending hours preparing slides and in my organisation, it would reflect better on you that you supported a junior team member to pull them together rather than did them yourself. So it's maybe not such a bad thing?

I'd go with a combination of what @Hugasauras and what @NewMum0305 suggested.
I wouldn't let it slide to be honest. You deserve the praise for the work you did. You cancelled your leave to be able to do it!

Call me petty, but I would have already messaged back privately and said “Unfortunately Junior Girl has been ill so wasn’t able to assist on this one, but I think she’s feeling a lot better now” (or something similar).

How does your boss not know you cancelled leave to work on it? Or than Junior Team Member was off sick? Is he so out of touch?!

@alltheapples

The manager was in the right. He acknowledge everyone's work on it. Presumably he knows you wrote it and he knows you presented it. So he is simply acknowledging the work of your colleague as well.

This is my point, I think he thinks that she did most of it as he's describing it as 'hers'

@Useranon1

How does your boss not know you cancelled leave to work on it? Or than Junior Team Member was off sick? Is he so out of touch?!

To be honest, I'm not sure / he knows I cancelled leave but we're all so busy he could have forgotten what I was working on, it could have been any number of things

@peachgreen

Just to add a thought on the other side - my senior bosses would probably be a bit puzzled if a senior manager was spending hours preparing slides and in my organisation, it would reflect better on you that you supported a junior team member to pull them together rather than did them yourself. So it's maybe not such a bad thing?

This is exactly how it should work, but as I explained she and everyone else was too busy to help so I had to do it alone. It's not ideal by any stretch but sometimes needs must

He didn't though, he said directly to her 'they loved YOUR deck' (yes I know re the word deck, but let's overlook that for now!)

I don't think he did, necessarily. I think the "your" could refer to the both of you collectively. The ", and junior girl," could have just been roping her in as an afterthought to comments that were addressed to you, the team. Imagine the sentence being spoken rather than written, that might make what I mean clearer.

I'm not saying your interpretation is definitely wrong, he could have meant either, but if no-one has given him explicit reason to think junior girl did the work, the reduces the probability that your interpretation is correct.

@SevenWaystoLeave

I think people are misreading your bosses message and not getting that he complimented you on the presentation but the junior member on the deck (not you both).

I think you could read it either way, and if he was complimenting them both on the deck it means OP trying to correct him might come across differently from how she intends. It's one thing if he credited completely the wrong person, but if he's essentially saying "Well done team!" piping up to insist all the credit goes to you might make you seem petty/not a team player. No point OP busting a gut to do a good piece of work - which her manager has acknowledged - only to make it look like you have an attitude problem five minutes later (which your manager will also notice).

Maybe I'm wrong but I totally take it as him complimenting me on the presentation and her on the slides

@HTH1

Call me petty, but I would have already messaged back privately and said “Unfortunately Junior Girl has been ill so wasn’t able to assist on this one, but I think she’s feeling a lot better now” (or something similar).

Yes, that's perfect. It acknowledges that Junior Girl would have helped if she'd been able to (thereby complimenting her normal efforts) while establishing that she didn't help in this particular instance, through no fault of her own.

Email back saying "I'm glad you liked it, particularly as I had to turn it all around quite quickly". Then add "thanks to junior member of staff for the proofreading (or whatever it was)".