Was I wrong for speaking out at staff meeting today

[Safarigiraffe]

Had a staff meeting today after work, boss goes round asking everyone at the end of the meeting if any of us had any questions or anything to say so I said that staff in a particular room are not doing their part in what they have to do to help us out so then both my bosses tell me to watch my tone of voice & not to mention names (I mentioned no names only mentioned the room in particular) made me feel uncomfortable, guilty & awkward after for saying something. So should I of kept quiet or were my bosses being unreasonable for telling me to watch my tone of voice & not to mention names

With such concerns it's best to have a quiet word in private with your manager about it tbh.

That’s the kind of thing you needed to discuss in private really, not declare to the whole building that you don’t feel the staff in a particular room are pulling their weight. You don’t need to have named names if everyone knows who works in that room. I’d be furious if I worked in there and you announced that in a staff meeting!

Not unreasonable at all to tell you to watch your tone of voice, assuming it needed watching.

You were not being unreasonable to say what you felt you needed to say.

Well, it might not have been the appropriate forum to raise that kind of complaint/accusation. But hopefully they heard you and will follow up on it.

Well my boss did ask if we had any questions or anything to say so that’s why I mentioned it however telling me to watch my tone or voice and not to mention any names in particular I don’t think was right

Yes, concerns that are personal like that need to be raised privately. It’s unprofessional to bring up in a staff meeting. I had to explain exactly this to someone I line manage recently, so don’t feel too bad.

Discretion is the better part of valor

you need to understand that people asking that at the end of a meeting, aren’t actually expecting questions. It’s like if a colleague asks how you are, you responding with “great thanks you?”. They’re not expecting you to tell them about your life going wrong.

Your manager 100% thought you blindsided them and surprised them with this. It’s not right but it’s office politics. A team meeting isn’t the place to raise this.

Your boss was looking for queries or for positive input, ideas. Your response was negative - it was inappropriate for the situation and potentially very damaging for interdepartmental relationships. Therefore your boss publically censored you. Not brilliant management either.
You sound 5 tbh with the "well he said to Say" defence because in an adult world it's obvious what input was needed.

Concerns about process or deadlines or something like that are generally fine to raise in meetings. This was a peformance management issue which is different.
To be blunt, it quite a hostile environment if people are openly slagging one another off!

I mean we weren't there obviously, but why would two different people tell you to watch your tone of voice if it didn't need watching?

It sounds unprofessional you should of had a quiet word

Basically all I said was “just want to say about the xxxx room not to bring us things at the last min expecting us to do it for them”

The thing is, if you’re saying something controversial or awkward or inappropriate, you do need to watch your tone as it could make the situation worse.

This is not a meeting closer. Unless it was a meeting about performance and deadline issues?

It's never sensible to openly accuse, whether a person or a department. It leads to hostility and sometimes a lack of cooperation in future. There might be a good reason why it's happening. Giving the benefit of the doubt fosters good relations.

No this was not about performance or deadline issues it was just a general meeting about things in general

you were very inappropriate, that is not something to raise in a meeting

Honestly, if you phrased it like that I'm not surprised you got pulled up on it in a public forum. Phrasing something in that way would have been better kept for a private conversation with a manager, not a wrap up question session at the end of a meeting. If you really had to mention it at a meeting, it might've been better to say 'I wanted to mention it'd be really helpful if people could do x by y time, it helps us get z finished and back to you much quicker'.

I also think that you were unreasonable in bringing such an obviously identifying criticism to a meeting room full of colleagues.
It’s confrontational and negative and unnecessary.

You are of course entitled to your opinion but should have taken it to a private meeting with management.

I can’t imagine that you will be very popular with the team that you identified and the other people in the room, you kind of publicly threw them under the bus there.
Don’t imagine that the atmosphere will now be very happy following this. No one wants that.

No, you were wrong. That is not the place to raise that sort of complaint about other people’s work.

So you tried to get a dig in at at a meeting, totally unprofessional

Personally I wouldn’t have brought something like that up. As a manager I also wouldn’t have responded like that though, I would have said something polite but firm like ‘this sounds like it would be better to discuss tomorrow.’

I think saying a whole room ‘isn’t pulling their weight’ just isn’t going to go over well in a meeting.

That's so inappropriate of you. Why didn't you just speak to your manager quietly on the side???

It makes a weird atmosphere now as well - I think things like this are always best handled carefully or you can end up with a real ‘them and us’ environment.