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

If you flip this scenario around, and another staff member openly said you were bringing x late and expecting them to do it, you would (should) be mortified by how unprofessional and unnecessary that comment was in a public meeting. Put yourself in others' shoes, and I doubt you'll see yourself as the victim.

I think OP has got the point by now that it wasn’t the time or place for this, or the tone.

But reading the replies also shows why people dislike meetings like these so much and how toxic some workplaces can be if ‘your card is marked’, you’re forever seen as a troublemaker, we do things the way we’ve always done them etc.

Naming names should be in done in private, not in room full of staff. You could have shown more discretion. Wrt tone of voice it's hard to judge because it wasn't heard by us, but I presume your body language might have been the issue.

Saying that, just because it could be raised in quiet doesn't mean you're right about your complaint. For all we know, you may be scapegoating and you/your department are not pulling your weight.

Appreciate feedback maybe I was wrong to say it there and then is this something I could be getting a warning about

It honestly depends.

If you don’t have form for this sort of behaviour; most managers would leave it there and not take it further than a discussion about professionalism in the workplace and appropriate routes of escalation.

If there’s a pattern of behaviour, or if the team you slagged off raises a complaint or grievance, then they may be forced to do something more formal.

So if you felt like saying he was a pig with disgusting bad breath you'd just blurt it out, would you?

There's a time and a place for sensitive feedback. This was not it.

A warning? Not sure, it would depend on your workplace. Your manager will likely follow it up. In which case I would apologise for singling out some colleagues in front of others, it was not your intention to humiliate anyone but you were very frustrated about the issue.

Then just raise any issues like directly with your manager in future.

With me, you wouldn't get a warning for the actual complaint, rather a reminder of time and place and how such complaints should be made.

You might regarding your "tone" which you've not fully explained. As I see it, there were two things going on. Talking about something at the wrong moment, and being told about your "tone". If you were aggressive, or insulting, or using inappropriate language etc, then you'd maybe get a verbal warning about that.

I'd say a warning is extremely unlikely. They dealt with this on the spot. It seems you stopped when asked. It wasn't (in my experience) very unusual behaviour, just unfortunate.

I think any company that resorted to a warning over a one-off like this would look ridiculous, would be wasting their time and yours, and could be asked questions about how they communicated unspoken rules / purpose of meeting.

If it's an emailing culture drop them an email showing you understand this wasn't time and place and sorry for any distress / disruption. Then you've done all you should to repair things. I wouldn't worry about a warning. I'd be amazed if that happened (and would phone ACAS / consult union rep).

Tbh I’d probably preempt any conversation with a visit to your manager and an ‘on reflection I’ve realised that that was not the place to raise that’ and an apology.

Taking ownership would go down better than being called in for a reminder about professionalism.

I doubt you'll get a warning - at the end of the day, it sounds like a legitimate complaint about this room, it was the delivery and timing that was off. The wording of your comment was snarky and goady and in a public forum it could've triggered a slanging match, which is why your boss rightly told you to tone it down. I'd go in today and talk to your boss directly, admit you were wrong to bring it up as you did but the issue is causing a problem they need to address.

This is good. I would do the same.

op Are you ok? We all cock up at work at times. Your response reads very flat and hasn’t engaged with the wider convo.

Speak to employee afterwards and explain that their feedback is important but this wasn’t the forum to raise the issue as it wasn’t something they could openly discuss and resolve at that time. Then ask for more information on the issue and any suggestions on how it could be resolved. Then attempt to resolve it in the most positive, non confrontational way possible, taking input and feedback from others if appropriate, even maybe asking a group of representatives from the teams to come up with a solution. It would depend on the detail but open, honest, respectful interactions as much as possible.

Another way you could have phrased is:
”There seems to be a bottleneck in process A (does not directly name room) which is negatively affecting service delivery (suggests you are thinking of the client and the company image rather than yourself having to rush too finish the work) so could we do……?’(suggest a solution which saves managers having to think if one).

Definitely inappropriate and unprofessional.

Regarding a warning, it depends. It’s unlikely given that they addressed it and I assume that you stopped it then and there? If you pressed the issue, maybe. It also depends on your tone.

if I was your manager, I’d have a follow up conversation with you about the issue and about how best to raise things like this in the future.

I would definitely be looking to dissuade you from continuing this behaviour. The trouble is this will likely have an impact on the dynamics of the teams going forward.

Sounds like your boss is one of those incompetent types who talk the talk but does sweet FA about problem solving because they’re afraid of dealing with conflict.

I agree that it might have been better to raise it in a 1:1 meeting but if it’s a situation that’s impacting your whole team (who were attending the meeting), then I think it WAS appropriate to raise it in a team meeting.

Not necessarily.

This could be the first time the manager’s hearing about it (likely given the OP would probably have said if it was something that previously hadn’t gotten any traction going via other routes of escalation)

The team in question may be dealing with another business priority or have a known issue that is already being dealt with; and it’s not always appropriate to share that with the wider business.

You already seem convinced you are in the right. Have you paused to consider what your tone was like, or are you just going to insist that you are right so that must mean your boss is wrong?

You mentioned the room. You boss was doing you a favour by reminding you not to mention names. I accept that you say you didn't do so, but given that you'd already identified an entire room of people as "not doing their part", maybe your boss thought that you'd go further & incriminate yourself with a personal attack.

If you need to take this up, do so in private with your boss, & be specific.
Keep all remarks professional, tone-check yourself, & don't make waffly blame-laying statements like "team X is not doing their part."
Instead, say something like "when team X falls behind with processing ABC, it causes a logjam for us, resulting in a 15% decline in productivity. Please can you help me identify where the issue is, so that team X & my department can continue to support maximum productivity?"

Maybe it was how you said it, in a whiney shitstirring kind of way which is why you were told to watch your tone.

Equally it may have been watch the tone as in the content of what you were saying.

Either way if you have that sort of issue you complain about it via management, not in an open forum.

An all staff meeting was neither the time nor the place, and if they both commented on your tone there was some issue? Sounds like you were either confrontational or whiny.

I think you took the "any questions/things to say" a bit too literally. It doesn't mean that it's appropriate to say absolutely anything. Surely you know there's a line? Would you say the following are appropriate?

"I just wanted to let everyone know that Dave and Lisa are having an affair"

"I just wanted to tell you that I hate this place and hearing you drone on makes me want to gouge my own eyes out"

Presuming the answer to the above is "no" then why not? Your boss said you can use the time to ask questions/say anything?

The reason you don't is because it's unprofessional and inappropriate. Presuming you understand that my extreme examples aren't appropriate, then what people are telling you is that what you said also crossed the line into unprofessionalism.

"Any questions?" means things like "would you like us to prioritise the task we just spoke about the the task we were assigned last week?" or "would you like the first draft emailing over or shall I wait until it's finished?" - Small, easy questions to finish off the meeting.

Things to say are things like "I just wanted to let everyone know that the printer on our floor is out of order so you won't be able to use it today but it will hopefully be fixed by the morning".

It's not an appropriate place to criticise your colleagues in public and throw them under the bus in front of everyone. That's something that's more appropriate to do in private. It comes across like you were trying to have a dig and get them in trouble in front of your bosses.

He asked for questions. You didn’t ask a question, you assumed authority and piggybacked the meeting to make a statement that criticized your colleagues. You didn’t need to name names, presumably everyone knows who works in room X.

You approached that horribly, in completely the wrong forum.

If you hold a staff meeting, then you have to be make it clear beforehand why it's being held and what topics it will cover. I'm in the minority in terms of voting because while I definitely would never criticise colleagues in public this way, I also think your managers handled this badly. All they had to do was say that people should raise concerns like this privately with their line manager and that they know everyone is concerned about the company working as effectively as possible.

By focussing on you and your tone of voice, they appear to be switching away from what is happening in Room X and closing down discussion. Maybe there is a problem there that needs resolving.

The difficulty for you is that everyone in Room X will have heard what you said or will be told about it. The managers should remind you of the right way to raise your concerns but also look into what you said and make sure workplace relations aren't affected. Unfortunately you have to be prepared for the reality which is that some managers won't always want to hear about problems in the workplace.

OP has accepted she was wrong.

Unless her managers are insecure control freaks, I really wouldn't expect this to get into warning territory. They could have handled this better themselves - no need to be critical of OP in public.

Hope you are okay OP. This would be forgotten fast anywhere I've worked. Have coffee with a work friend. Don't panic.

If I were you OP, I'd ask manager for a quick chat this morning as you've reflected on the meeting last night and realise you
Shouldn't have raised the issue then.

Apologise for any upset caused and then make sure you'll be happy to work with the other room to look at the processes to see if they can be made more effective.

Be collaborative rather than confrontational or accusing.