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

Presumably your tone of voice was unduly sharp or confrontational so they were right to ask you to watch it. You should have brought this issue up privately beforehand with whoever is in charge of the room in question; if you have and it didn't work, your next step would have been to raise it directly with that person's line manager or the bosses, or alternatively you could have asked for the issue of the relevant process to be put on the agenda for the meeting.

It is hard to tell OP as you've not really expended on what exactly it is you said or how you said it. Were any of the people from that room in the meeting or were other staff in the meeting or was it just your department?

What consequences depends on a lot of things.

I learned a while ago that when you are asked if you have any questions at staff meetings the correct answer is either “No, thanks for asking” or to bring up a vaguely complimentary and quickly resolved thing so everyone can feel good.

The question is a courtesy that you are not expected to act upon.

So, a good question might be “Who brought in those real butter shortbread last week and can we get some more?”. Polite giggle from everyone as they stand up, relieved the meeting is over.

Anything you actually want to talk about you can email over before.

Similarly, many businesses only ever want polite feedback. Nothing you say will be acted on in certain workplaces and you will be marked down for mentioning it.

It sounds like this business is in the latter category.

Oh dear. In you next job, attend a few meetings without voicing your concerns about other staff so you can gauge the atmosphere more adequately. Learn how to behave. Don't trash your colleagues or you'll have a miserable working life no matter where you go.

You certainly need to be spoken to about your poor judgement and raising things in the right forum and in the right manner, but I wouldn’t have thought an official “warning“ would be required.

How would you feel if a colleague voiced something publicly about the team you're part of? If it were me, I'd feel upset and embarrassed.

Things like this are always best raised privately.

MAYBE wrong??

In a staff meeting, if they ask if anyone has any questions or anything to say, they are referring to constructive comments e.g. thanking someone for something, asking for help with something, warning people about any upcoming things that might cause issues.

What you did was slag off a department to the entire company. VERY unprofessional!

So yes, it is likely they might want to have a further discussion with you about this, or you might want to get in there first and apologise.

If you have a problem with another department, you take it up in a one to one meeting with your line manager.

It's a common mistake though, with new to the workforce people. You live and learn. I've seen it happen where I work recently with a school leaver. They're taught these days to speak out at school. But it's best not to at first, particularly in a large organisation, as there will be so many factors you are not yet aware of. It's very easy to get it wrong and I suspect most of us have at one time or another.

Got a verbal warning over this at work & they spoke to me about being unprofessional & it came across as very harsh.

Good frankly

It's not overly harsh, tbh. Hopefully you now know what behaviours are considered unacceptable 🤷🏻‍♀️

Yet still no self-reflection on how YOU came across.

You WERE harsh.
You accused an entire room of people of "not doing their part".
You didn't state facts, you didn't back it up with data & examples, you didn't ameliorate the negativity by asking to understand what was preventing them from fulfilling whatever - you just came out & claimed that a whole team of people aren't doing their job properly.

If I'm honest, and I appreciate this may be tricky to hear, I think if you can you should look for another job. Your cards are marked at this one now.

This. I can’t believe you thought this was appropriate.

Maybe it’s time to look for a new job?

Beyond the verbal warning, have they offered you any training or some learning opportunity? Because I think you'd really benefit from that kind of explanation. A telling off is unhelpful (including from previous posters) if you don't understand what you've done wrong.

You were unprofessional and inappropriate. I'd be mortified if I were you.

Is this your first job or something as you don't seem to understand workplace norms? It's not high school. You don't air your grievances in the playground.

If there are actual performance issues related to others, then you go through proper channels to address them if you can't tackle them at source. You don't make snarky comments in a staff meeting.

Does your warning come with some additional training?

You're surprised by this? I'd be looking for a new job if I were you. I don't think you will recover from this, honestly.

Rough day for you @Safarigiraffe
How were your colleagues with you? I hope they can move past this. Lesson learned I suppose, try to put it behind you & just keep your head down.

YABU - you should have raised this issue with your line manager in private. You misunderstood the invitation for questions or comments, and it’s not your job to admonish colleagues in public.

I think what the OP was saying , was that her Management complained that what she had said was very harsh.

I think the OP has realised she shouldn’t have raised the matter now, she has been punished, and we all know it was a huge mistake to have done so, but give her a break.

She realises this, and needs to be able to move on, and make amends, and forgive herself.

Its easy to blurt things out, when they have been praying on your mind, and it wasn’t the right thing to do, clearly, but it’s done now

Dear OP, just get on with your work, apologise for your mistake, and don’t get mixed up with the gossip, that clearly goes around at work.

Hear hear @CatsKittensCloud

Ignore the other overly harsh and quite frankly unhelpful comments, OP.

OP we have all done things at work we regret in hindsight. Put it behind you, forgive yourself and move on.

Apologising and owning your fuck up is a sign of maturity and growing up. Ignore the naysayers, don't dwell on the past, just learn from it and leave it where it belongs, behind you.

Concerns I think should have been raised privately first, which I don't think was the case.

Everybody messes up at work. We have all done things where we realise it was not the correct way to go about it.

You just need to learn from it and move on from it.

But there was no hidden meaning here. Asking if you have any questions, often does mean they are prepared to answer them. But about the subject at hand. And it’s not hidden that publicly criticising a whole group of people is never going to go down well.

Pp said it well earlier. Praise in public, criticism in private.