Thrown under the bus at work

[Ceci03]

So am I being over sensitive. I'll try to make it short. Started new job end Jan. It's been hard learning new software and processes mostly left to my own devices. Little to zero training. Expected to pick things up from others on the team when they are v busy.

Anyway am on leave today but forgot to turn off my teams notifications. A colleague put up a very long message basically explaining to everyone (everyone is on this chat even people not in our team and all the managers) that I made a mistake. She adds a screenshot where I said I would do something but forgot . She explains how she is sorting it out. Which would take her a couple of minutes. It would
Have taken her longer to write out the essay/message on teams than fix it for today and message me privately so I can finish sorting it or talk to me on Tuesday.
I'm so upset. And obviously morto . I made a mistake and I'm sorry of course and I want to fix it. It's not a major thing it's easily sorted I'll just do it first thing on Tues and apologize.
Nobody has commented or replied to her message which makes me wonder are they a bit wtf has she written all
That out on teams. I'm hoping the rest of the team know me enough to know I try v hard and want to do a good job.
I thought this person was a friend. I would never do that. Put it so public and screenshot it .
Aibu

So you forgot to do something.

Your colleague took on your extra work and did it for you.

And you're angry at her? Wow.

No sense of accountability.

thanks for bringing this to my (and everyone elses) attention. It's great that you have managed to sort out what seems to be a minor error so quickly. Well done.

“Hi colleague, sorry, my bad, it slipped my mind. But it will take you 3 minutes to do xyz if you know what you’re doing. It’s very straightforward. Do you need help?”

I'd personally stay away from slightly passive aggressive replies like these. People will already be thinking she's petty.

Good on you for being the bigger person. My favourite utter dick email was from when I was working in Process Improvement on a large manufacturing site and one of the weekend shift supervisors sent an email out to me and the head of every single department on site, every member of the board and many others and about a issue they had at the weekend due to a (legally required) change of process.

I am afraid I was the smaller person and send a "reply to all" on his list to say (obviously in much more professional words) - speak to X who was on shift and who along with yourself signed off training after weeks of hand holding, hyper care and warranty and then both doing the process for weeks, for some reason didn't bother even signing on the system this week at all and I can see from the logs both X and you as supervisor to provide support if necessary were alarmed by the system 5 times (screenshots of read receipts throughout the night) this hadn't been done too. Please let me know how you would like this warning process to be improved. I am cc'ing in X for information to see if they can also suggest any improvements.

The best part was X was his wife (there were 4 of the same family working on site and they were a nightmare, very cliquey!) My mailbox was hot after that with masses of individual emails, and I had a couple of visits to my office, including from the board members, saying "Well said!"

But those were the days when we wouldn't put up with that shite and people respected straight talking.

I'm mortified for her!

Something very similar to this happened to my friend. She wrote a reply with her managers approval explaining why and how her email felt like bullying. The key being 'felt' not an accusation. The woman responded with an apology.

Is everyone forgetting that the other colleague had to do extra work, because the OP forgot to do her work?

Do not reply saying that you'd appreciate she communities directly or similar - you'd just be dragging yourself down to her level.

Screenshot it and make sure it's clear in the screenshot that it's in a group chat and then ignore it until Tuesday.

She looks like a petty spiteful twat and I'd just pick it up with your line manager when you're back.

Your colleagues who didn’t reply to her will be wondering if this will happen to them too when they make a mistake.

Communicates, not communities

No, and the other colleague won’t let anyone forget either.

Yes I’d do this - especially as she’s now done the same thing again.

@Mooshamoo

Oh come off it, a brief email to op would have sufficed not a petty email to the whole office!!!!

We get told specifically by management not to do this kind of shaming behaviour but to give people an opportunity to rectify issues / give them a hand with training or to raise bigger issues with line managers instead of a free for all on emails

I would feel inclined to ask my line manager if it was normal business practice at this company to highlight everyone’s mistakes on a Teams chat on their day off and whether this approach had been approved by HR.

Are you serious?

In my work teams chat.
Errors are often talked about.

Errors happen.

Errors NEED to be talked about, as they need to be fixed.

Errors affect more than one person.
If an error happens it needs to be fixed.

I see errors called out on my Microsoft teams chat all the time. Because different colleagues /departments are involved in each others work.

So one person in one department might say on the group chat "John you forgot to do this".

Nobody has a heart attack over it.

It is important that errors are called out so they can be fixed.

“I’m glad you mentioned this as I’ve fixed xyz of your mistakes before also. Perhaps (name drop) the manager could use these examples as a learning opportunity in future training so that we can avoid comms like this.”

Defo don't say this. 😂 You'll be stooping to her level of pettiness but look worse as it's ultimately your mistake no matter how minor.

So what? Raise it privately.

Ha ha ! Just perfectly borderline disingenuous enough as it's a bank holiday weekend too 😂

I think she looks stupid, most managers would think poorly of her for doing that, more so than you for making a mistake. I’d keep a dignified silence and keep your distance.

What if the error affects multiple people though?

So someone might have said to this colleague "why are you not working on this".

And then she will have to say "well I can't do that right now, as I am doing this because Jane forgot to do it".

Errors affect multiple people and need to be talked about sometimes .

No one is saying don't raise errors, what they are saying is there is a professional way to go about it and a mass Teams notice is not the way. A quiet word was all that was required here.

i would as people say give it a thumbs up on teams to show you have seen it, say nothing but over kill her with kindness. The silence to her teams message speaks volumes, go in Tuesday all smiles put your head down. I had to deal with one similar, would send an email out with an attachment or a start of a project to review. A specific person would reply back to all, which could be about 50 people pointing out all my errors petty ones like my I wasnt caps or the colour was wrong etc. Everyone would roll their eyes at it, no one is perfect, mistakes can happen but it takes a complete b to point it out in front of everyone. In my case she would have come across far more helpful if she private message me or email directly to me inly. She got pulled up a few times on it as pissed people including my manager. it made her look so petty and she was trying to show she was bigger than everyone. Thankfully she has moved on to another department and her replacement far more helpful
Had another girl worked with and she would be like this every time i was off, always running to the manager saying made mistakes ect, got to a stage was so worried about my work being covered was afraid to take a day off

When training people now in my current job, if see a mistake will message them privatly or speak to them face to face on the quiet.
@Mooshamoo i am sure that's loved, yes errors happen, an old manager used to say only people who don't work don't make mistakes, but say it privately. No need to call it out in front of everyone

I know I would be exactly the same as you in your situation - I'm a people pleaser and hate confrontation. She has shown her true colours for all to see, and everyone will now know not to trust her - that could be enough if you don't wish to respond. She probably feels threatened by you to react in this way. I would leave it and rise above her pettiness. She won't make many friends behaving like that. However, if she tries something again, I would definitely speak to someone about it. In the meantime, keep your distance and just let your work ethic do the talking.

Well she’s publicly nailed her colours to the mast hasnt she? No one’s going to trust her now. Do nothing, sort it on Tuesday if it needs sorting and be very, very wary of her going forward.