To be really upset at manager's behaviour

[Theredbears]

I' ve been working for my manager for almost 4 years now, I work in the UK and he & the rest of the team are in another country.. I've had no issues with him till now and my end of year reports have been good. For context, I have been with my employer for 20 years.

a few weeks ago he asked me to complete a simple 5 min task.
I didn't think it was required because it was being completely by another team. I explained this to him via email and during a team meeting & I thought he had accepted my reasoning.
A few days later asked if I'd completed the task and I explained I hadn't and referrenced what I sent in the email and said in the team meeting.
He then asked me to phone him and proceeded to berate for a good 10 mins.

It was along the lines of 1) why didn't you do what I asked you to do? Why do I have to chase you? You're making me looking bad. I understand this - and agree I should have done this.

He then proceeded to tell me I was under performing and he was receiving negative feedback about me, that I wasn't putting in 100%. I am not being proactive. I am completing task quickly and wasn't offering a good service. I asked for specfic examples and he didn't give me any.

He rounded it if by asking if I needed additional support.. which is basically code for if I wanted to be put on a performance improvement plan.

This has all come out of the blue. My last meeting with him was our end of year review in mid December and it was very postive.

I have spent the last week racking my brains looking for examples of why he thinks my performance has been so poor over the last 2 months..

A colleague that reports to him (based on the same country) told me is quick to put people on improvement plans & has done it to several people in the team. The colleague said I should have ended the call as soon as he raised his voice.

I feel quite upset that he spoke to me this way but my confidence is shot. I keep thinking of what I could have done.

You didn't do the task you were asked to do. I don't think there's much of a comeback from there for you.

Sounds like he was unnecessarily rude but you need to do what you're asked.

He is probably under pressure and has taken it out on you.

However, it would have been diplomatic of you to complete the task especially as it was quick. There was a reason he asked you to do it and you just were blocking him.

You could have done it in the time you spent writing the emails!

Now, you will have grovel and massage his ego to get back on his good side.

He asked you to do a task.

You instead emailed him telling him why you didn't need to do the task.

He didn't actually agree to you not doing it.

So therefore you didn't do what was asked and have underperformed.

I don't understand why you didn't do the task, especially as you said it was a simple 5 minute task. Surely emailing to explain why you weren't doing it would have taken longer.
You should have done the task you were given and because you chose not to this is why they are now watching your performance.

I've just read this on Reddit as well, it's 100% the same story.

You've had a lot of good advice on there OP. What are you unclear on?

Why not just contact the other team and say you'd been asked to do this, then get on and do it?

Apologise to him face to face, i.e. not in an email or a message, once you've calmed down. Acknowledge you'd not done as he had asked. I sometimes get asked to do things that are technically for someone else and will check if it's really meant for me, but not refuse to do it. It's usually the kind of thing I can do quickly when they know the someone else is snowed under - part and parcel of being in a team. Once I've queried any similar request is usually qualified with why it's come to me.

The manager's reaction and the way you feel now show there was a miscommunication. At the time it was no big deal to you, but you felt it wasn't something you should do, he feels you've been awkward, refused to do something perfectly normal and undermined his authority. Next time listen more carefully. And remember your job description probably states you can be asked to do stuff that's not on there.

Exactly - or copy them in when you respond if appropriate so no one does it twice.

100% my fault. I wish he had said it is a nicer or constructive way.

What's done is done. No one can turn back the clock. Move forward now. Apologise and do everything he asks from now on.

What did you expect though? I guess you could consider the fact he asked whether you needed extra support as being constructive and helpful (though we all know this is perhaps not the case).

@Theredbears works in a different country to her manager so apologising face to face as you suggest could be tricky.

I'm going to disagree with PPs on a few things. Firstly it's perfectly reasonable to push back when being asked to duplicate work. OP is presumably a skilled professonional, not a little drone who should just do exactly what she's told. She had additional information that her manager did not, ie the task was already completed.
Secondly, even if he felt like she had done something wrong, him berating her for ten minutes is a massive overreaction and a pretty disgusting way to treat a member of staff. If he'd developed concerns about her peformance since her review, he should have discussed them calmly and not used them as a stick to beat her with.

Funny. She can do it on a Teams call. That's face to face.