Is my boss being mean to me? I can’t tell.

[Char88ie]

So I discovered a major mistake in work yesterday - something that means a year’s worth of work needs to be reviewed and potentially redone.

I told my boss about what I found and his reaction was “you need to slow down”. I don’t think I spoke fast at all though. But I slowed down and his reaction was “I don’t have time for this now or tomorrow and I refuse to spend my Friday on something like that”.

Today he’s not responding to me at all and I feel I’ve done something wrong. All I’ve done is pointing out a potentially bad error.

Am I reading too much into this?

Do you have it in writing that you spoke to him about it? If he refuses to deal with it, you need something in writing to prove you highlighted it so it doesn't bite you on the ass.

Maybe send a email on Monday.

He probably doesn't want to deal with it because the buck will stop with him with the higher ups.

Go above his head.

Agree - I’d email him to document it.

“Following our conversation yesterday about x, I’m summarising the key points so you can consider the project when you have capacity to review.

<bullet point the key points>

Let me know if you’d like me to arrange a further catch up to talk through the above and how I can support with next steps.”

Who is responsible for the mistake?
Who will have to sort out the mess?

Are you implicated or have you just found the error?

Your boss might be trying t cover his arse or avoid the issue.

Thank you all so much for the replies. I agree an email to him on Monday is a good idea so I’ll do that.

for background, I’ve just taken over a project after a colleague left the company. He’s the one who’s made the error, but my manager signed off on the issue, so guess he’s involved too. It affects me because I’m now in charge of the project, so I’m very stressed about it.

I don’t think he’s ’being mean’ - he probably got a shock at what you told him and handled it badly. Crap managing, but we’re all people. He might need to let it sink in for a few days before tackling it.

Why are you stressed? Yes work might need to be redone and reviewed, but that will get done and you’ll just continue to work at a normal pace within your contracted hours. It’s not your fault that this work was incorrect. Will it have catastrophic nationwide economic impacts? Will people die? I’d definitely email him to follow up (just to cover yourself) but I wouldn’t spend a second worrying about it.

He’s not being personal. He’s in denial because he’ll be in the shit for this.

This is really good advice.

Also, if this is stopping you from working, maybe add something about that. "At the moment I am unable to progress X because of these issues, and would be grateful for your guidance about how we continue. Can we arrange a project catch-up to ensure that I can restart work on this as soon as possible?"

Yes, email him so you have it in writing that you raised the issue. The comment from an PP above covered it well with their phrasing.

He’s trying to avoid the issue. Don’t let him.

You did the right thing flagging it to him. If you had said nothing it may have gone undiscovered or picked up in an audit or review by higher management. Everyone makes mistakes and it's important to own them. He doesn't sound very supportive. Can you review and fix it yourself without his input?

I'd email asap. As described above. Cover your behind

Everything in writing. Email him with your concerns so you are covered. If he doesn't want to address it then that's on him.

No you’ve raised the issue twice

Don’t email him again!

Be patient fir a few days!

Is there any kind of time pressure to this. Any health and safety stuff etc?

If it is basically just admin of some kind ( as most of our jobs are) then it probably can wait.

I disagree with you. OP needs to cover herself and email ASAP to show she raised the issue as soon as she discovered it.

Always follow up in-person conversations with an email so you have evidence to refer to in the future, if needed.

He sounds like a dickhead OP. Hard to give any advice without knowing the culture, the gravity of the problem etc.

Can you tell a bit more? What's the impact of the mistake? Is it an error that's carried across data? Has the mistake been published and will need a public correction?

Raise it as a project issue as well, as it’s blocking progress.
Be very factual about it all, including if possible what the steps are to fix it - not saying fix it yourself but documenting what needs to be done.

Don't wait until Monday. He can leave it until then but raise it formally now.

Also agree not to wait. Monday is a Bank Holiday. I'd do it tomorrow. (Send the email).

It does carry the potential of being very serious. Parts of it are against internal procedures, but one aspect may actually be unlawful, which is the part I’m worried about and have kept flagging to him.

Yeah I would write a follow up email today as PPs have suggested. Not asking for an immediate response but st least just summarising what you spoke about

Thanks everyone, your comments are really helpful. I’ve decided I’ll email him today just to get it in writing. Then the ball’s in his court and I’ve got evidence I raised it as soon as I found out.

This isn’t about raising the issue again. It’s about creating a paper trail of the incident so that there can be no “misunderstandings” about what happened when. Do it today!

@Char88ieSnap!!

Right. Get prepared. Document everything, maybe prepare a report, send this to your boss via email, and make sure you have dated copies of everything you do and say, (email sumnaries of conversations etc) copy them to yourself at home or keep paper copies at home, not just at work where they could be deleted off the system. Whether or not your boss takes action on this is up to him, but if the sh*t hits the fan you need to be able to prove you did your best to flag this up. I don't know if (worst case scenario) he will try and blame you, or if he's hoping nobody will notice, but you need to be prepared to defend yourself if people try to blame you. If you are really unhappy and believe this will damage your company, maybe you should just take your concerns straight to HIS boss, if yours seems reluctant to act. Good luck.