Am I being sensitive or is my Manager out of line?

[Dinoswearunderpants]

For the past few months I've been getting negative feedback from my Manager regarding grammar, past/present tense and writing the wrong words.

For context, the role was sold to me as 5-10% reporting writing (something I said I do not have extensive experience but I was assured I would be trained up) however it is now 95% of my role.

My Manager pulls up every little error I make. It has really knocked my confidence. I know I am not stupid so I did some research as to why I might be having these issues and after completing a comprehensive (and expensive) assessment, I have been diagnosed with dyslexia.

I am still trying to find tools that can help me and one is dictate. I recently completing my first report using this and I had one word incorrect twice through the three page document (it wrote cause instead of calls).

My Manager has wrote a side note saying I need to ensure I use read aloud as clearly dictate will not always be correct. I do use read aloud but I still missed it (I do have a feeling I may have ADHA as my attention span is limited but cannot afford this assessment).

We're only a small team of five and I decided to look at other peoples reports to see what feedback they get and my Manager makes amendments to their reports (similar grammar, missing words etc) however never puts the passive aggressive comments that I get.

In the past he has wrote comments like "I am not an English teacher, you should know these things" (it was that comment that prompted my assessment).

It is so clear I am being treated differently. HR have been involved to help with making 'reasonable adjustments' but it feels like my Manager things having things like dictate and read aloud in place with remove every possible error.

I feel like these errors are so meniscal however he is constantly pulling me up on it. Do I just suck it up and try even harder than I am or is it possible that he is being unfair?

I don't really want to leave as I work part time and the flexibility works well for my home life. I'm just so fed up of feeling stupid.

Can you get into the habit of checking the report before submitting it, either by running it through Grammarly, or using Copilot/chat GPT?

It sounds difficult and I agree that you need to find tools like grammarly to highlight issues.

I’ve managed someone previously who had problems (although weren’t dyslexic) and the reality is that you do need to pull someone up more if there’s an ongoing work quality issue.

If others make the occasional error, it wouldn’t be proportionate to raise them in the same way, because there isn’t an ongoing issue.

Once you have measures in place and have proven fewer errors, then it would be fair to expect the same level of feedback as others.

You need to proof read your own work and/or get Editor to check it for you.
If you can’t manage it, it’s perhaps not the job for you.

I do check it but it seems like little errors still creep in. We have access to Co-Pilot but when I add what I've written, it does something to the formatting so I then have to put it back into paragraphs again so it takes longer.

I've definitely improved greatly and the errors are much less than they used to be. In the latest report, it was that one error however the need to pull it up was there.

It seems like people never make mistakes here?

It’s a tricky one. One the one hand your role has changed from the one you took. In the other, with your diagnosis your manager now has an employee who is by definition going to struggle with this aspect of the job.

Are you able to share an example of something he’s said is wrong to look at? It is of course always possible that he is wrong!

I'm dyslexic as well, though I got my diagnosis while I was still at school. It doesn't just affect reading words but will also sometimes affect hearing and speaking and organisation.

I have found copy and pasting into ChatGPT is pretty good at catching errors (as long as you're specific with your instruction), but I still think your manager is being unreasonable. Neuro-typical people make mistakes too, it's rare something is prefect first time.

Thank you @BlissfullHaze you understand the struggle. We are not allowed to use ChatGPT but have access to Co-Pilot. I need someone to teach me the best way to instruct it for what I need it to do.

Of course!
But if the problem was consistent, they’re just making sure it has now been properly managed out, and your improvement is going to be sustained.
It’ll calm down after a few more low/zero error reports.

The frustrating part is my colleagues are making similar mistakes but my Manager simply amends their reports whereas he amends mine but also adds a comment to put out the error. I am clearly being treated differently.

Maybe he thinks it’s worth ensuring you get it right? Or maybe he’s an arse. Hard to know.

What do your colleagues think?

So your manager is reviewing the report before it goes anywhere already? That to me is the reasonable adjustment. They should just accept the error rate is likely to be slightly higher for you and correct accordingly without the passive aggressive comments.

His comments to you were probably worse due to the number of errors you made. I’m dyslexic, and I’m a writer! There is plenty of technology now to mean you really aren’t impacted. I’d be fed up as well if I was managing someone who kept submitting reports riddled with errors.

You’ve done something about it now but it’s going to take time before your manager sees that this change is consistent and he should keep picking up errors so that you can figure out the area you make the most mistakes and target that.

In the past he has wrote comments like

Oh dear, OP. As PPs have suggested, can you not run your report through Grammerly, or Claude, to check for grammar and spelling, once it has been transcribed?

I mean you don't need to see OP's work because the issues she talks about are in her post!
OP - confusing tenses is so so common with dyslexia, your manager sounds like a dick, please make sure that your workplace is actually doing all they can to accomodate you.

As I understood from OP's comments - the error rate for her and the error rate for her colleagues is similar.

The issue is she is receiving more commentary on the errors than they are - and that is simply unacceptable.

Reasonable adjustments are intended to help level the playing field so that those who are disabled are treated equally. The read aloud & dictation assist with that. Various AI options will also help (@Dinoswearunderpants - I've never used Co-Pilot so can't comment on that application).

Right, so your can use CoPilot. Write a prompt asking it to correct your report for grammar and spelling, then run the report through it.

You can even ask it to explain to you why the things that are wrong, are wrong.

But how do you know how many mistakes they made? If he isn't remarking on them?

I think the error rate is similar now that she has actually listened to feedback and done something about it.

Beforehand, it sounds as though she made a catalogue of errors in every report. The others just made a couple.

The errors you've described are not little! If I was your manager, I'd really frustrated about this.

OP - ask co pilot how to get it to do what you need it to do. We have it at work and it can put the new document into a word doc for you usually. That way the formatting will remain when you copy/paste.

You're not really helping yourself, if you react so defensively in work I'm not surprised your manager is getting snipy with you!

Nobody said they don't make any mistakes in work. As part of my job my colleagues and I all proof read each others' work and then it goes through several layers of management so I'm very used to getting a lot of changes, despite having an English degree and being quite good with SPAG. A lot of the time one person changes it and then the next changes it back.

Your manager shouldn't be making snarky comments but overall being corrected isn't something to take personally - presumably he will be the one criticised if something goes out with an error in it which is why he's picking up on every tiny thing.

Also, I'm not one of those posters that immediately jump on any time error in the OPs posts because its a chat forum, not work, and it's usually irrelevant and pedantic to do so - however, because it IS the relevant topic here, in your OP (second to last paragraph) you say "I feel like these errors are so meniscal."

If that's an example of the sort of errors you're making in your work (and from the "cause" example it seems likely), I can understand a bit why your manager is getting annoyed - that's not just adding an extra ' or whatever but is an error that would probably only come from using speech to voice software, and causes time and effort trying to work out what is meant - I'm assuming it's supposed to be miniscule but it's not clear. Same with "in the past he has wrote" - speak-to-write software might spell it correctly but isn't going to correct your grammar.

It's not fair on you that you were mis sold the job. But I can imagine that if your manager's job is to quickly check through for errors and that usually takes him 5 mins, finding only a few issues in your colleagues' work but yours takes 3 or 4 times as long, that is frustrating for him too, particularly when to him it might seem like you're not listening because you keep making the same mistakes again and again rather than learning after being corrected (which is of course due to your dyslexia rather than you doing anything wrong).

I'd also double check that it's okay to use these different softwares -in my work we are not allowed to put anything through something external (like grammerly or chat gpt) because it then has access to private data like clients' names etc.

Interesting that you were somewhat miss sold this role. Are you getting proper support to adjust to the different expectations?
Are you the only part time person? If you are, and you're being treated do, this is illegal - you can't suffer a detriment through being PT.
Possibly put in a formal complaint if his behaviour continues to be poorer towards you than your colleagues. Particularly as you are dyslexic.
I'm dyslexic and my husband always proof reads my emails etc before I send them to pick out errors. It's sometimes difficult to proof read your own work.

It’s seems annoying for your manager to have to correct work. Not sure if it’s unfair treatment or not; your mistakes might have been worse than those of your colleagues. I think maybe you need to check more carefully before submitting the finished document. Make sure it has no mistakes, even if it means taking a bit longer to check.

Are you allowed to use Grammarly? it might be your friend for this.

Also have a look at goblin.tools Home - Goblin Tools - there is a formalizer tool, see if that's any use for you.

I would take the passive aggressive comments to HR, and ask for support finding a RA like Grammarly or use of Chat GPT as a reasonable adjustment for checking your grammar due to your disability and the change in your role to 95% report writing. I would point the two things out very clearly.