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.

I wonder if you are being managed out and fear this is all being documented to go down disciplinary route.
id look for a new role- it is clearly and rightly effecting you. Is it worth feeling so shit over?

I don't think that is a reasonable adjustment. Reasonable adjustments don't involve managers or other members of the team having to absorb additional workload.

To be honest, I think you're in the wrong job and should be looking for something else.

If your job is now 95% report writing, you are probably always going to under-perform quite significantly if you struggle with spelling, grammar and proofreading and have an attention span that is limited when it comes to checking detail.

I think you already have reasonable adjustments in place to help you as much as possible, such as dictation software etc, and your manager is also reading, checking and correcting everything you write. Those are reasonable adjustments.

Your manager simply ignoring your mistakes, and/or letting your reports go out with your errors in them, would not be a 'reasonable' adjustment.

Your manager shouldn't be saying things like 'I'm not an English teacher' but from their perspective, they are having to do aspects of your job for you, which is frustrating for them and unfair. That's not sustainable long-term, so they are going to need to see an improvement.

I write and edit for a living and have previously managed a team member who had what I suspect were identical issues to yours. It was a huge burden on me, as her manager, to be having to make so many corrections and edits on her work. It meant we missed a lot of deadlines and letting her work go out with her mistakes in it undermined our credibility and professionalism in the eyes of our customers and colleagues. I also couldn't assign her any editing or proofreading tasks, which meant that she was essentially not doing the work required of her role. I did a lot of work with her to try to support her development and make adjustments for her, including training courses, one-to-one support, software etc, but she was simply not able to do the job to a reasonable standard.

That wasn't her fault - it wasn't through lack of effort on her part. Her performance in the role was about as good as mine would be if I were shoehorned into a role I lack the innate ability to perform - eg, I could have a million hours of chess lessons and I would still be really bloody terrible at chess.

But she was very defensive when being corrected and would often say things like 'Does it really matter though? They're just small mistakes' (yes, it does matter, and no, they're not small) or 'Everyone makes mistakes now and again' (they do, yes, but not so many that I have to spend a substantial part of my week rewriting and correcting them, and they don't make the same ones multiple times a week, in important documents). That made it very difficult to manage her. I would never have said some of the things your manager has said, but the sentiment was probably often the same.

I sympathise with your dyslexia - I have dyspraxia and there are tasks I really struggle with as a result. I find them stressful and my mistakes when I do them are not good for my self-esteem. But that's why I do a job that doesn't revolve around those kinds of tasks. I honestly think the solution for you here is to consider looking for a different job.

I manage writers and most documents should only have a couple of errors/typos. I don't have time to make extensive corrections on each document and I'm sure your manager doesn't either. You do need to figure out ways to minimise mistakes on your own.

They need to make reasonable adjustments but if you aren't capable of doing the job to the required standard, they can manage you out.

Ask copilot to teach you that - I'm not joking.
Also - if using copilot catches your errors but takes a little longer that might be the price you have to pay for fewer errors. Everyone needs to proofread their work.

I think you need to use co-pilot (and the other apps/aids you’ve been given to help)- that is the reasonable adjustment. If you can’t work out how to use it properly, then you need to ask someone who does know how to use it to show you. Or if nobody in the office does, ask them to give you access to the appropriate training. There will be something, even if it is only an online training video. The answer is not to avoid using co-pilot if that is what you need to compensate for the difficulties you have due to dyslexia. Your manager doesn’t have to accept problems within your reports- and wrong word on several occasions is potentially quite problematic, depending on the mistake and the purpose of the report- because you are dyslexic. They have provided you with technology to help ameliorate the impact of your dyslexia, by the sounds of it, so it’s not like they have not put anything in place.

perhaps he is being unfair in terms of the comments he makes, but I don’t think they are particularly rude. He sounds exasperated, which he should try to keep to himself and simply correct you/let you know if your performance is not meeting standards in a more neutral manner. Hopefully, as the errors reduce he will see this and things will improve.

The only issue where they might be unreasonable is that your job description has clearly changed from what your were told when you took the job. Depending on what is written in your formal job description, that may or may not be reasonable.

Maybe your manager is attempting to train you to do the right thing but adding in comments rather than just simply amending reports. It is very frustrating to continually correct the same issue - and pointing it out to you isn't being mean or unfair - it's him doing his job. I understand you were not aware that report writing was such a large part of the work, maybe it would be better for you to look elsewhere.

Don’t know if it will help but assuming your using word. After dictating can you not use the “read aloud” function to listen to what you have written and read at the same time. It’s a way I have been able to pick up my errors 90% of the time. When I use copilot I only add a paragraph at a time that way it’s small section to check, but I always re read what it has amended as it can change what you are trying to say.

Any document (or web page, letter, email etc) that is for the attention of the public/clients etc, and which carries the reputation of the company or organisation you work for, needs to be free of errors. That's non-negotiable for me.

There’s a grammerly toolbar that can be installed on your computer which might help a lot. You could ask IT to install it.

To be honest I would also try and have an open conversation with your manager to say that based on their feedback this sis what you have done and you feel that you have improved significantly, but would really appreciate their support with proof-reading.

As a manager I’d appreciate that approach far more than continued errors with nothing being said.

I think your manager is probably getting frustrated. If your OP is an example, there are a number of errors that I would not let go out in a report. Nobody is perfect, that's why you need to use whatever tools are available to eliminate them. But your manager having to check everything and send it back for correction isn't a reasonable adjustment. It's tough when you now know you have a number of conditions. If this is no longer the job you applied for, you might be better finding a different role in the same company if you can.

In your OP two errors immediately jumped out at me, but this is MN, not report writing - and nobody's perfect all the time. However, they're the sort of errors your manager would notice.

That said, I think he could be kinder when feeding back to you.

I work for someone who uses Grammarly to help with his extreme dyslexia and I still have to correct his reports (but that is part of my job). When he checks his writing he will not see the errors he has made, because to him, the words on the screen will say what he thinks he has typed. He makes errors very similar to yours - for instance - were you aware that you wrote ‘meniscal’ instead of ‘minuscule’ and ‘put’ instead of ‘point’? If you were not aware, then that’s your dyslexia. Software will not always pick this up because it can’t read your mind.

It may be that you aren’t particularly well suited to this role. It must be quite stressful being picked up on this all the time.

Thanks so much for all the replies.

I've noticed the error rate as I checked some of their reports so it is very clear I am getting commentary whereas he is simply correctly their work.

I need to look at specific tools I can install to ensure issues don't occur.

I think if you're unable to proof-read to the level where you catch 'cause' rather than 'calls' then you need to make use of tools like co-pilot. You simply paste in your text, asking it to highlight any spelling mistakes or grammar errors. No need to mess about with formatting or coping back to a document.

Omg that's exactly it!! I spell the word right, it's just the wrong bloody word!! I get so frustrated with myself but I honestly can't try any harder.

If you've been diagnosed with dyslexia the boss should be more understanding. But spelling and grammar mistakes in reports are not professional. So you do need to find a way to minimise them.

Are there things online that help dyslexic people in the workplace?

They should give you reasonable adjustments.

But equally the mistakes can't be allowed to keep slipping through the net. They can't be expected to check your work for this every single time.

I think this is a really fair response.

Beyond the grammar issues, I'd query why I'm now on 95% report writing rather than the 5-10% on the job description. What happened to the other work?! Who is doing that now?

This is so frustrating for the manager. If I saw cause instead of calls I would find it very worrying. Can you ask to do less of these reports? It’s like the manager is having to mark your work.

I think his comment about English teacher wasn't very nice - but managers are human too so I can see how it might slip out. But, has he made any other sparky comments like that?

However in terms of him commenting on your errors and just correcting others - where i work, that would be what was expected of a good manager, explaining where and how someone went wrong specifically, rather than ignoring it or expecting them to guess. Also, if if he didn't point out the errors and explain, and you then were put on performance measures, you could reasonably argue that he did not flag your errors and the rate of errors to you clearly enough, and that he has failed to support someone with dyslexia by not communicating where it was impacting your work. It would be massively frowned upon to not highlight your errors to you.
Do you think him delivering the feedback in a different way would have a positive impact on your work going forward? If so, suggest it to him.

I won't be leaving this job. It isn't my fault the job has changed. In the future, it should be less reports. It's just we're going through quite a few changes. I get paid very well and the flexibility of wfh works great for my family.

It's effectively not getting done. I hate it as that is the type of work I want to be doing but we are inundated with reports.

Honestly, you have no idea how he might deal with their error rate- he might find fewer errors in your colleagues reports (or less significant errors, in his opinion) overall, or he might approach his corrections/performance management with them in a different way to what he does with you- and he might do so for a whole host of reasons, most of which could be entirely appropriate if these colleagues have different circumstances to you. Even if you ask your colleagues may not tell you the reality- because it’s none of your business. Do, you don’t actually have any way to know if your assumptions are correct- they might be, but proving it would be harder.

You need to focus on what is being asked of you in terms of performance improvement, and whether your employers have our reasonable adjustments in place to help you with dyslexia- it sounds like they have by giving you software/apps etc to allow dictation/spelling and grammar check- and stop focusing on your colleagues performance. It won’t get you anywhere but feeling frustrated and hard done by, without actually ever being able to be sure you are correct/prove you are right. The only other thing would be if you felt your performance is being deemed unsatisfactory unfairly- I’m not convinced that is the case, but if you do think so then you need to address through the appropriate channels for your workplace- line manager or HR, presumably.

As someone who reads and QAs a lot of reports, I can understand the frustration he must be experiencing when there are simple errors that should be picked up by a proofread. However, it sounds like you have made efforts to reduce those simple errors which is a good thing.

I do just correct minor issues within the reports but I sometimes feel like commenting the way your manager has. He is right - you should be producing reports that can be easily understood and his role should not be to correct your grammar. The mistakes you've outlined seem really simple to me and I wouldn't mind it too much. Errors happen but if he feels that the time he is spending correcting your work outweighs the benefit you are bringing to the company, he is possibly looking to manage you out.

I am working with a newly qualified worker and I am spending a lot of time going through her reports just to make them make sense (and to check if the information is actually correct) and I've outlined to her that if I still have to do this by Xmas, she'll need to leave as I don't have the time for such basics. I know it sounds harsh but at some stage she needs to be responsible for her own work.