AIBU to think this is a horrible thing to do on the deadline of a major work project?

[RJ2023]

I work for for an insurance broker and a key part of my job is clients coming to us (and our competitors) with a problem they have and we have a few weeks to put together a report with our proposed solution.

Typically results in a brainstorm, narrow it down to 5 ideas, 2 weeks of actuarial analysis on those, and then a 50 slide PowerPoint to explain those 5 ideas and our overall recommendation for our pitch.

One guy never joins any of the calls throughout the project because "he is too busy" but consistently finds time at 4pm on the deadline day to start raising questions and concerns about our recommendation (cc'd to everyone he can think of obviously!)

There's obviously nothing that can be done at this stage so I have to send the report as it is and instead of the happy feeling you get after finishing three weeks hard work I'm left feeling a bit shit as the project lead, and he looks great for spotting something nobody else had picked up on.

AIBU? I think it is a really horrible thing to do to people on the deadline day of a major piece of work.

I haven’t read this but interested.

does it describe this as a shitty tactic? If so, why would he do it?

He’s a shit. I used to work with a guy who would send me long argumentative emails late on Friday afternoons criticising my work. It was a deliberate tactic to wind me up and spoil my weekend. I used to close my emails down mid-afternoon in the end. In your case, I would raise this behaviour with his manager.

Seems he is not senior and presumably the report has already been signed off by the actuarial staff involved? So this guy is adding nothing useful whatsoever. Can you not just cut him out altogether? Arrange a feedback session with his manager? I love all the passive aggressive suggestions too. I'm a big fan of putting regards instead of kind regards when I'm annoyed 😂

Next project ask when he has a free moment and get him to book a meeting with you, he then can’t be busy for the brainstorming

is he putting it into AI to bring up queries?

Typically results in a brainstorm, narrow it down to 5 ideas, 2 weeks of actuarial analysis on those, and then a 50 slide PowerPoint to explain those 5 ideas and our overall recommendation for our pitch.

it's a horrible and frightening thought, but your activity is exactly what AI can do, including the slides, in a fraction of the time you've said it takes your entire team,

lets face it, if AI can detect all the programming errors in corporate systems and offer solutions, your task is an absolute 'piece of piss' as they say.

This is perfect. Polite, authoritative and absolutely clear about the boundaries. Wish I worked with you!

I would love to do "Dear Idiot's manager, cc Idiot, i am concerned about the lack of availability of Idiot to attend meetings about projects x, y and z this year, when they have been a corporate priority. If you are considering what objectives and training you are setting for Idiot next year I suggest a time management course is a good idea, so in future we can incorporate his feedback in the projects where appropriate."
However, I am far too much of a coward in real life.

I think this, or something along these lines, is exactly the way to go. You’ve got to call him out on it and make the point that he’s had his chance and now it’s too late. I think your objective should be to make him look slightly silly for missing a deadline.

I also had a work colleague that used this tactic. I tried to involve her team early in a project kick off so as to avoid the inevitable last minute “ambush” she was known for. She did it anyway. I met with her boss, raging, threatened to report her to HR, the boss begged me not to. Said I don’t want her involved in any of my projects and refused to work with her again. Warned this woman’s boss to keep her away from me. That was the last time she tried it with me. She kept doing it to others though.

Saw her on LinkedIn recently. She’s been let go from her last post and has set herself up as a “career coach”… all the blah about managers needing emotional intelligence etc. Ugh.

Oh I would go to town on that mother fucker.

I'd reply icily thanking him for his contribution but noting that unles he has any urgent or substantiive feedback we will not be actioning it as the time for feedback and contributions was at the XX project meetings that he, unfortunately , did not attend.

I would then note that in order for projects to be delivered smoothly and to time, it is vital.everyone on the team has enough time and capacity to attend project meetings and meet review deadlines. If he does not have capacity to do this I'll sepak to his manager and review his involvement in the next project.

How about making a joke to make your point, eg “a classic Benjamin” to describe weighing in too late and then use in guitar, don’t pull a Benjamin, please! Or I can smell a Benjamin coming on. The others in your team will not have appreciated him doing this either and this shared enemy pulls the team together while calling him out. The shit!

It’s a common tactic. You wait until the deadline, say you have “concerns”, things need to be checked, be vague but very serious about potential problems that had “not been addressed”, etc. Get everything put on hold. Make sure everyone knows. Deadline is extremely close, senior management get alerted to potentially missing deadline because the team did not “check something”, then when everyone is waiting to find out if it can go ahead or not, announce that you have “fixed the problem” (even if there isn’t one) and you have given the go ahead and TADA you are the hero. The gamble is you’re hoping no one in the team will speak up and say “what the absolute f*, you didn’t fix anything, you just made a scene, questioned everyone else’s expertise/ reputation/ work, caused a delay and wasted everyone’s time”.

This

Absolutely this. Every single time he does it.

The next time you send a slide deck I’d just add a line in the email directly to him that says, you had some really great ideas last time but unfortunately it was too late in the day for us to address them before sending to the client. I’d really appreciate it if you could provide feedback by xx date.

Hi OP! 👋

I'm loving the ideas for salty responses.
This guy would piss me off no end! 😠

I would be tempted on using the above replies, but with the first line of...
Why hello Kevin! So nice of you to finally join us, we missed your presence in all the meetings!
However.....

@RJ2023

Why don’t you call it out in a reply to his email that reaches all the people he included in the first place. I would simply state “thank you for the points raised, if you had been at the earlier discussions these could have been considered, but at 4pm today that is of course, now impossible”.

In my industry, there’d be the report deadline and an earlier deadline for comments on the ideas. If you aren’t giving people a deadline for their comments, it’s just a free for all.

Give everyone a Feedback Deadline for comments that isn’t an hour before sign off.

It depends what he is picking up on a bit. If he is just tweaking then I would go with the option (suggested by others) of emailing everyone appropriate before the next report is published and say when the deadline for feedback is (well before it is published) and if you don't receive any feedback, make it absolutely clear you will assume everyone is Okay with it and has nothing to add/amend. If he leaves it again, I'd call him out on it publicly or point it out to management.

Think calmly and carefully about his feedback (maybe in a week or two when you don't feel so betrayed) before doing anything though. Is he spotting things that your team isn't spotting or should have? Sometimes with really bright people, they can get bored and play games just to keep themselves engaged. If you think his input is worthwhile (rather than just tweaking and being an idiot) I'd try harder to get him involved earlier and more importantly seen to be getting him involved. If he can't make the meetings, I'd get some Ai generated notes to send him or at least spend an hour or so putting the meeting points in an email to him. Basically you want to build a case to defend yourself with but don't overlook the fact that he may be able to teach you something.

Op Id be tempted to address this pattern now in an email, obviously cc in all people he has

Hi Twat face
Thank you for your feedback. I have duly noted the current capacity constraints affecting your availability for project calls and collaboration, which have necessitated you only providing input at the final deadline day. Moving forward, could we establish a process to facilitate earlier contributions, thereby ensuring more effective project integration?
Regards

I would reply to everyone and say that coming in at the last minute with issues or comments is counterproductive and that for these projects you all need final comments by X day to give time to address comments and change if necessary.
Thats what we do. Give a deadline, and if someone is in the project and hasn’t then message them telling them that yours waiting on their feedback and this is the feedback deadline.
I’d also speak with their line manager because this is someone not contributing then pulling things apart.
We have deadline for final comments, then changes and anyone after those deadlines - too late. We just crack on.

You need to call him out (professionally) - say that unfortunately he didn’t attend meetings on x, x and x and has missed opportunities to shape the project etc.

I suspect AI would have made a more useful contribution than you.

We do have very last min changes to stuff but only ever from people fully involved or because we got new info or the client had asked for something - deadlines aren’t perfect but there’s no way anyone who’s not contributed would be allowed to wade in last moment and try to sound big and clever, or sabotage what’s been done!