Help! I have to confront a senior colleague! I don't DO confrontation! <<shakes in shoes>>

[JessaJackOLantern]

Basically she isn't my line manager BUT is in charge of my workload/responsibilities etc at the moment.
She has done something which I know is wrong, it is not best practice, plus it also undermined/totally ridden roughshod over my responsibilties, has annoyed other managers whose 'buy in' in important, it has also, in my opinion, put the organisation at risk.
I have a carefully worded email ( I need the audit trail) but my line mgr suggests I follow up with a phone call (ARGH!!).
Any advice? Moral support? I hate confrontation...

Tricky one - am a bit surprised that line manager has suggested you follow up with a phone call - what do you/they want to achieve by this.

If it was down to me - and the deed, whatever it was, was so appalling, I would let them simmer down after the email, and then ask for a meeting, not to confront but to see how you can move on from this and make sure that it doesn't happen again.

And I don't think that you should have to take responsibility for this - it should have gone up to this person's manager, who should be at this meeting. It's very unfair on you to force you to confront someone who is effectively acting as your boss.

Did you copy your email in to their boss/HR/anyone else?

Please?!

Thanks twocats - X-post with my pathetic plea!

agree with two cats.
why isn't your boss dealing with this?
very confusing management situation too - bound to cause conflict. she shoudl be working htrough your line manager to manage your workload, otherwise you end up with two bosses!

I agree with twocats - you shouldn't be in this position. I think your line manager is passing the buck because she doesn't want to deal with the confrontation herself!

You should definitely make this person's manager aware of what has happened. If disciplinary action is required, that is up to them. All you should be focusing on is how to resolve the situation and move on. Try and remain calm, and stay focused on your job and your responsibilities.

Anyway - good luck!

Haven't sent email yet - as I KNOW it be followed either by a phone call from this person, or a stroppy email.

Basically she has closed some incident records down, without reference to me (I have responsibility for ensuring these are appropriately managed and investigated - so does she...) or to the managers whose areas they refer to. Some of them have been closed despite only being a few days old/incomplete records...

It's all quite complicated as we have just merged 3 organisations into 1, she is more senior than me, but had similar responsibilities in terms of incidents.

why not show the email to your boss first. and suggest either that he or she send it instead, or have it stated that they know and have agreed with its content.

maybe its just teething troubles from the merger and different procedures - it may be easier to sort out than you think

no idea what an incident report is though!

Sooo difficult. It is messy at the moment because of the merger and no one yet knows who will get what job ( or even what the jobs will be) so we are all in limbo. But we do have an agreed incident policy for the new organisation, which doesn't say it is okay to closed incidents down en masse!

there are also "issues" between this person and my line manager - as my line manager has pointed out errors of hers before and it just ends up looking like it is a personality clash (this I think is why she would rather not be directly involved - maybe it would just be dismissed as "oh X always complains about Y"?)

Incident record is the report made when there is an accident etc (I work for NHS) to ensure the events are investigated and "lessons learnt" to prevent recurrence....

hmm

well, i think its important that it is somehow on record that you have pointed out some issues with the way things are being done. because you definitely don't want to end up carrying the can if they are not being done properly.

what i would do is email your line manager articulating precisely what the problem is and leave it to her regarding anything official. your email will be evidence that its not just a personality clash.

i'd also send another email, suggesting an informal meeting to the other senior colleague, and see what you can sort out between you amicably in terms of working procedures, and explain why you feel undermined by her action. it doesn't have to be a confrontation. follow up that meeting with an email listing what you've agreed, cc'd to your manager.

I think everything mm says is spot on.

The only thing I would add, would be perhaps to suggest a meeting with the next layer of management up, to clear up these issues and ensure that you have a coherent policy. I think everyone would probably welcome that.

I also think this is particularly key given what you've said about the issues involved for incident reporting and needing an audit trail- it's exactly the kind of thing that could come back to bite someone later on. So if I were you, I would also be laying a fairly thorough paper trail with memos to your line manager and copied one layer up, saying that you are unhappy about what has happened and why, and why you think it is important for the organisation.

oh and I might also get HR involved - just a quiet chat/informal email to point out that you can't both have responsibility for the same thing, and that this is causing problems which may impact on the organisation later. The sooner they get involved, the less likely they are to see it as turf warfare and people being silly.

hmm not sure why your boss isn't taking this up either if they agree it's a real issue. If you do go ahead and tackle the issue I'd do the phone call first and follow up with the email. why is this person behaving like this? what's her motivation? Can you find common ground (eg: we both want the department to succeed and i'm concerned that this course of action could be demaging longer term. is there a solution where we get what you need to achieve in short term without the same risks?)