I've been a knob!

[Shestolethewitchesredshoes]

Righto ladies. I've been a knob (possibly justifiably so) but still a knob all the same.

I work along sides colleague who has a history of being less than organised. She asked for my help and put quite a bit of pressure on me in regards to a deadline. So I helped her out - but actually put in time out of my set hours. Possibly about 7 hours extra all up (unpaid!!).

Anyway I approached colleague to go over the work and get things moving forward and aside from being far too busy to speak to me, I noticed that she hasn't actually looked at any of the work (system time stamps activities and file access..) so to say I was feeling less than impressed to say the least. The deadline had came and gone with no further activity!

Unfortunately my temper got the better of me when I overhead her bantering with colleagues and I made a snide comment to another colleague. I can't remember my exact wording a second it was heat of the moment - I think it was something along the lines of 'so she has time to piss arse around hey'... It was knobby. It was unprofessional. My mouth ran away before I could catch it... and quite a few people heard. Nothing was said though the next day, we all received a polite non-formal discreet warning to please not be a knobs to each other...nothing more has been said and I haven't been approached personally.

Anyway I'm due a quarterly review. Is it likely the company can take any formal action? If so, how should I deal with this? My gut instinct is to drop her in it... explain the knobby rant but that is passing the buck. And I don't want Management to think I'm a knob. So I need to really resolve this in a professional way. Advice Is needed please.

I'm not one of the HR specialists that post helpfully on here, but my instinct is to say/do nothing for now. Management seem to think that a "to all" email is sufficient. Let it blow over.

If it comes up in your review, apologise and explain what led to it.

Unless they raise it with you, I would let it go. Otherwise it looks a bit tit for tat and it mushrooms into a bigger issue than it needs to be.

What you said really isn't that bad, OP! Give it a few weeks and there will be something else for everyone to focus on.

I can't imagine it would come up - I'd imagine most of us have lost patience at work at some stage and said something we regretted. Your management should realise this - especially if it's unusual behaviour from you. If it does arise, you could remain pretty neutral - you were momentarily frustrated with some events that had taken place and regret that you allowed your frustration to be overheard. You've learnt from this etc etc.

As a manager, if this was a one off i would have had a word with you. No formal actions necessary.

I assume an email was done, because there was a group of you. Whoever sent the email may have been given the impression it was a few of you. Thats the only time i would consider an email.

I dealt with almost the same situation a few weeks ago. A member of another team called my director a dick and other things right in front of her, but in another language. 2 members of my team were involved in the conversation. I know why this person has an issue with my director.

Someone else on my team who speaks the same language told me. I took my 2 and spoke to them. Both told me what happened and it matched eachother. I advises them that getting involved in those discussions looked bad for them and they should end the converstation or (if they felt uncomfortable doing that) remove themseleves.

The other person was spoken to admitted it and told it was not acceptable. Nothing done formally. But i would do something formal if it happened again.

If they were going to take formal action, they should do that anyway, quarterly review or not. It might be mentioned in the review, but any action should be separate from it. In theory, anything you've done at work which is perceived as good enough or bad enough to be worth mentioning should have been mentioned already, at the time it happened.

Reviews are never the time to bring up potential disciplinary issues and should be addressed then and there with the individuals concerned. If formal action was going to be taken you would have been spoken to by now. Sounds like the email was sent as an informal warning in the first instance.