I didn't chase / follow up - am I at fault?!

[mumyes]

So...

I was asked to prepare a proposal document by someone I work with (this is my job to do) and I did this, noting in the "background" at the top of the document that it was in response to a meeting he had had with organisation x (I tend to do a short internal background note so that if that doc gets read by others, they know the background).

I did the proposal, emailed it to him for him to review and never heard back. That was a year ago.

I did not chase it up. I had assumed he would be emailing it to the organisation in question. Sometimes he is shit at replying and that summer he had personal issues so had time off.

Being critical of myself, I should have kept it on my list and asked him / followed up on it. But he also dropped the ball it seems as he never came back to me.

Our boss has now asked what happened. And the last record I have is my email with the draft doc being sent to my colleague asking for feedback / thoughts.

I work in an extremely misogynistic workplace - it's awful. Bullying. My boss is a very old fashioned man and takes every opportunity to gang up on members of staff to make himself feel superior.

I know I will be bLamed for this.

I do accept I didn't follow up...

Any thoughts welcome...can I / should I defend myself here?

I feel very under fire from my boss at the moment. I had a very unpleasant meeting with him and another male colleague last week and he and the other male colleague kept tittering at comments / suggestions I made and my boss sent follow up actions only to me and not the other colleague.

I can't leave right now for financial reasons. Sadly.

My boss has previous history (an employment tribunal ruling against him) of being awful to people.

If your colleague was signed off sick, surely it's the responsibility of their boss to ensure that any work projects they were doing etc are taken forward and not forgotten about.

You could have followed it up yourself, but I don't think it was solely your responsibility and that is the beauty of a hierarchy system and why the boss gets paid more.

No don't follow it up that's not your job.

I stopped following up this last year.

The fuck am I spending one more minute of my life chasing up someone to do the job that they are paid to do. It's fucking tedious.

This is not solely your fault. The real person who is at fault is the person that you sent it to, were they working at the time you sent it or off sick? If they were in then I'd just reply 'yes, I remember that, I created the proposal and sent it through to David to send on to the client.' The follow up here really needs to be with 'David' and not you...

You did your part on time. That’s where your remit ends. I doubt he'd ask a woman to chase a man for whatever they’d forgotten, but it seems ok to have a woman running around after a man…

I was asked to prepare a proposal document by someone I work with
You were asked. You did.
Why is it your responsibility to chase up? Surely, that's on the asker.

Just state the facts that you did what you were asked on time. Do not accept you didn’t follow it up if you ask if he wants tea and he doesn’t answer would you chase him or just ask the next day. Likewise with every other task. Communication is two ways he didnt get back to you - that’s on him.

Just say it was up to x to reply or his line manager to ask him for it.

Do you know that the email was opened / read? If so, that definitely puts the onus back on recipient.

Who did the asking - recipient or a third party? If the latter, then next time cc in the third party.

I think the PPs are correct here, I’d feel comfortable knowing I did the task and forwarded the document on at the time. Following up would have been above and beyond what you needed to do. In an ideal world you’d have been able to discuss any ongoing work with someone else if your boss was away for a while, sounds like that wasn’t the case and there was no other chance for you to move it forward.

I worked in sales support and then sales for a very blamey company and in that situation the salesperson who had asked for the proposal would have been responsible for the next steps. In fact all hell would have broken loose had the sales support people gone around them to the customer.

The actual blame in the situation you describe lies with a) the person who is supposed to be managing the relationship with the other company, and then b) the overall manager who should have systems in place to make sure leads don't just disappear into thin air due to lack of follow up. It sounds like your manager might be person B here so is casting about for someone else to blame - how successful they are depends I suppose on their standing in the organisation but morally I don't think you are at fault.

I'd say, yes, I completed the draft and sent it to David on x date, he didn't send me any revisions so I presume it went to x org, but David would be able to confirm that.

I wouldn't say sorry, not even 'sorry I don't know' or even hint that you think you should have done anything else.

Bottom line is you did what you were asked to, if David dropped the ball that's on him / his boss if he was signed off.

If you had a normal boss I'd advise a normal conversation but from what you've said you need to have no chinks in the armour at all.

I'm sorry you're dealing with that sort of culture. Have you thought about joining a union? It sounds like you could do with knowing you have someone in your corner if you need them.

This situation is absolutely not your fault though.

This

I'd just say you prepared it and sent it to colleague for him to review and send out. Unless it is normal for him to return it to you and you to send out, then that should be the end of the matter.

If either way, boss tries to pin it on you, just focus on the fact that this has happened, no one can change it, but as a team let's not let it happen moving forward. A clear process should be defined, and even may be a small customer management system put in place to avoid it happening again.

It really doesn't sound like is should it should be on you. Colleague or boss could have intervened (when colleague returned from sick leave he could have checked). Don't feel responsible, just suggest a better plan for the future.

I'd say, yes, I completed the draft and sent it to David on x date, he didn't send me any revisions so I presume it went to x org, but David would be able to confirm that.
I's stop at "any revisions". Don't use the word 'presume' because they'll use that against you.

Same. I do get “you should have chased!” but it’s not my fault someone else doesn’t read their emails. If they wanted the work done, they would do it.

I think it depends a bit what the specifics of the situation are and who your colleague is/the dynamic. There are circumstances where either me or my direct reports would send documents similar to what you describe to senior colleagues stakeholders, and it would be firmly the responsibility of the person who owns the workstream (i.e. the person who sent the document) to chase if they didn’t hear anything back. I don’t think mumsnet can reassure you that it wasn’t your responsibility to do that and I don’t think it’ll help if you start the conversation with that position anyway. That obviously doesn’t mean you have to let yourself be bullied or scapegoated.

Forward the original email on to David and attach the new email from your boss asking what the outcome was.

cc boss

David,

please can you advise Bob regarding this,

Many thanks,
OP

Thank you all. It's so nice to feel less alone on this.

I think they may try & get rid of me...

After a recent very confrontational group meeting, when I was with my boss shortly afterwards (121) I calmly said I'd felt the meeting had been unnecessarily confrontational (exact words) and unpleasant.

He didn't like being called out & reacted angrily -as he always does when he feels in a corner - but I know it was the right thing to do.

Tiring though!

I think they may try & get rid of me...
Start looking elsewhere and get a better job. In twelve months' time you'll be wondering why you stayed as long as you did.

Illegitimi non carborundum!