Disappointing feedback in wider team meeting

[Meagainmeghan]

I started a new role about three months ago. I’m a mid level in my field and this role is quite different to what I did before.

I was put on a new assignment supporting two of my bosses. It was to write a publication - I wrote it and they checked it. They also suggested a structure to write it. We have been in every meeting together and they lead these; I’m in the background writing the document, and learning basically.

i had some good feedback from boss a couple of weeks back saying i had learnt a lot about the subject matter very quickly and that the document looked very good

Anyway: our client was not that happy with the first draft. Key drivers being that some sections they thought should be included weren’t (don’t think this is my fault as was told not to include) and secondly a couple of factual errors which I have apologised for. I have ensured the second draft is fully checked.

In our wider team meeting today boss publicly praised several other team members working on their projects for great client feedback. On our project, he mentioned the points that had gone wrong including the factual errors (which everyone will know I made as I am writing the document) and didn’t say well done or similar for my work. Fair enough.

i am now very paranoid as I feel (a) publicly called out and (b) still on probation. I had interpreted the situation as us having done a decent job but the client being very picky and now I feel like everyone will associate me with a poor first project.

please can someone offer some advice. I guess the next step would be to ask for some feedback from my boss but feeling very crushed currently

Sounds like the team has a culture of reviewing work in this way and openly sharing client feedback, positive and negative.

Don’t feel paranoid, you’d had good personal feedback about the document beforehand and clients always want to make changes.

You’ll learn about what sort of information to include as you get more into the role. I’d be annoyed that I’d been given an outline and told not to include that, too.

I’d say just take on board and ask different questions next time. I get business needs wise they need to agree with everything the client wants, but it’s not totally fair imo calling it out in a meeting as some clients won’t be fussy/ won’t have such specifications etc. Just something I’d guess you have to get used to

I know it’s difficult, but take it as a learning experience, you will now be checking everything twice as well, so your work will improve from this.

Take the learnings and do a great job on the next draft - once you’ve delivered a good outcome people will quickly forget. I’ve managed many teams in my career and literally everyone makes mistakes - for me the most important thing is that lessons are learned. I never thought badly of anyone for one mistake.