My boss appears to be taking credit for a difficult project that
I am working on, even though it does not involve him in any
way.
Q:
My boss appears to be taking credit for a difficult project that I am working on, even though it does not involve him in any way. The vice president of our department recently sent out an email in which she congratulated both my manager and me on the project’s success and expressed appreciation for our hard work. However, he hasn’t worked on it at all.
My manager could have graciously set the record straight by replying to the vice president and giving me the credit, but he did not do this.
Now I wonder if he may be exaggerating his role. I know that whenever he meets with executives about the project, he uses slides that I created. What should I do about this?
A:
Credit-grabbing managers are extremely annoying. However, based on the evidence provided, I think you may be jumping too quickly to an unwarranted conclusion.
The vice president specifically mentioned you in her congratulatory email, so she obviously knows about your involvement with the project. Including your boss in the compliment is customary office etiquette, since managers have ultimate responsibility for all work done in their departments.
While your boss may not have “set the record straight” with an email, you don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes. He could be commending you in conversations with executives or praising your work in progress reports. After all, the vice president was clearly aware of your role.
As for the slides you created, all managers use work produced by their employees when talking with higher-ups. That’s just standard operating procedure.
Try to remember that, for future success, support from your boss is much more valuable than solo recognition for this project. If you develop an adversarial relationship, he will be much less likely to give you credit for anything.
Q:
Lately, I have become short and snappy with my co-workers. I am the secretary for a medical group, and this job is very frustrating. I have to answer the phone, respond to patients, transmit doctors’ orders, look up information, run errands and answer stupid questions. I don’t want to be rude, but it’s getting harder to bite my tongue. How can I stop being so irritable?
A:
Kudos to you for examining your own behavior and resisting the temptation to blame others. Many people are not that mature. Now you need to recognize that your snippy remarks are actually a symptom of a larger concern.
The real issue here is your growing frustration with this job, which is creating resentment towards your co-workers.
Although you try to be pleasant, your true feelings still manage to seep into your conversations. In short, this communication problem is actually a job-satisfaction problem.
One possible solution is to talk with your immediate supervisor about strategies for making your work more manageable. However, you may just be temperamentally unsuited for such a chaotic environment. In that case, the ultimate answer is a job that better matches your personality.
