Do you care about receiving it for all the work you do at your job?

I noticed a pattern with me. As many of you know I am new at my job, and so far I have to say this is an awesome place. Love it.

So I am working on a project with a colleague, and we run into a minor problem. I suggest to this colleague a way to fix the problem. He thinks the problem is too minor to worry about, so I deferred to him. Now when the final gets passed on to our director, the director tells me this colleague suggested a fix to this problem: which of course my original solution.

Now I'm there wondering: do I look petty for saying, "yes I suggested that to him earlier" or do I keep quiet and have them quietly questioning my experience?

I do this all the time tho, and I wonder if this is damaging to one's career. The problem wasn't that big a deal, and i was working with a peer, so it didn't matter, we were negotiating a lot of things.

quote:

Originally posted by LolaO:
Now I'm there wondering: do I look petty for saying, "yes I suggested that to him earlier" or do I keep quiet and have them quietly questioning my experience?

I think it would have been appropriate to speak up and say it was your suggestion. But, since the moment has passed i wouldn't say anything to the boss now, but I would say something to your coworker. He totally underminded you & sounds like one to watch out for. He might be testing his limits with you. I could be totally wrong but i'm picturing the kind of coworker who takes advantage of folks who don't speak up for themselves - he'll try this again, but if you step up to him & let him know you know what he's done he'll respect you and probably not try it again. did that make any sense?

I think it's important that he is aware that you know what he did.

You know what i would say to the boss the next time? I'd say "Oh, really? He suggested that solution? Huh. He didn't seem too enthusiastic about it when I suggested it to him last Thursday." Whatever. You get my drift. Hanzi is right, it's too late to clear it up now with the boss. But yeah, be on guard with that guy. If you do say something to him directly, i'd be very non-confrontational about it. "Oh, I heard from the boss you changed your mind about the solution I suggested. What changed your mind?" He just needs to know that you're aware of what he did.

I hate when that happends. Let it slip off of your shoulder. It isn't worth building negative energy.

Continue to be your talented self. Credibility will come soon enough.

I like the suggestions Hanzi and jwriter has given. I would keep these in the back of my thoughts for the next time something like this happends.

I'm usually wary of the incompetent colleague put in a position they weren't ready for. They seem the most self serving and disastorous to everyone in the company.

Thanks everybody. This colleague is known as an incredibly talented person around here, and he is sorta the "life of the party" type, ridiculously funny and outgoing, it will be difficult coming at him with a "YOU SOB" attitude, lol. He's sorta the HB of my office. But now I definitely know what to watch for, and I too can go to the director to download what's going on from now on.

quote:

Originally posted by jwriter: i'd be very non-confrontational about it. "Oh, I heard from the boss you changed your mind about the solution I suggested. What changed your mind?"

I think this is a very tactful way to approach it - if you choose to. All i could think of were sarcastic, bitchy comments

hey LolaO - what sort of industry do you work in? I used to be a journalist, and now i work in marketing, and there are just different ways to approach professionalism in each realm.

quote:

and now i work in marketing, and there are just different ways to approach professionalism in each realm.

Sorta the same here. Was in newspapers, now in nonprofit publications. I am sorry I am just seeing this now. I came back to this thread because the same guy did it to me again and to our director in front of an all-staff audience. I was very upset and I think my boss was too.

So you are probably familiar with the original issue. We had a publication that had a hole in it because of how the text laid out. I suggested resizing an ad to put content in that hole.

Now the other matter that was brought to our staff was our theme for another publication we are working on, he took credit for coming up with the whole idea. I'm sitting there like, this was a team venture, how dare you? But seriously, this guy is thought to be untouchable. He is so social, and insanely funny, and incredibly talented. He can't be the bad guy.

As luck would have it, we were brainstorming some web stuff after this meeting, and I had a nice opportunity to crush his idea and suggest another one, right in front of our director. So, I feel pretty satisfied because even he had to admit my ideas were better. So now I know I will have to sell myself with every project. I have been against that, because I don't see the point in applauding myself for the stuff I am paid to do. But for people like him, it needs to be known.