Ok, I am posting about my minor work issue because I am worried that I am acting immature. First, I will preface by saying that I really love my job and that I get along great with my manager (C). However, my manager definitely does not "baby" me - he is always giving me more challenging projects and rarely gives much feedback except for the occasional "good job" or "great interpretation", etc. We have a newer employee (~3 months) in a remote office that reports to my manager as well (le'ts call her J). She definitely has more experience in the industry than me, but I think she has a very "old school" mentality that does not fit in well with the rest of our department, which is very young and for the most part very open to change. She likes to question our current procedures, but when I offer her the means to change the procedure, she simply prefers to complain about them. Well, for some reason C really babies J, which is somewhat annoying to me. For example, when J would review a document and find a typo, C would cc the entire department when he writes an email that says "Great job J! That was a good find!". Uhm, wtf - it was a typo?!
Anyway, I know that this is a little bit of a jealousy thing....and I really hate admitting that. I talked to a good friend (H), who is also in my department about C's treatment of J. H said that we should feel flattered that C doesn't baby us because he knows we are capable of whatever he throws at us. However, C babies J because he knows she is weaker and needs the constant reinforcement. I guess this is an interesting POV, but I don't know.
Anyway, here is the actual issue: I gave a presentation on Monday. I really put a lot of work into this presentation, and I was very proud of the result. J and a few other remote employees dialed into our conf line to listen to the presentation. In the middle of the presentation, J put the call on HOLD. Because we were put on hold, everyone else on the call along with the ppl in the conference room were subjected to the constant "hold beeping". So here I am giving a presentation with constant beeping in the background! I was LIVID. C left the room for 15 min to try to contact J and ask her to either hang up or to get back on the call. This means that C, my manager, missed about 15 min of my presentation! I was SOOOO upset. In hindsight, I should have stopped my presentation until all the beeping stopped, but I was so flustered, I just kept going.
After the presentation, C called me to his office to tell me that I gave a great presentation. I told him I was disappointed that he missed part of my presentation (just happened to be THE most important part) and he asked me to email him the ppt file. He did not mention anything about J's rudeness. And J never apologized to me for being so so so rude.
I really want to call her and tell her that what she did was very inappropriate, but I think that maybe I am just acting immature. I need another perspective. Should I just let this go?
DON'T CALL J. she's not your problem, just a side effect. your issue is you don't feel appreciated by your boss. so get him to appreciate you and show it. don't complain about the call on hold thing, it happened and can't be undone and if you mention it it will only seem like you're looking for something to complain about. just continue kicking a** and when promotion time comes up or is getting close do a lot of subtle tooting of your own horn. oh and put your contributions to the company/project/whatever in writing, in memo format and give it to your boss on a regular basis. like this month such and such and such and such was accomplished. that should help get you the recognition you deserve. good luck!
DON'T CALL J. she's not your problem, just a side effect.
Esquiress - you are right, and you made me feel better! I guess I do have a problem with my manager. I DID just get a great promotion on July. But my reivew was really a disappointment. This is how it went. It was very unfulfilling.
Manager: Tara, you are doing a great job. I am promoting you to XXX. I don’t have to tell you everything you are doing right, because you are doing a great job.
I totally agree with Esquiress-the-wise - everyone knows J. is a bozo, and the call on hold is just the sort of thing that is INCREDIBLY hard to recover from - ignore her. She's imploding already. Focus on building a file of accomplishments and continuing the good work. Fighting with J can only distract and make you look bad. What did they say in school? "Eyes on your own paper..." (Besides, if you push it, you might actually work up some sympathy for her. You're strong and she's not. You don't need to look like you're bullying her).
Thanks you guys! I feel much better. And today during a t-con, J said something totally stupid and my manager C pointed it out to everyone. I am a horrible horrible person, but it made me feel even better!!!!
Thanks you guys! I feel much better. And today during a t-con, J said something totally stupid and my manager C pointed it out to everyone. I am a horrible horrible person, but it made me feel even better!!!!
LOL, i'm w/ you, it would have made me feel better too!! not to butt in, just wanted to say "hi"!