Since this is a general forum, I'm having s bit of a work related problem today and if anyone could weigh in I'd really appreciate it.
I suggested a weekly catch-up 'virtual cuppa' style call to my team today and asked for their thoughts. All being well, I was going to propose the idea to management to make sure it was okay to use business time this way. Anyway, a colleague decided to skip checking with everyone and management and basically stole my idea and sent everyone a calendar invite for the event.
I pointed out that we should ask management about it and that I wanted him to CC me in. Instead, he went to management and took credit for the idea and got approval and commendation for it.
After that he made a passive aggressive comment in our team's chat about how I was worried about it unnecessarily.
Does anyone have thoughts about how I should approach this? I'm trying to be more assertive (I know it's a key skill in a legal profession). But this guy stealing my idea, taking credit for it and then calling me out for trying to do the right thing has really upset me.
Sorry if this is off topic 😔
Not off topic at all and these kinds of situations are tricky to deal with and navigate, I do empathise with you.
I guess the thing with these situations is everyone is different. To some people, this may not cause them to feel particularly aggrieved and they may just brush it off quite happily. For others, letting it go and not saying anything could lead to an internalised frustration which might not be healthy in the long run. I think it genuinely depends on how you feel and how you are as a person.
I think my best recommendation would be to echo
@Daniel Boden - I wonder if you can maybe speak to someone you trust, who has been at your organisation longer than you, with how to deal with this - they might be your mentor or someone who has more informally helped to guide you and who you feel you can confide in. Having some advice might help you to navigate the best way to approach this if you decide you personally feel the need to take some action, whatever it might be.
I do think sometimes that time is a bit of a healer so I would also recommend taking the weekend to mull this over and see how you feel come Sunday evening once there is a bit of distance between the events of this week. I think time affords us the chance to consider different perspectives and can help in evaluating how you feel about a give situation.
The last thing I will say on this is that oftentimes these situations don't go unnoticed by others. Sometimes these things are good to be aware of and monitor and if you notice it happen to someone else, you can be that person to support them and offer some advice/a listening ear
I really hope this helps and sorry if it is a bit of an 'on the fence' answer but these situations, like I say, can be tricky. I hope you have a lovely weekend and can tackle next week feeling more confident in your approach
