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I am having a one to one with my "line manager" with her boss in presence. We have a bad history and he is going to be there probably to observe. We have not had one to one a in a long time as we do not get along and next week will be the first.

She is cunning and probably say something to have me stitched up in front of her manager (my head).

The meeting is obviously going to be two way feedback - one of the feedback I wanted to provide is the following:

  • She arranged a meeting a while with the team in relation to a specific project A- I was the only one who actually said anything meaningful.

  • About a week later she asked me if I got "capacity" to undertake the work. I couldn't say no to her as she will create an issue out of this.

  • She then arranged a "requirement" meeting with the business - normally this is done by people like me. I asked if she can include me in the meeting and she said "Do not speak in the meeting".

    • During the meeting I found out that she was repeating everything I said in the team meeting a while back "word for word" to the business. There wasn't any originality as she is not capable of handling most matters.
    • It got me thinking was the purpose of her not getting me to a meeting so she takes the credit for everything that was said.

How do I put this as a feedback to her in front of her boss? Should I be re-iterating that if a work is assigned its the responsibility of the Analyst to gather the requirement instead of a manager?

seventyeightist
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Tryingtosurvive
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  • its the responsibility of the Analyst to gather the requirement instead of a manager: is this an accepted company policy or just your opinion? – nicola Jun 13 '20 at 13:16
  • Hi Nicola, There is no company policy on this. She has never done anything like this but normally done by me,. What upsetting she gets all the info from me and uses this to users and in a way forcing me to make her look good. – Tryingtosurvive Jun 13 '20 at 13:51
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    Much of what you've stated is subjective. It's your opinion and your perspective. That doesn't make it's factual. I don't mean to imply that you're not being truthful or are exaggerating, but we have no way of validating what you've claimed. That being said, why do you have an issue with her repeating what you've said? That happens all of the time. I present information in an internal meeting. We have a client meeting and my boss presents the information that I originally presented. So what? Why is this an issue? You seem to be upset about who does what and who presents it. Why does it matter? – joeqwerty Jun 13 '20 at 14:10
  • Does this answer your question? Handling Credit-takers – gnat Jun 13 '20 at 14:16
  • Do you have any sense of why her boss is going to be in your one-to-one? I know you said you haven't had them in a long time, but that suggests maybe you did in the past... if so, did that boss (or person in their position) ever attend your one-to-ones before when they did happen? Why do you think that that meeting is "obviously" going to be a 2-way feedback process? (All of these are genuine clarifying questions, not me being 'funny' with you in some way!) – seventyeightist Jun 13 '20 at 17:56
  • I agree with @joeqwerty. I don't expect managers in meetings to credit where the facts came from, I care little about that, unless it was something worthy. In a company briefing, do you expect the CEO to credit where the facts came from, or who actually wrote the PowerPoint file, or are you more concerned with the content? – Monstar Jun 14 '20 at 11:20
  • seventhyeightlist - it was a long history. She joined the team in 2017 as my team lead and we were ok that year. things got worse I reported to her previous boss at his request direct in 2018. This boss left in 2019. Another boss joined in 2019 and who was moved to a different team and he took me with him to report to him direct. He left (failed his probation!). Her boss joined in 2019 (my current HoD) and I was asked to join back to her team in 2019 - All senior managers including CIO know we don't get along but noone knows why. We have not had one to one since 2017 so she restarted this – Tryingtosurvive Jun 14 '20 at 12:31
  • and cc'd her boss in, so I assume he is going to be there. I have seen this as two way feedback - why shouldn't it be? If the agenda items has the word feedbacks (plural) I should be given the right to raise my concerns (about her even) as well surely? – Tryingtosurvive Jun 14 '20 at 12:33

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There could be many reasons on why a manager may step into meetings between analysts and clients. Maybe this is an important client, and they only want to deal with a single person, and that person may have to be of a certain seniority.

The manager is certainly under no obligation to give credit to members of their team when talking to clients. In fact, I would find it unusual in the middle of a meeting for various ideas to be attributed to different members. As a customer, I don't care. Let me know what the proposal is, and you can pat each other on the back after the meeting is over.

The fact that there was a team meeting to discuss this client beforehand suggests that the manager wants the whole team to be involved in some way, and it's not up to you to call the shots. Sounds like the manager wants to be the conduit of communication.

Assumptions about what motivates your manager would make you look incredibly childish in a meeting. I would not try to attribute the actions of your manager to a motive. Instead, you can raise your concerns.

"Just with client X, I was surprised that you were involved in a client meeting. Usually in my role I would be the one to interface with the client. I feel like my effectiveness in doing my job is blunted when I am not even allowed to communicate with the client. Is this going to be the standard way of operating going forward, or is there something special with this particular project?"

Gregory Currie
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