Q & A Table of Contents
I Do The Work, But She Gets The Credit
From: Anya, Washington, DC
Question: My team leader gives credit for my work to another person. The thing is that they are friends and my team leader feels sorry for this woman (who is a very bad and inefficient programmer). So we have these weekly reports that are send to our main boss (who, by the way is new and does not know any of us). These reports indicate who is working on what. So my team leader puts the name of this woman next to the programs that I wrote. She just puts myname, hername. As if we both worked on it. Or just her name. So if you looked at this report it would sound like this lady is such a hard worker and I do less work then anyone else. How can I confront her about it?
Response: It sounds as if you need a little practice picking your targets. Your supervisor sounds like the person who has made a choice to give credit to your unproductive colleague. Whether your colleague and the supervisor have made some kind of deal is, of course, an important question. Workplace ethics are a serious matter.
You should examine your BATNA, your Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement:
Are you prepared to leave your job if nothing changes? What do you risk if you alienate your supervisor by questioning his/her judgement? Do you care about alienating your non-productive colleague? What consequences do you risk there?
After taking a look at what you may stand to lose by asserting yourself, you should ask your supervisor for advice: What would you recommend I do to make sure I get full credit for my work and am not stuck in the position of sharing credit with someone who has not contributed -- or getting no credit at all? If your supervisor is not the 'top dog' you may want to bring your problem another rung up the ladder, particularly if you have reason to believe your supervisor is a co-conspirator with the person who's grabbing the credit that rightly belongs to you.
It could also make sense not to deal with the issue on a hierarchical basis, but rather to talk with someone in human resources to get their advice.
In the short term, you might also want to figure out how to keep ownership of your work/papers so that no one else can get their hands on them and claim credit unfairly.
Can you do most of your work in a remote location?
Can you work from home?
Can you lock your desk?
When you have completed a paper or a program or some other work product, can you place your name on it and give one copy to your supervisor and another copy to another person above you in the hierarchy?
Can you lock your unproductive colleague out of your computer?
If your unproductive colleague takes credit for your work, can you maneuver her into a situation where she has to explain something she doesn't understand in a setting that makes it clear she doesn't know what she's talking about?
You need to examine your interests, investigate the choices available to you, understand what you have to gain by a change in the situation. While what is being done to you is unethical, it is critical that you do not resort to unethical tactics in response.
Examine all the options. Pick a target (or group of targets) who can really help you achieve your interests. After all, the place where you work has a lot to lose if its credibility is attacked by someone who is stealing ideas inside; what if ideas thus stolen are taken to another organization without authorization?
I hope this has given you some ideas about the questions you should ask and the approaches among which you can choose.
Good luck,
Steve
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