Timeline for How to handle a client telling you about future plans and asking you to (temporarily) keep them secret from your hierarchy?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 7, 2023 at 9:28 | comment | added | Greendrake | @Graham This might be a surprise to you but the mere status of being a boss (having direct reports) doesn't necessarily come with competence. | |
| Jan 7, 2023 at 9:26 | comment | added | Graham | @StephanBranczyk ... And you also don't understand that the other person, assuming they're a competent adult, would know all this perfectly well. He's giving the OP's company an informal heads-up that things might change, and he knows perfectly well that it'll get back. Any competent manager (and honestly any experienced client liaison, which the OP is not) knows how to work with informal info from private conversations. | |
| Jan 7, 2023 at 9:19 | comment | added | Graham | @StephanBranczyk You clearly don't understand the concept of employment. It's not that I'd be "incapable of keeping it". If they told me something personal about themselves, that would stay private forever. But if it relates to the company employing me, I have a legal duty to pass that info on. Failing to pass on that info breaches your contract, and if this is big news which could affect the company's plans for the future then this could easily be considered gross negligence and grounds for immediate firing. | |
| Jan 7, 2023 at 9:11 | comment | added | Graham | @Greendrake Assuming your bosses are not completely incompetent is "too optimistic"? The OP has given no evidence that his bosses are that bad. Personally I've never worked for anyone who didn't understand this kind of thing. I guess they may exist, sure, I've just not met them in 30 years in industry. | |
| Jan 7, 2023 at 5:55 | comment | added | Stephan Branczyk | So you expect your own boss to keep it a secret, when yourself were incapable of keeping it? You have more faith in your boss than you have in yourself I suppose. Besides, if the information is not actionable, what point is there to share it in the first place? | |
| Jan 7, 2023 at 2:11 | comment | added | Greendrake | This answer assumes that the bosses will not let the info slip so that the client learns that the OP has breached their trust — which will ruine the OP-client good rapports. Too optimistic. | |
| Jan 6, 2023 at 12:53 | history | answered | Graham | CC BY-SA 4.0 |