Manager represents things I've said about a project as her own thoughts - how to address in our upcoming 1-to-1 where her boss will sit in?

Question

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?

Answer 1

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?"