Work grievance, no HR Dept, advice needed please

[silver16v]

Hi All,

Would be very grateful for your advice in relation to a work matter. I feel I am being scapegoated for
something that I am not entirely responsible for, if at all. I work for a tiny firm, no HR dept, so I am counting on my fellow PHers. To summarise:

Last week I was asked by to provide prices for a document used to pitch to prospective clients. I did this, and handed over to a colleague for formatting etc. My colleague forwarded the document to my director. Unknown to myself or my colleague two prices were transposed during the formatting of the document. I did not check it as I was not involved in the formatting and was also busy covering for a colleague in addition to my normal duties.

This error was only picked up today during the pitch, as neither I nor my colleague had checked the formatting. My director was livid, and phoned me demanding an explanation. During this (brief) conversation my director was very rude to me, and did not allow me to provide an explanation of what had happened. When I objected to the manner in which I was spoken to he told me to go home for the day. I did not check it as I was not involved in the formatting and was also busy covering for a colleague in addition to my normal duties.

This afternoon I received an e-mail from my director apologising if he was rude. However, he then went on to say he was very disappointed the document was not checked, and he was disappointed in my lack of care and attention at work generally. I feel this e-mail is an attempt to scapegoat me, and the reference to the quality of my work is very disturbing. I have made errors in the past, but in over 10 years of work I have never received any verbal or written warnings etc. I feel this is a step towards eventually dismissing me, and by this e-mail the matter is being documented.

I am not sure how to respond to this e-mail, if at all. He wants to have a coffee to discuss things but right now I am fuming. How would you approach this situation? All advice gratefully received.

[Anonamoose]

Sounds to me like he is right, yes you're busy but you should have taken 10 mins to check the document, at the end of the day they asked you for the info not your colleague. Mistakes like that make your director and company look like they don't really care and therefore probably wouldn't get the client. If I was your manager I'd be fuming.

If I were you, I'd apologise for not checking, take it on the chin and make sure it doesn't happen again.

[ClaphamGT3]

"Dear [insert name of Director]

Many thanks for your e-mail. We all say things in the heat of the moment that we regret and I know the pitch was a big deal for us as a firm so let's let bygones be bygones and not sour a 10 year relationship.

You know my commitment to the firm and the pride I take in my work. The issue with the figures was, sadly, 'just one of those things' where things got jumbled in formatting. I have been thinking how we stop anything like this ever happening again and I wonder if we should introduce a formal review process where, before we issue or present any document, someone who hasn't written it reads through it prior to use/issue. It wouldn't take long and would prevent anything like this happening again - what do you think?

Thanks again for your note.

Best regards

pistonheader"

[ClaphamGT3]

ClaphamGT3 said:

"Dear [insert name of Director]

Many thanks for your e-mail. We all say things in the heat of the moment that we regret and I know the pitch was a big deal for us as a firm so let's let bygones be bygones and not sour a 10 year relationship.

You know my commitment to the firm and the pride I take in my work. The issue with the figures was, sadly, 'just one of those things' where things got jumbled in formatting. I have been thinking how we stop anything like this ever happening again and I wonder if we should introduce a formal review process where, before we issue or present any document, someone who hasn't written it reads through it prior to use/issue. It wouldn't take long and would prevent anything like this happening again - what do you think?

Thanks again for your note and look forward to catching up.

Best regards

silver 16v"

[Wacky Racer]

silver16v said:

Hi All,

Would be very grateful for your advice in relation to a work matter. I feel I am being scapegoated for
something that I am not entirely responsible for, if at all. I work for a tiny firm, no HR dept, so I am counting on my fellow PHers. To summarise:

Last week I was asked by to provide prices for a document used to pitch to prospective clients. I did this, and handed over to a colleague for formatting etc. My colleague forwarded the document to my director. Unknown to myself or my colleague two prices were transposed during the formatting of the document. I did not check it as I was not involved in the formatting and was also busy covering for a colleague in addition to my normal duties.

This error was only picked up today during the pitch, as neither I nor my colleague had checked the formatting. My director was livid, and phoned me demanding an explanation. During this (brief) conversation my director was very rude to me, and did not allow me to provide an explanation of what had happened. When I objected to the manner in which I was spoken to he told me to go home for the day. I did not check it as I was not involved in the formatting and was also busy covering for a colleague in addition to my normal duties.

This afternoon I received an e-mail from my director apologising if he was rude. However, he then went on to say he was very disappointed the document was not checked, and he was disappointed in my lack of care and attention at work generally. I feel this e-mail is an attempt to scapegoat me, and the reference to the quality of my work is very disturbing. I have made errors in the past, but in over 10 years of work I have never received any verbal or written warnings etc. I feel this is a step towards eventually dismissing me, and by this e-mail the matter is being documented.

I am not sure how to respond to this e-mail, if at all. He wants to have a coffee to discuss things but right now I am fuming. How would you approach this situation? All advice gratefully received.

Did you check this post above before you sent it......You seem to have repeated a sentence twice. Did you mean to?

Not finding fault or anything, just maybe an indication that you might need to tighten up a bit....

Good luck anyhow....I would lie low, take it on the chin and move on.

[silver16v]

Wacky Racer said:

Did you check this post above before you sent it......You seem to have repeated a sentence twice. Did you mean to?

Not finding fault or anything, just maybe an indication that you might need to tighten up a bit....

Good luck anyhow....I would lie low, take it on the chin and move on.

Lol used copy and paste instead of cut and paste

Thank you for the advice, certainly don't want to inflame the situation but felt aggrieved and needed to know where I stand.

[Dave_newcastle]

I think your Director has a high degree of fault here. If he is making a presentation of material to a client then it is he that should have checked its content beforehand. If he had checked it then he would have realised there was a mistake and discussed what the right numbers should be with you before he presented it publically.

Edited by Dave_newcastle on Tuesday 23 September 22:22

[Mr Pointy]

Whose responsibility was it to prepare the document for the presentation? You say you provided the pricing information, but who was ultimately the one preparing the document? That's the person at fault. If it was you, you have a problem. If it was someone else, then I would be making some very pointed comments to your Director tomorrow. I'd be making it absolutely clear I didn't accept being blamed for someone else's error.

[Sir Fergie]

Anonamoose said:

Sounds to me like he is right, yes you're busy but you should have taken 10 mins to check the document, at the end of the day they asked you for the info not your colleague. Mistakes like that make your director and company look like they don't really care and therefore probably wouldn't get the client. If I was your manager I'd be fuming.

If I were you, I'd apologise for not checking, take it on the chin and make sure it doesn't happen again.

If I was the director - id be annoyed with myself for not reading a VITAL document that I needed to be familiar with for said VITAL presentation.

I certainly wouldn't be looking to scapegoat my staff when I was at least partially to blame.

Mind you if I was a director - id be inclined to recognise that if ive got someone doing the duties of TWO people - the risk of mistakes is higher due to extra workload.

Do we seriously think its reasonable for a director to NOT read over with some sort of care and attention a document provided to him/her as a vital part of a vital presentation that THEY must give.

Mind you I do have a dislike of companies who insist on having ONE person do TWO peoples duties - if you want perfect error free work - that's fine - just don't expect staff to take on their own work and SOMEONE ELSES work.

[Sir Fergie]

OP - how much of a factor do you consider that having to fill in for a colleague as well as your own NORMAL duties - was in this incident.

What impact did it have on your workload - and how would not having extra work dumped on you because someone wasn't in work or not being short staffed - have helped prevent the situation.

Im all for acknowledging ones mistakes - but I also don't believe in simply rolling over and taking the blame if you genuinely don't think you've done anything wrong.

Argue your case - diplomatically and professionally

[edc]

Whose fault it was etc etc is all a moot point. What can you collectively do to rectify the situation and not repeat it? What matters is the expectation of the manager was that you would provide accurate information. Whether you felt that was your job or not is also a slightly moot point. What it does highlight though is a disparity in what the expectation was and that can easily be solved by 'process' improvements or more and better communication.

The manager has also acknowledged he may have behaved inappropriately. But what is done is done. Neither of you can erase the past. What more could you reasonably expect to be able to move on from this incident? The manager could have carried on as normal. You could opt to leave if you feel the risk of this happening again is high and you not liking those situations. Or you could look at the incident as a whole and look at the way it has subsequently been addressed. The manager has made some attempts to address the situation. That is a sign of a half decent people manager at least and not one that will just shovel stuff out the way and ignore things.

[andy-xr]

Just ring him up.

You 'Alright?'
Him 'Yeah'
You 'All cool?'
Him 'Yeah'
You 'Cool, lets move on'


That's it. There's no need for formalities, he's emailed it because he doesnt know how to say it in person, be open about it and move on from it, there's no drama

[boroandy87]

Shake hands, move on and most importantly, find a way to avoid it happening again. He'll appreciate that you've taken the time to suggest this and will help to rebuild the trust in your working relationship.

He obviously regrets his actions, and he is as culpable as you are.

More important things to worry about.

Fix the problem and move onto the next.

[andy-xr]

Also, if you are accountable, and from the sound of it you are, and you've fked up, just say which bit you've fked up and what you've done to try to stop it happening again.

If you're working out how to pass the buck on something you should rightly get nailed down on what bits went wrong that were under your control. Take the responsibility for the bits you did

[Foliage]

Dear <insert directors name>

Good morning and thank you for your email, I was about to contact you and your line manager about this 'challenge', I was concerned about the situation and the risk you have put the company in by not performing appropriate due dillegence on a very important document that was to be used in a presentation to an important client. I personally only supplied a portion of the documents content to the documents creator, please take any concerns and changes to <insert documents creators name>, thank you.

TL;DR - You should have proof read it before presenting it, dhead.

Your Faithfully

OP

Copy in the directors Line Manager/MD

[Mastiff]

andy-xr said:

Also, if you are accountable, and from the sound of it you are, and you've fked up, just say which bit you've fked up and what you've done to try to stop it happening again.

This is bang on good advice IMHO.

[Sir Fergie]

Mastiff said:

andy-xr said:

Also, if you are accountable, and from the sound of it you are, and you've fked up, just say which bit you've fked up and what you've done to try to stop it happening again.

This is bang on good advice IMHO.

Its very good advice IF the OP knows they've done something wrong - but if they haven't actually done anything wrong - ie SOMEONE ELSE ACTUALLY made the mistake - then what is the benefit of taking responsibility for someone elses mistake.

Obviously if the OP has messed up then he needs to acknowledge it.

Mind you - the same advice surely applies to a director who clearly doesn't bother reading important documents he will be using for a VITAL presentation - with care and diligence.

It seems to me that OP only supplied information for a document to SOMEONE ELSE who was doing up the document - and THAT SOMEONE ELSE messed up with the formatting.

Maybe im reading the OP wrong - maybe some feel that the OP is not giving the full story but we can only accept what the OP has told us at face value.

[h0b0]

Mr Pointy said:

Whose responsibility was it to prepare the document for the presentation? You say you provided the pricing information, but who was ultimately the one preparing the document? That's the person at fault. If it was you, you have a problem. If it was someone else, then I would be making some very pointed comments to your Director tomorrow. I'd be making it absolutely clear I didn't accept being blamed for someone else's error.

Please tell me you don't report to me! If I have to check everything that my reports do then there is no fking point in having them. It's their job! I'd never get anything done if I had to hold their hands. Fortunately, you don't report to me as I have a team of adults who can handle responsibility and acoutability.

OP, you made your director look like an ass in front of a potentially important client. He got emotional in the moment and has apologized. He shouldn't have lost his cool but clearly he was feeling the pressure. Try and turn this into an opportunity. Tell him you will not screw up again and want to be even more accountable by delivering the presentation.

[STW2010]

ClaphamGT3 said:

"Dear [insert name of Director]

Many thanks for your e-mail. We all say things in the heat of the moment that we regret and I know the pitch was a big deal for us as a firm so let's let bygones be bygones and not sour a 10 year relationship.

You know my commitment to the firm and the pride I take in my work. The issue with the figures is regrettable; however whilst I recognise that a share of the blame lies with me, and I apologise for this, I do not believe that I am entirely at fault here and trust that you recognise this, sadly, 'just one of those things' where things got jumbled in formatting. I have been thinking how we stop prevent such errors anything like this ever from happening again and I wonder if we should introduce a formal review process where, before we issue or present any document, someone who hasn't written it reads through it prior to use/issue. It wouldn't take long and would prevent anything like this happening again - what do you think?

Thanks again for your note.

Best regards

pistonheader"

[STW2010]

h0b0 said:

Mr Pointy said:

Whose responsibility was it to prepare the document for the presentation? You say you provided the pricing information, but who was ultimately the one preparing the document? That's the person at fault. If it was you, you have a problem. If it was someone else, then I would be making some very pointed comments to your Director tomorrow. I'd be making it absolutely clear I didn't accept being blamed for someone else's error.

Please tell me you don't report to me! If I have to check everything that my reports do then there is no fking point in having them. It's their job! I'd never get anything done if I had to hold their hands. Fortunately, you don't report to me as I have a team of adults who can handle responsibility and acoutability.

OP, you made your director look like an ass in front of a potentially important client. He got emotional in the moment and has apologized. He shouldn't have lost his cool but clearly he was feeling the pressure. Try and turn this into an opportunity. Tell him you will not screw up again and want to be even more accountable by delivering the presentation.

Further to my response previously, I certainly agree with this. I trust my reports to do what is necessary and would have been angry as the director in this case, however I wouldn't have called. I would have left the meeting with bottled up anger, and then summoned all involved to my office to explain what happened and why.

A previous manager of mine lost her cool with me because she had incomplete financial figures. However, she also knew that the accountant had traveled to meet me- he left saying that he had all information required. So when she called and started moaning at me a I responded with a simple 'call me back when you are willing to speak to me like an adult', and hung up. It was the sign of a bad manager and an employee (me) who didn't respect her (I don't respect anyone who speaks to me in that way- I don't do it to others), and I admit I shouldn't have done that. When she arrived back in the office she agreed that she shouldn't have let emotion take over and apologised. I did not apologise, and looking back on it probably should have.

OP- put yourself in the director's shoes. What would you have done?