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Boss said cut the report down but I got grilled for leaving out the numbers
Two Fridays ago my manager asked me to trim my 12 page project update to 3 pages because "nobody reads long docs." I pulled the tables and kept the summary, then in the Monday meeting with the director he asked why the cost figures were missing and my manager just said "Jason made the call." I sat there and couldn't say a word because he was the one who told me to do it. Anyone else get burned when you follow instructions that nobody wants to own later?
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matthewh2811d ago
Did you ever read that HBR piece about "managing up" where they say you should always send a quick recap email after a verbal instruction? I saw something like that when I was googling this exact problem after it happened to me. The idea is you write "per our chat, I'll cut the tables and keep the summary" so there's a paper trail. My old team started doing this after our lead threw a guy under the bus in a client call. It feels a little paranoid but it saved me twice since then. Takes ten seconds and nobody can pull the "that was your call" move on you.
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