Taking Credit For The Work Of Others
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Aug 21, 2014
Over this past weekend, one of my wife's friends, who used to be a co-worker, stopped by the house. I hadn't seen her in a long while, but I knew that over the past 6 months her department had undergone a management change. I asked her how things were going with the new manager.
Her response was shocking to me; she said:
"I don't know if things are better or not. Whereas the previous manager was always coming upstairs barking at us to have better production times, even though she didn't know what we did, after the new manager's first week we almost never see or hear from her. What's worse is that we had some bigwigs come visit the department. She asked one of the other techs to put a little presentation together, she never talked to him about it, the day came and she never showed up, he did a great job, enough that the CEO of the hospital sent a letter saying how impressed everyone was, and then she took all the credit for putting it together."
I was appalled. I was thinking about the type of gall it takes to claim credit for the work someone else did without being any part of it. You can bet she'd have been quick to chew him out if it hadn't gone so well.
It's bad enough being an absentee leader; the workers have no idea if she even knows what they do, which is pretty much like the previous manager, only they knew she didn't know. It's worse when you minimize the work employees do, to the extent that you claim credit for their success as if they didn't have anything to do with it.
Can you imagine how demoralized the employees are? If this particular department had a problem with employees before what makes anyone reading this think they'll feel any better now? Whereas previous management was so bad that many good employees left, bad management started off well by removing some of the less competent elements of the department, then become one herself, and probably doesn't realize that a couple of the good employees that are left are thinking about leaving. Where will this leave the department? Will anyone even know how to evaluate it if they leave?
People who work for you or do work for you are not your slave. They're not there just to make you look good; this isn't a ghostwriting opportunity, where you get to pay someone else to put together something so you can claim authority you don't have. I always say that no business is as strong as the employees who are willing to come to work everyday and give their all.
Employees don't really ask for all that much; they want to be paid fairly, have an opportunity to have some say in the work they do, and get a little bit of appreciation. Employers who don't do any of these things almost always find themselves going through employees in big numbers and wondering why they can't find anyone qualified.
Who's not really qualified in this instance?
Often the mid-level managers are simply salary collectors and rarely a leaders. I avoid working for big companies due to fact that it seems that presence of these salary collectors is much higher.
I have to say that often, I have been in situation when somebody else take credit for my work, well I pitty these people.
Actually a few days ago, somebody contacted me with money offer to borrow my portfolio, this was the most ridiculous thing in my work that have ever happen.
That takes a lot of nerve Kal (should I start calling you Kal? lol); what did you say to the person? You used an interesting phrase; “salary collectors”. It’s too bad and yet I can’t disagree with you because it seems prevalent. It’s too bad more people don’t try to get by on their own talent.
Sure, most of my friends call me Kal. I’ve thrown away “Carl” pseudonim a while ago.
Unfortunately, Mitch I see this trend more often than in the past. As I am in web business, I can tell you that in the last year, I mainly work with middle man somewhere, that simply outsource the work and claim the credit. Mostly sales people, that even don’t have a clue about what is involved.
Now that you mention it, I see that often online as well. I mean, I still write for other people’s blogs and it’s always under their name, and it used to be a battle to get someone to allow you to put a link to your website when you built their sites back in the day, as if they thought anyone would believe they built it.
Absolutely! People respond better when they are treated with respect. If you want to command respect, then treat others with respect. Just because somebody earns less doesn’t mean that he/she doesn’t deserves your respect. In an organization each one is your should be treated as an equal.
Also if your fight over every issues then your employees will recognize you as a negative person.
Good addition Worli, the part about arguing all the time. I’ve known a few of those and in those cases I pick my battles well to make sure that when I need to be right I’m going to be right, and when I don’t that at least it’s not something that would hurt my department.
Mitch,
I just ran across your post and felt I had to comment. I’ve been in this situation a few times throughout my career where a manager takes credit for work they never do. I’ve also worked for companies where the manager would give credit where credit was due. The one’s that always take credit for someone else’s work lose the respect of their staff and eventually fail. However, the one’s that give credit where it belongs earns respect and usually end up being successful. Fortunately, I don’t have to worry about these office games anymore.
Sam
Thanks for your comment Sam. I’m with you, karma has a way of eventually taking care of these types of things, and sometimes it’s not pretty. I just couldn’t imagine claiming credit for someone else’s work, though I might claim credit for training them so they could produce something good. I’m always proud to be a teacher for people who end up doing great things. 🙂