WWYD - male co-worker trying to take credit for my work

[Anonymous]

I could really use some advice. Little background: my co-worker and I are both exec. level professionals -- our subject matter areas interact but are not the same. This guy is considered a "great guy" by our CEO and he has basically only ever worked at this company. He has not been helpful in any way to me since I joined (about a year ago) -- which is fine…but may be instructive.

I have worked on an major presentation (in my subject area expertise) and am set to present it to, among others, this co-worker's division.

In my organization, there is a "template" style presentation slide deck that all presentations are supposed to conform to. I don't have access to that template, etc., so I was asked (by my boss) to send it to my co-worker who "would put it into the right format." Well, he kept it for 3 days and I got it back last night at 11pm!! (Presentation is at noon today, by the way.)

Well, I open up the slide deck this morning and discover that he has made some changes to my presentation(!) without ever discussing them with me. There aren't many changes and they are not substantive or material…but they are also not things I would have inserted. This just seems like an obnoxious overstepping and pretty unprofessional.

What's worse, he changed the title page to say "materials complied by" [his name] and [my name]!! This has just infuriated me. I have worked on this presentation for months and it is my area. I am told to send my presentation to him for what I was led to believe would be an admin/tech process of fitting it into the correct slide deck…but now, his name is on the presentation *as if* we've been collaborating on this thing substantively.

What would you do? Any advice…again, I'm presenting at noon.

[Anonymous]

Honestly?

You have the format now, correct? How long would it take you to get back to the original? (ie delete his insertions)? Move forward with your original presentation (in the correct slide deck) and make sure to thank him for his time.

[Anonymous]

At the beginning of your presentation graciously thank this SOB for his help in getting the presentation into the right format, and then give your presentation. That should clarify what his contribution was. In the future, I'd ask for hte template so you can make your own presentation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly?

You have the format now, correct? How long would it take you to get back to the original? (ie delete his insertions)? Move forward with your original presentation (in the correct slide deck) and make sure to thank him for his time.

Haha, I should have added that relevant info. I have, of course already deleted some of his insertions and have removed his name from the title page. Just trying to navigate a gracious way to present knowing that this guy is working some agenda. I think you're right -- a gracious rise-above-it thanks for helping with the formatting.

[Anonymous]

Ugh. Unfortunately I would probably just let it go since it is today. Can you talk to your manager afterwards about it?

[Anonymous]

Wait, so your boss made you ask this guy to do what was basically secretarial work for you, and he is a professional and your peer? That is really unacceptable and I would have been pissed if I were him. It sounds like his making changes and adding his name was a passive aggressive way to respond to that inappropriate request. I'm sorry, but this is really your fault for not finessing the situation better. It was your presentation so you should have either figured out a way to do the formatting yourself, or actually collaborated with this guy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait, so your boss made you ask this guy to do what was basically secretarial work for you, and he is a professional and your peer? That is really unacceptable and I would have been pissed if I were him. It sounds like his making changes and adding his name was a passive aggressive way to respond to that inappropriate request. I'm sorry, but this is really your fault for not finessing the situation better. It was your presentation so you should have either figured out a way to do the formatting yourself, or actually collaborated with this guy.

Yeah, I actually sort of get it. But the guy didn't finesse it well either - he could have just sent you the sample deck and you could have formatted it yourself. Some people can't help but try to do things their way when doing this sort of thing - I certainly know I am guilty of this (I am a woman btw). Having said that, I would do what you did - thank him for the formatting help but remove his name from the title page. Just be ready to be told that you are not a team player for doing it.

[Anonymous]

1) Remove the content he has inserted - so that the content on the template is what you have written and compiled according to the original document. Add some new original content, this will give you an excuse to edit the document and make the changes, otherwise it will look petty.

2) Start the presentation by verbally acknowledging the help he has given by putting your content in the template. Remove all the names from the begining of the presentation.

3) Write your name on a slide at the end of the presentation.

[Anonymous]

Think there have been some great posts on this thread...both supporting OP and providing plausible explanation for why the other guy entered his name etc.

My main question is: if you've worked at the company for a year, why haven't you gotten yourself access to the template?

Sounds like this whole situation could have been easily avoided with a quick e-mail to IT/graphics sometime over the last year.

[Anonymous]

I've had that happen. I was starting a project on an area that overlapped with another unit. I invited/requested collaboration three times. They never once responded. The day before a high-level presentation of my report, they cried outrage that we dare work on something that effects them without consulting them. We, of course, welcomed their input now that they were finally interested in participating, but their inputs were not well researched and mostly unusable. They inserted their name *on top* of ours.

OP, I think your boss handled this badly. Your high-level peer should not be reformatting a power-point for you. I get that you only did as you were told, but your boss shouldn't have asked for that, and you should have gently pushed back with "oh, I don't want to trouble Bob with administrative tasks. We'll get the template and sort it out." The template for the company needs to be on a shared drive that all business units can access.

I'd thank your colleague for sharing the template, take his name off the cover, and insert a "thank you" slide at the end where you give him a shout out for being so helpful. I wouldn't give him a heads up on that either - it's completely unnecessary.

[Anonymous]

I don't know... I understand your frustration but I could also see a thread entitled,

"Male Colleague Assumes I will act as secretary for him and reformat his presentation without any credit"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the beginning of your presentation graciously thank this SOB for his help in getting the presentation into the right format, and then give your presentation. That should clarify what his contribution was. In the future, I'd ask for hte template so you can make your own presentation.

This.

I would say "and I just want to help John for his expertise in formatting and generally all his (and use air quotes) typing and editing skills"

Then just go on with your presentation like he wasn't there.

Last - why does it matter if it's a male or a female? Anyone taking credit for your work deserves the same treatment. Stand up for yourself.

[Anonymous]

I would just pretend I didn't see his 11pm email, and present your original presentation.

If he brings it up after, just play dumb. Oh Im sorry, I didn't see your email. I hadn't heard anything from you in a few days, so I thought you had no comments.

[Anonymous]

Hey OP- how did the presentation go?

[Anonymous]

OP here.

If I say so myself -- I killed Really, presentation went really well. I just removed his content and thanked him for his collaboration.

Some of the comments here have been so interesting. I understand some of the feedback about my boss's original request of this guy basically being "asking a co-exec to do secretarial work." At the risk of too many details for this forum -- I, too, originally thought this was just an admin/IT thing -- and was surprised that another exec was asked (and was given the work.)

But, again, info I didn't include before: the whole point of this presentation was b/c this same exec had *excluded* me from another peer's presentation (that impacted my division) and I found out about it last week.

I suspect that my boss and this exec knew that this presentation needed to "match" up with that presentation…and they were caught-red-handed about not having gotten my participation/input on that presentation. I realized this when one of the exec's edits to *my* presentation was to link to that other presentation. I think it was a CYA on their part.

I think it was sleazy all around.

But, you know what, I edited my presentation back to what it needed to be…presented the hell out of it…rose about it all. Our CEO sat in unexpectedly…so all's well.

And…I'll keep a smile on my face with this exec (and my sneaky boss)…but my memory is long.