Nasty Email From Boss Today

[fawn001]

I am having a bad week.

This morning when I got to work, there was a nasty email from my boss. She was angry because a request by a customer was not acted on in a timely manner. She proceeded to berate me telling me how I should have prioritized my time, that this issue will be brought up in my next review, if I was confused I could talk to her, and cc'd her boss on it!!

I responded (and cc'd her boss) by saying I had given the project to someone else to complete. My response was very short and simple.

Neither she nor her boss ever commented on it for the rest of the day. She never appologized for sending it. (I had not done anything wrong)

How would you have responded to something like this?

 

[Winter]

I would have probably responded the same way. I was in corporate for over 8 years and this did not happen to me via a boss but a co-worker cc'ing my boss. The response is always simple and to the point with no emotion.

Your boss is showing weakness and lack of management skills by sending an email like that. She probably has done more damage to her career (I hope) than accomplising to bring you down.

I was reading other threads and someone's quotes after thier name (not sure what it is called) signiture maybe - is: Say what you mean, mean what you say, but nothing can come from saying it mean. I thought that is way waay cool and maybe something to pass on to your boss

Don't let it bother you. Really, if you are comfortable with your response then think no more of it and get a good night sleep.

Winter

 

[Lastchance09]

Was there a really good reason for giving the project to someone else?

In any case, I would have explained what I did (giving it to another employee) and apologize for not following up - then go talk to the person whom you gave the project to and ask them what happened. If the situation has not been resolved already, take some steps to fix it and let your boss know that you did. Then be on your best behavior until the review - and after.

I'm always wary of giving my tasks to someone else, because at the end of the day you are still responsible for making sure it gets done. because if that person doesn't deliver, they can easily say 'well, it wasn't my project anyway, I'm just helping so and so'.

Do your best to maintain a good attitude in this, otherwise its one more thing that will come up in the review.

 

[DEEDEE2]

Great advice so far. I would add one thing, the next time you pass on an assignment, just let your boss know that so and so is now handling that project.

Don't trip on it. The fact that your boss cc'd her boss says that your boss is trying to pass the buck should anything go wrong. I'm in management now and I am so thankful for the boss I had when I first started in my career. I had made a major and I mean MAJOR mistake that ended up taking down T1 service to a hospital...my boss never once passed the buck. Once everything was calmed down he called me into his office, explained where I had made the mistake. He could see that I was nervous and he told me 'Don't worry about it. I have taken care of it. I see a very good engineer in you and I'm not going to let a mistake interfer with that. Besides, I have no place calling myself your manager if I can't manage to handle a mini blow up right.' He took the heat because he knew he could and in turn, when I've seen good engineers coming up that make mistakes, and let's face it we don't learn if we don't fall down, if I feel the mistake was an honest mistake and not laziness, I will not throw that engineer to the wolves.

 

[janie1234]

I would have done the same thing you did. Facts only. She/he probably got yelled at for it not being done and when that happens the whip smacking goes down the ladder. It starts with the complainer who talks to who they think is "the boss" then "the boss" talks to their "boss" and then they go down the ladder and target who was given the project and then so on and so on. What happens is that once the "big boss" gets wind of it he/she has to go into dragon mode to make it look like something was done about it and that it was "taken care of" to the client. Don't sweat it. Trust me this stuff happens and not only to you. If you got into a whole drama of "why it was not your fault" it will just look like you are not being responsible. You did the right thing.