Ever felt the sting of injustice when your hard work is hijacked by another? Navigating such situations can be tricky. Let's delve into strategies for handling credit theft at work, ensuring your efforts are rightfully acknowledged.
Take credit for your work
We want to believe that our work speaks for itself, but in the real world, it matters who gets credit
- You can’t assume people will notice your time and effort
- Brian Uzzi, professor of leadership and organizational change at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, says it’s not always clear who did what
Enlist others who can stand up for you
Owen Collins
- After the birth of his second child, he decided to take a semester’s paternity leave.
- Although he and his boss had hoped to delay an important departmental review until his return, it couldn’t be put off and so he spent several hours on the phone with her explaining what needed to be done and agreeing to help
- When they met in person to go over the review, Clarissa began by “representing the drafts as hers” and Owen took every opportunity to demonstrate his critical contributions, fielding questions and providing key information
Take time to calm down
Assess the severity of the situation.
- Ask yourself: How much does this really matter? Will it negatively impact my career?
- Remedy the situation
- If the credit-stealer acknowledges his mistake, talk about how you can make things right. Even if he’s not willing to do anything, you can take action.
Case Study#1: Make your contributions visible
Kyle Simmons* split his time between his infantry unit and its human resources department.
- While looking over the paperwork, he noticed this his commanding officer had taken credit for one of his ideas
- He decided he should speak up for himself and ask why he’d taken credit
- The CO seemed taken aback, but mostly “he was indifferent”
- From that point on, Kyle made sure to CC others when he responded to this CO’s requests for input
