Is Someone At Work Taking Credit for ‘Your’ Ideas?

We all are aware that occasionally, a few office products or perhaps a food container may go mysteriously missing from the office supply cupboard or staff fridge. Some go as far as taking your entire lunch, and even the cutlery!

 Unfortunately, it is not all that uncommon to have a co-worker take credit for your ideas, and lately this has been a pretty hot topic across various mediums, including the internet. Once again, I too relate to this unfortunate scenario, and therefore feel able to share my thoughts and suggested solutions with you.

One of the roles of an Assistant is to make his or her boss look good, and I most certainly agree with this concept. However, I would draw the line at my boss taking credit for my ideas that may pertain to cost saving measures for the firm overall, or perhaps revenue producing efforts that I have done all the leg work on.

This scenario creates an uncomfortable and precarious situation for all concerned. It is indeed difficult to conceive that a co-worker has had the audacity to take credit for a project or idea that you have expended so much time and effort on.

This feeling of frustration intensifies, if and when, the culprit turns out to be your own boss. At this point, two of the most important aspects of your relationship are severely damaged; ‘trust and respect’.

Once the trust and respect have left ‘any’ relationship, it is very difficult, and almost impossible to recapture, despite the valiant efforts and energy put forth to do so.

In the corporate world, there are those individuals who will ‘do almost anything’  to get ahead, and get the promotions, while at the same time, enjoying the company’s public recognition based on the hard work and efforts of others.

This is most unfortunate, but sadly a fact of human nature, particularly in such a competitive playground. Given our current market conditions, the competition is even more vicious, which seems to prompt the need for these individuals to justify taking credit for the work and ideas of others to propel their own careers forward.

Having said that, I would consider the following actions to prevent and/or confront this issue:

Prevention:

• Catalogue your own work (record electronically and manually) and ‘lock’ it down;
• Share your ideas and progress with an authority figure ‘outside’ of your own group;
• Do not discuss a ‘brilliant’ idea you have thought of with any other parties unless asked to do so in an open forum, and only then IF you have exhausted your research efforts, and feel totally confident in discussing your ideas;
• Always behave cooperatively and professionally, but do not be ‘vocal’ with your thoughts and ideas. The ‘spoken word’ can easily be misconstrued, creating problems and ‘false’ misunderstandings should a co-worker decide to ‘run with it’.

 Dealing with the Perpetrator:

• Think it through very carefully before taking any action, and do your ‘investigative ‘homework’;
• Be ‘absolutely certain’ before approaching a co-worker for encroaching on your project or idea;
• Always maintain your integrity and keep an open mind; give the person in question the benefit of the doubt until you learn otherwise;
• If the party in question is not your boss; go to your Manager and speak to him or her about the situation; being careful not to ‘be too harsh or judgemental’ toward the co-worker;
• Record your contributions in your ‘performance reviews’ and any other methods your firm uses to record employee contributions;
• Do not approach the individual when you are in an ‘emotional’ state;
• If you have a record of ‘email trails’, be sure to review carefully beforehand; (as in first point of ‘prevention’);
• Ask the person in question ‘how’ they came up with the idea and ‘when’, and/or ‘what inspired him or her with respect to the particular project or idea, and make sure you have an ‘audience’;
• When this person ‘falters’ in responding to your queries, particularly with an ‘audience’ , it will leave others to draw their own conclusions, and hopefully those of your boss and/or other division superiors as well.

At this point, acknowledgement and firm recognition for the project or ideas should ‘publically’ revert over to you, and the offending co-worker dealt with appropriately.