Does your boss take credit for your great job? Alas, it happens to the best professionals in all types of companies and business settings. Learn how to take it back where it belongs instead of getting defensive or just feeling helpless.
Seeing your boss steal the credit for the work you’ve done and present it as her own ideas or results hurts because it’s dishonest and unfair. But before we talk about remedies, first let me welcome you to the club and offer my sincere congratulations: you must be a top performer excelling at your work! I am being serious: no one wants to steal mediocre results, so if your boss takes credit for your work, she considers your accomplishments an asset that would potentially help her prove her proficiency and expedite her career.
Having seen the best talent thus robbed (and having experienced it myself), I also saw them feeling lost and confused about what they should do to repair the damage in such tricky situations. On the one hand, getting defensive or directly calling your supervisor out may come off as confrontational and lead to a direct conflict with the boss who has more authority than you, the employee. Guess who will lose? Exactly. On the other hand, letting it pass will create a bad precedent and encourage such behavior. Neither approach will work to the employee’s benefit in the long run. So, what do we do instead?
Career reality check: DO NOT complain about it
As a Career Realist, I warn you against complaining about it to your coworkers or seniors unless you are ready to start a full-scale war against your boss. First of all, it will be hard to prove. Second, you may come off as petty and confrontational. Third, your manager may have built excellent relationships with her superiors and therefore have their full support that you don’t have. While complaining about and reporting your boss can be a legit choice in some cases, setting yourself on that path will almost immediately end your career under her supervision. Managers can find subtle ways to retaliate against their employees, like bypassing you on an important project or lowering your grades in performance reviews. Is it worth it? If yes, then proceed, cautiously. If not, better use other means to restore justice.
How to prevent it: discuss, discuss, discuss
To prevent your boss from ever doing it again, make it a habit to mention the projects you are working on to other people on the team. Yes, I get it: as an overachiever, you probably struggle with talking about your successes and hope that your great job will speak for itself. Wrong, wrong move. Instead, go public and make your involvement in the work known to other bosses and coworkers. No, you don’t have to announce it to everyone in the office. Just target key stakeholders by asking for or suggesting new ideas about the project before you complete it. Something like “Hey, Trisha, I am working on a new design for our website. Does it matter to you where we are placing our contact data?”. This way, your team members will know you are integral to the endeavor.
If your company’s culture allows direct contact with senior managers, find a good reason to talk to or email at least one of your boss’s seniors and ask for their opinions or preferences related to the project you are working on. Sending that email, absolutely cc your boss on it. Then casually let her know that you wanted to make sure you are on the same page with the higher-ups or other departments and want to get their insights before you move on.
How to interfere in real-time: offer advice and provide detail
If you see your boss bragging about the job you did at a meeting or in a group email with several recipients, jump right in to reiterate important points or offer further assistance: “Hi Team! I finalized this code just 2 days ago and want to make sure you are using the latest version. Please let me know if you have any questions…”. At a meeting, provide an explanation, a particular detail, or an anecdote to illustrate the job: “I’d like to give an example of what Samantha is talking about”. Mention the part that you completed: “And while we are on the subject of X, when I was generating the report that Samantha has just mentioned, I found a couple of discrepancies I would like to address…”.
How to react post-factum: ask for opinions and lessons learned
But what if your manager took all the credit for the work you did, and you found out later? Even then, not all is lost. Take credit for your work back by contacting the stakeholders involved in the project and asking them for advice and guidance for the future. Refer to the aspects of the job you know best and say something along the lines of “…when I was working on project X, I had some issues come up. I would like to get your opinion on how we can better prevent similar problems in the future”. You can also suggest a comprehensive Lesson Learned session and collect feedback from your coworkers leveraging this smooth way to make the rest of the team realize that you were closely involved in the job and heavily contributed to the success.
And just one word of warning: if you see your boss repeatedly stealing credit for your job, read this post and see if the “give-and-take” balance has shifted and they are taking advantage of you. Start playing your own game to right the wrong.