Welcome to the Outrageous Workplace Stories series of the podcast. In these episodes, you’ll see ways to handle even the toughest of workplace situations with power and impact while making humanity a priority. These stories shaped how I went from receptionist to HR manager in four short years without a degree, without the qualifications or experience that you would have thought I needed. This series is designed to help you turn everyday challenges into a good team. Stay grounded in your humanity and…  Again, you also want to get to your next level. You want to more money. is also at the top of your list. I’m here to tell you that you can do both, and this is where you start. Let’s go. 13 outrageous work stories that you wouldn’t believe happened, or maybe you would believe this one. I’ve had several clients who’ve had it happen to them. So what do you do when someone blatantly steals your work? I had this happen to me, I’m going to tell you how I managed it. It was my job to create that new onboarding process. And I took the initiative, I ran with it, I made this amazing onboarding process. I was so proud of it. I had thought of every little tiny detail  and I had spent weeks  mapping this out and making sure that it was perfect and it was so thoughtful that the new person would feel so cared for  and that nothing was missing.  In the meeting, when HR was asked to present it, my  boss  stepped up and presented it  as if it were hers. And I was sitting there not really sure what to do. I don’t know if you’ve ever had that situation where you’re sitting there as someone has blatantly presented your work as their own work  and not credited you, not mentioned you, not acknowledged you at all.  So there’s options in that situation. It would be natural to feel  very frustrated and angry  and defensive.  and the response from that, if you acted on those feelings, might be, hey, what are you doing? That’s my work. Aren’t you gonna let everyone know that I’m the one who did this?  You’re taking credit for my work. You might want to blatantly go out and say it.  Or you might sit and stay quiet and think to yourself, okay, there’s nothing I can do about this. She’s my boss. If I say something, it’s just gonna make me look bad. Everyone’s gonna think I’m trying to… make myself look good or puff up my own chest and I can’t do that so I’m just gonna sit here and stay quiet and then feel angry and resentful about it later because of course you would why wouldn’t you  that is just not a fun thing to experience  but there is a third option  the third option is you don’t stay quiet  you don’t get angry you say something  that can’t be ignored here’s what you say and here’s what I did I stepped up and I said  Hey, it’s awesome that you’re all so  enthused about this because I was the one who originally did the research for all of this. So I’d be happy to go over and  explain in any detail or give anyone any more information if you need it.  And that put me in the mix and people were like, that’s great. And then they were directing questions to me about it.  That’s step one. Step two.  is that you go to the person who did it and  in private and address it. So I went to  my boss afterwards and I said, hey,  I realized that you didn’t mention me when you presented the new  onboarding process.  And I was wondering  why that was. Was it intentional or did you just forget or what happened?  Here’s what she did. She deflected it and said, well, we have a same team mentality around here.  And it doesn’t matter whose idea it was, the best ideas win and you should know that. So step one is you agree.  Second, you make your point.  And third, you close it  because you don’t want to get into a debate about the same team being a good thing or a bad thing. Are you agreeing or not agreeing? It’s yes. Same team is a great philosophy we have here and I wholeheartedly support it.  And I also think  that credit should be given to the right individuals for both accuracy and morale. And I just want to make sure that moving forward,  the right individuals are credited for their work.  That way, I’m not engaging in this debate.  I’m not saying, hey, you need to credit me, even though I might want to say that there’s a coached version  of each of us. And so  when we get used to showing up with the coached version,  We get much farther, we manage the situations so much more fluidly and better  than if we either stay quiet because we don’t know what to do, then we quietly seethe and get irritated and angry and that  in the end we’re gonna end up wanting to leave and getting a job. Option number three is I’m going to coach my brain. to how to handle these situations in real time so that I can get the proper credit for my work and I’m outwardly  sharing something that is very impactful and very valid that will be very difficult for any reasonable person to  ignore. So what to do when someone takes credit for your work. This is a three step process. So step one, you don’t have to stay quiet. You don’t have to get angry and tell everybody the truth in the room.  You simply say…  That’s great that this is getting so much enthusiasm around it. I’d love to go over any details or answer any questions since I was the one who originally did all the research for this.  Step two,  you approach the person outside of the room, you don’t do it publicly, and you say, hey,  was there a reason you didn’t include my name when you presented that?  Because  you know that I’ve been working on this for two weeks. I’m sure you didn’t do that on purpose. We assume the best of everybody and we give them a chance. to explain, to own up, we give them the benefit of the doubt. And then if they brush us off, like happened to me, we gently guide them back to what’s important, and we don’t debate them, we don’t argue with them, there’s always gonna be something they say that we agree with. So in this case, I totally support the same team mentality wholeheartedly, and I also feel it’s very important that individuals who have done the work get credited for it. Both because of morale, and for accuracy purposes.  Thank you so much for watching. I’m telling 13 workplace stories that you wouldn’t believe happened,  although  people are telling me this one particularly, it happens a lot. The moments in your career that get you paid, the moments that escalate you to where you want to go, those moments  are the ones handled in between your performance reviews.  They are how you manage your emotions. They are how you manage the words that come out of your mouth and the energy from which they come out of your mouth. The way that I handled this wasn’t angry and it stems from curiosity.  Lots of situations like this happen with my one-on-one clients every single day. And I know that it’s tough to  have that reaction in the moment exactly how you want to have it.  And that’s what I specialize in is helping you train your brain, give you the tools, the scripts,  the information, the background to  handle these situations with tact, diplomacy,  impact. and not having to sit down and shut up and not say anything and be resentful, but also not causing obscene either.  There’s a balance, there’s a way to do it,  and you can bring me any workplace situation and I will help you manage it. I am really, really good at this.  I will see you in the next video. If you would like to sign up for all 13 videos,  you can do that in the link below.  You can get them all right away. I will see you in the next video. If you enjoyed that story  and  If you wanna learn  impactful yet deeply human. Join the way.