I refactored our code and made a library that improved our work. It wasn't a big deal and I didn't even mention except to share with my team mates. Our boss is non technical. In our team meeting he congratulated team mate on taking the initiative and creativity in making this library. I don't think he was banking on boss mentioning it. I was so shocked all I can muster was "You mean the library I made?". This has weighed on me a lot and I don't feel like sharing anything anymore. I mentioned to the boss later that I made this, but I don't think they really care or understand. What do I do?
Ask HN: My team mate took credit for my work. What do I do
1–10 of 23 posts
Re: Ask HN: My team mate took credit for my work. What do I do
#2I would go talk to both your team mate and your boss, in that order. I would also be very cordial and professional. Learn why the teammate took the credit or may be the boss is just mistaken. Find out the truth and then set the story straight with the boss without bad mouthing the teammate.
If this happens again, then you can be little more direct.
It would also behoove you to mention your accomplishments in passing to your boss during a casual chat in the morning while you are talking about weather or current events. Bosses for most parts don't have all the minute details of who is doing what.
Re: Ask HN: My team mate took credit for my work. What do I do
#3It could have been a simple misunderstanding and your boss crediting the wrong person.
In the big picture these things don't matter a whole lot, I wouldn't take the time to discuss it with your boss any further.
Maybe talk to your teammate and see if he was trying to take credit for it or if it just happened to look that way.
Try to bring up more what you are working on and ideas you are executing on with your team and boss in the future.
kudos are nice but very minor in the big scheme of things. You are all cogs in a machine to your company and boss. So I wouldn't let it get you down and it's not worth making waves over.
Re: Ask HN: My team mate took credit for my work. What do I do
#4The feeling of being relevant and contributing is a very powerful force. Its why people will take enhancers that help them win and place high in local 5K run races. Like it even matters, but to them it is everything. Worth cheating to get it they think. Something that has always helped me is knowing that cheaters can't lead, they can only follow. He'll need to steal credit from someone else to keep this "look" going.
So, for now ... I say to keep the peace - take it on the chin. Good learning experience for you. You did not properly credit yourself and made the way for this to happen. Note that you must be balanced in life too and not toot your horn too loudly. Have balance, allow others to succeed and get credit too. Maybe you saw the sample code on stack-overflow and refactored it. We all learn from others anyway.
The real problem here is the pat on the back from the boss, not the code itself which you saw as trivial anyway. Be aware of how this company operates. However, don't stop contributing! That will cause you to die inside. Your contributions are great and will help you to grow. So, no matter who gets the credit, keep doing it so that you'll be better off when you leave this place.
Re: Ask HN: My team mate took credit for my work. What do I do
#5There are two issues here:
1. Is your boss misinformed/clueless/you're misunderstanding?
2. Does your boss not care about you?
#1 can be cleared up, as others here say, by better communication and by making sure your boss knows your accomplishments.
If answer to #2 is "boss doesn't care" you'll want to start thinking about new job, or new team at least, because this is just a symptom of a deeper problem.
Re: Ask HN: My team mate took credit for my work. What do I do
#6The feeling of being relevant and contributing is a very powerful force. Its why people will take enhancers that help them win and place high in local 5K run races. Like it even matters, but to them it is everything. Worth cheating to get it they think. Something that has always helped me is knowing that cheaters can't lead, they can only follow. He'll need to steal credit from someone else to keep this "look" going.…
"Visibility" is one of the major drivers of promotion in every organization. They don't know your good if they can't see it.
If there are no mitigating circumstances here, like "actually we worked together but I did most of it". Then it should be a simple matter to talk to the boss and get to the bottom of how it was misattributed. No accusations, no assumptions but a fact finding mission. The goal here is to find out how it happened so you can avoid it in the future, and as a secondary bonus it will obviously alert your boss to the fact you are the real author.
If people are able to take credit for your work it indicates a larger problem with your visibility in the organization and it should be dealt with swiftly if you care about your career.
Re: Ask HN: My team mate took credit for my work. What do I do
#7who wrote the code that is inside the library?
the takeaway would be that you should promote yourself and your work preemptively.
Re: Ask HN: My team mate took credit for my work. What do I do
#8I suggest you try asking on Workplace.StackExchange, too, since the people there have more experience answering this kind of question.
Re: Ask HN: My team mate took credit for my work. What do I do
#9Another thing that would be useful is for your version-control systems (git/svn etc) to be able to say precisely who made which changes. That gives you proof of who did which work. Even if your company/org does not use version control, you can use it independently as an individual, and have a complete development history of your own which documents your work.
It would be harder for someone to claim your work if you have a ton of incremental check-ins and they don't.
Re: Ask HN: My team mate took credit for my work. What do I do
#10The feeling of being relevant and contributing is a very powerful force. Its why people will take enhancers that help them win and place high in local 5K run races. Like it even matters, but to them it is everything. Worth cheating to get it they think. Something that has always helped me is knowing that cheaters can't lead, they can only follow. He'll need to steal credit from someone else to keep this "look" going.…
Thank you your reply made me feel confident. I think it was an initial shock, I haven't had anything happen like this since university CS.