Feeling Overlooked: How Can I Ensure My Hard Work Gets Recognized by Senior Management?

I am currently working at an executive level in HR, with a generalist profile. I have around 3 years of experience with my current company, 3 to 4 months in particular. I love my job and believe that, in addition to efficient hard work on a daily basis, value addition is crucial for fast growth and exposure, especially when recognized by senior management. Therefore, I manage to find time outside of my working hours for these extra efforts.

I have had the opportunity to explore and have created highly appreciated presentations, processes, and methods here. My boss is very pleased with them and appreciates my work a lot.

Concern About Credit for Work

My concern is that the new projects, processes, or presentations I have prepared seem to have been taken over by my boss and presented to the MD without crediting me, which has been quite demotivating. Now, possible actions I could take are:

- I have already discussed this with my boss, but she does not want me to present the work I have prepared.
- Approaching the MD directly could harm my long-term relationship with my boss, who is a senior employee.
- It may be too early to react, but I am putting in a lot of effort for each successful assignment. I believe that when the effort is entirely mine, I deserve credit, which indirectly helps me grow at a faster pace.
- I have no intention of switching jobs as this is a common challenge in the workplace. I do not want to give up hope.

Please suggest the best course of action to address this issue, as it is truly demoralizing and hindering progress. Moving forward seems difficult, but stepping back is not an option.

My observations on your post are as below:

a) People can grab the credit for the work that you have done, but nobody can snatch the skills and knowledge that you have gained in the course of your work. Grabbing the credit for a junior's work is not so common but not so rare either. It happens everywhere. Your company is no exception.

b) You say that your immediate manager is a long-serving employee in the company. In that case, your MD might know her better. He must have understood that it is not her work but yours. Nevertheless, he has not told you directly.

c) When you want to do value addition, make sure that it is measurable. Aim to create some measurable change. Presentations are used for explanation purposes only. Presentations, in themselves, do not add value. As far as the process is concerned, what change could you bring in and in what span of time, that you should be able to explain.

d) There is nothing wrong in quitting a job as such. "A rolling stone gathers no moss" goes the adage. Every new job will teach something new. Of course, do not quit before you complete some 2-3 years of tenure.

e) Lastly, the high quality of the work is the best way of gaining visibility. It is very difficult to be perfect even in routine jobs. This very high quality of your work will give you visibility and will make you indispensable as well. Consistency in high-quality work will create your trademark, and people will start saying, "If Priyanka has done ____ work, then it will be 100% accurate. No need to check at all." If you start getting recognition of this kind in even routine work, then should you bother about value addition?

All the best!

Regards,
Dinesh V Divekar

Dinesh Divekar has given you good advice. Another piece of advice that I can offer is, when you prepare something new next time, put a copy on CiteHR, unless it is confidential, before showing it to your manager. If you are willing to take a chance, send a copy to your MD. This way, if your boss removes your name and presents it as his own, the MD will be aware that it's your work.

Priyanka, I can appreciate what you are doing in terms of value addition to the organization. Your organization, however, has a hierarchical structure like all other organizations. In this structure, you are reporting to the HR manager and are accountable to her. She has already appreciated your work, as mentioned by you. How she presents it to the MD is a part of her responsibility. How do you know that she hasn't already informed the MD about the effort put in by you? Not keeping your name on the presentation which she has given to the MD is a non-issue. You need not be overly concerned about getting a direct applause from your MD as long as your immediate boss is happy with you. For your career growth, that is far more important; for ego satisfaction, a pat on your back from the MD may be more satisfying.

How does it matter if your immediate boss also gets some credit for the work done by her subordinates? After all, she alone has access to the MD and must be keeping him/her fully informed about the performance of all her team members. I am sure she must speak highly of you because she has to extract even more outcome from your innovative talent. Try to remain in her good books and you will be the winner.

BK Bhatia may be right. However, I know of cases where the immediate boss has appreciated in private but taken the credit for the work of their subordinates and eventually even given the boot to the workers.

My approach is slightly different based on how the work was given. If an initiative has been directly taken by you, then you are free to email it to your manager and skip the manager. This ensures that you start getting visibility. On similar lines, if this is a task delegated to you by the manager, then email it to him/her only. In practical terms, since you are new to the company, establish your grounds first. Quality work always reflects, and people understand that. Furthermore, it is too early to even comment on what your boss is doing. Write all such initiatives as part of your extra work and keep a record of it so that you can show them at the time of appraisal as well.

Regards,
Ashish Gupta

In the longer run, you will find that there are very few bosses who don't take credit for their staff's work. However, such bosses are exposed during their board presentations or management meetings as they keep on parroting the texts on slides. The managing director will surely understand that the presentations are not prepared by the HRD boss.

Wait for an opportunity; I am sure if you keep supporting your boss with this, it is possible that you will be given the opportunity to present your work to the managing director. Hopefully, you will be ready to accept credit as well as debit in your working life.

With Best Wishes,

PRADIP
24/06/2013

Mr. Divekar and Bhatia have rightly said. One more aspect might be that your MD must be observing you in terms of your talent, patience, and the quality and quantity of your work. As you have mentioned, you have been with the company for 3-4 months. So, in such a short period, if you expect your boss to appreciate you, it would be too early to do so for a good boss. Everyone knows that in the first 6 months, new employees strive hard to show their caliber, but the real work starts after that.

So, I suggest you have some patience. 

You must be immensely blessed as you've already been a recipient of some excellent advice by fellow professionals and honorable members of the CITE community. Here is my little contribution to add to your help.

Firstly, be assured that whatever you are going through is nothing new; it has been happening for ages. There is an old English quote, "The horse does the pulling but the coachman takes the tips." As you have rightly stated, you are getting the right opportunities and the right exposure to practice whatever you've learned. Just bide your time; it will definitely come someday before it's late.

It has happened to me too in my career, not once but twice. Fortunately, I had my father close by me for advice, encouragement, and support. I remember what he told me at that time, "Just remember this, my son, you can't suppress stench and fragrance for a long time. It will be out no matter what you do, so it's your choice whether you want to stink or smell sweet." Those were potent words. I kept plugging on, handling more than the responsibilities, going that extra mile, and became as solid as rock. I earned a lot of respect not only from my peers but also from seniors. There came a time when my boss was leaning on me for her survival as she was nearing her retirement. I thank her for the faith in me; it only enabled me to become even better. She is eternally grateful to me to this day. All that I narrated happened between 1974-87.

So, have faith in yourself. I end this with another quote, "The tallest oak in the forest was just one little nut that held its ground" - Anon.

Feel fortunate that there is this amazing community called CITEHR, with several fantastic people and so many wonderful thoughts that you can never feel lonely. Just know that you are a few finger punches on the keyboard away from the beautiful world outside you. Hope this will do some good for you.

Take care and best wishes for a great future.

As everyone has explained to you, almost all bosses take credit for what their teams are doing. Your immediate manager is distributing tasks to all of his/her subordinates, and their main task now is to make sure the tasks are completed effectively, then to report to the MD. By doing so, he/she is taking credit as the head of the department and must give it back to you guys as a kind of feedback and appreciation from the MD. You do not need to go and get the praise directly from the MD. Just put yourself in your boss's shoes, and hopefully, you will get to experience it in the future.

Thanks,
Vicky.