Re: FWD: Time estimates and getting credit

[Tom Murrell <trmurrell -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

--- anonfwd -at- raycomm -dot- com wrote:
> 
> I recently put together a proposal for a project that included time
> estimates for how long it would take me to complete the project. I am the
> only technical writer and work under a team lead. We had a meeting with my
> manager who then added to my proposal. She also wrote a cover letter for
> it. In the cover letter, she gives my team lead and I equal credit, but
> really, I was the one who put the numbers together and did the research.

Your manager has behaved correctly. You may have done the bulk of the work, but
I would be willing to bet that your team lead knew about it and agreed to free
the time necessary for you to do it, whether this was explicitly communicated
to you or not.

> Additionally, am I just being an attention-seeker for wanting full credit
> for this proposal? Would a sentence like the above make a potential
> interviewer think I didn't have as much to do with the proposal as I
> did? I want to include this cover letter and accompanying proposal in my
> portfolio.

You're probably not an attention-seeker, as you put it, but you sound
inexperienced. In my experience, most activities that amount to anything are
cooperative efforts. The cooperation you received from management in putting
this plan together might not be obvious to you, but it sounds like it is there.

I'm reminded of a saying that goes something like this: "It's amazing the
amount of work that can get done when no one is worried about who gets the
credit." (Or something like that.) 

> My team lead even mentioned that she didn't know why my manager was giving
> her partial credit for putting it together. Her comment was, "You put this
> together, not me."

Here's an important clue for you that your efforts have not gone unnoticed.
Your Lead will probably fight for you to get the appropriate recognition for
your work. It certainly doesn't seem like she's trying to hog the credit for
work that you've done.

> I have a really good relationship with my manager to the level that if I
> asked her to change it, I think she would, but I don't want to be giving
> her that I am trying to take away from my team lead. The truth of the
> situation is that I did the work.
> 
> Your thoughts?

I wouldn't blow a good thing here by asking for all the credit. As Dick
Margulis pointed out, your manager has followed corporate etiquette in showing
that your entire management is behind this effort, knows of this effort, and
has supported your work on this effort. All of this is true. One good way to
maintain that "really good relationship" is to allow the credit to be shared
appropriately.


=====
Tom Murrell
Lead Technical Writer
Alliance Data Systems
Columbus, Ohio
mailto:trmurrell -at- yahoo -dot- com
Personal Web Page - http://home.columbus.rr.com/murrell/

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