I want more input and more credit 1

[DoubleV]

we have a huge project where a web site is just a part of it, and we have somebody (not me) working on that project. the person is like a creative director although technically he is not employed by our company (it is complicated *lol*). yet, he never did a web site design before. I am actually employed by teh company and my title is a web designer and developer.

the problem I have with the situation is that he seems to view me as "a girl who will code the web site". for example, first he designed a web site template without talking to me even once. then he came to me and I had to explain to him why it will not work. How about talking to me first to find some stuff out? In the end, the layout was a collaboration between him and I. He executed the graphical side of it. But the way he behaves is as if its his only. He communicates with our distributors in that fashion and it bugs me a great deal. He pretty much just tells me about things, but doesn't really ask my opinion. I try to inject it anyway because I am the web designer, but even when he listens and agrees, I don't feel like I receive the credit for it, because he still keeps talking about it (to me and to others) like this project is his own baby (and only his). He talks to the distributors as if he is the sole person responsible for that site. Yesterday he was standing by the corner of my work table (I was sitting at my chair) talking to a distributor describing to him all the stuff like it's his sole baby and not even mentioning my name. Now, he is responsible for that entire project huge project and as i said the web site is just a part of it. I am not trying to claim the credit for laying out business cards or whatever. But the web site is not just his!


He sits right next to me and as I am typing this I hear him speak with one of our distributors. Yesterday we have looked at the home page of the new site and I said that we can have a pool of images and every time a page refreshes, a random image could be shown. I have told him how I can make it happen (not just teh fact that I can, but have also explained how it will work) so that the distributors will be able to insert their own images there and update them as they want. Right now he is saying to that woman "and WE can make it so that ... " Who the hell is WE? he is taking her through the site telling her this is gonna be here, this is gonna be there, blah blah blah. No my name in sight. we don't even have a cube. it's an open space and I am not invited to participate in the conversation.

I want more input and more recognition for the input I have already provided. I am more then just somebody who will do HTML. But, again, the way he communicates with others does not show that at all.

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Goals are dreams with deadlines
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http://www.nimlok.com

http://www.orbusinc.com

 

[DrJavaJoe]

I don't think it is that common for the developer to get the recognition to the outside world and unless you're famous I don't see what it matters, they don't know you. As far as internally, I can imagine a project manager, with little input on the actual development and with a team of excellent developers, themselves being proud of the final out come, as if it was their own project, oh wait it was. True they should recognize the team, in this case you, but some people just aren't that way. So with that said I would say just be proud of your contribution and make sure your boss is aware during reviews and get over it.

"Two strings walk into a bar. The first string says to the bartender: 'Bartender, I'll have a beer. u.5n$x5t?*&4ru!2[sACC~ErJ'. The second string says: 'Pardon my friend, he isn't NULL terminated'."

 

[DoubleD]

I'm going to have to agree with DrJavaJoe on this one. It's not necessarily right, but the developers don't usually get the credit for projects. You don't face the customer, therefore, to the customer, your face doesn't exist. If your boss knows your doing good work, that's what it really comes down to.
If you've got a good boss, you could discuss this situation with them and ask their feedback.

Have you tried having a discussion with the "creative director", letting him know your personal stake in this project, and that you'd really appreciate being included in discussions about the project?

Pain is stress leaving the body.

DoubleD

 

[bluedragon2]

Got to agree with DrJavaJoe as well, I develope many things for users and they do not know who is doing it. All they know is their work has just been made easier. The only people that knows what I am doing, is my boss and his.

If you want a larger role, go to your manager and discuss it with him.

[Blue]Blue[/Blue] [Dragon]

If I wasn't Blue, I would just be a Dragon...

 

[SQLSister]

I see two possibilities:

One this guy is unaware that you resent him hogging all the credit.

Two he doesn't care. Either way you are being caught up in politics.

Yes, it is important that you receive the credit you deserve for your part of the project. You could talk to him and tell him that what he is doing bothers you and see if he improves. I'm betting it won't though; he sounds like one fo those people (they exist in most workplaces) who get ahead by taking the credit for other people's work.

What you need to do is speak up. Take the credit yourself. Make sure your boss and others in your organization know that you are contributing to this project. When you send emails to him on this project send copies to management. (I can just about guarantee that he is sending emails to higher ups taking credit for things you have done. They won't buy this if they have seen an email from you on the subject already.) Invite yourself to meetings and make sure you speak up in those, too. If he is bragging to someone in the office in front of you, then add in your two cents worth on what you did.

If you don't blow your own horn, nobody will do it for you. Or one day you will be surprised when he gets a big award or promotion and you did all the things they say he is being rewarded for. (Yes, this happened to me once when I was young and naive.)

BTW, when you blow your own horn, make sure others get the credit they deserve, too. You don't want to turn into this guy after all and you look more credible when you do this than he does when he tries to hog all the credit.

Questions about posting. See faq183-874

 

[Dollie]

Don't forget META tags!

<META name="author" content="Your name here">

 

[KornGeek]

I'm on the flip side of this. Working for a small company, I do development, but I also handle tech support and meet with customers quite often. When customers used to know that I did the development, they would often try to get free modifications done or want to know extensive detail about the code (which I don't want to divulge).

Now days, when I meet customers, I'm very vague about my job, and just say that I'm there representing the development group. The less credit I receive, the easier my life is. I know what work I've done, and so does my boss. People outside the company don't need to know how deep in get in the code.

 

[Tarwn]

You could always use this to ave fun at work. I had a coworker who was similar not to long ago. So what we would do is see who could get him to make the most outrageous request from the higher ups. Since he always took creadit for everything we didn't have to many worries about bein caught. He would take our suggestions and turn around and propose them as his own ideas...to the manager who had some programming and engineering experience who would just give him one of those odd looks...after a while he stopped taking as much credit (either hoping for us to get caught making a crazy suggestion or because he acually got the point finally).
He knew it was us, but at the same time, what was he going to do? He could admit that we gave him bad suggestions, but then that weakens his claims on the decent suggestions he just gave them.

My other fun game was to listen for him to make a strong opinion about our product or customers. Then I would mention an opposiong point so he would backpeddle and flip opinions, then I would (a few minutes later) make him flip back...best personal score was 6 flips on one subject in one phone call

[sub]01000111 01101111 01110100 00100000 01000011 01101111 01100110 01100110 01100101 01100101 00111111[/sub]
The never-completed website:

http://www.tiernok.com/

 

[Toni269]

I agree with SQL Sister, DoubleV, you need to get this book right away: "Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office 101", there are so many tips in there you'll be able to use to get ahead and get recognized. Unfortunately we don't automatically get credit for doing all the work we do unless we stand up for ourselves. The squeaky wheel get's the grease. Guy's like this will get the promotion because they voice their accomplishments to management.

Good Luck!!

 

[GlenJohnson]

Sorry to say, that we're dealing with the way of the world. Not into code, but I do servers and networks. Had a job where my main goal was to convert Novell 4 to W2K network. When my boss realized I was getting close, (He only knew Novell), I found myself out of a job. Doesn't matter that it was his boss that gave me the job of getting rid of Novell. His boss knew what happened, but since the economy was such, he allowed it to happen. Do what you have to and make sure you get credit, don't take anything for granted. People will walk on you in a New York minute. (No, I'm not mad, ended up starting my own business, but I am realistic.) Good luck.

Glen A. Johnson
If you're from Northern Illinois/Southern Wisconsin feel free to join the Tek-Tips in Chicago, Illinois Forum.

TTinChicago
Johnson Computers

 

[rasETL]

I'll have to side with the majority.

What you need to do, however, is make sure your Manager is aware of the work you are doing on the project. If this guy is not an employee of the Company, who cares what HE thinks.

 

[gbaughma]

Exactly. I've been in similar situations; where projects I've done have actually been "rolled out" by other teams as their own! Luckily, the upper management knew who REALLY did the work.



Just my $.02

"In order to start solving a problem, one must first identify it's owner." --Me
--Greg

 

[Dimandja]

As a contractor I don't even dream of claiming my work. Hey, it's the contract! "Everything I create is my client's property".

 

[robbieguy2003]

A similar thing happened to me in the same company i work for now.

Got no respect for the work i done or a thanks. Treated like crap, paid like crap and when i pointed these things out nothing happened.

At the same time a project we were working on involved me and another person. The other was taking all the credit for all work and even got big £££ bonuses for completing work i had done.

What else could one man do apart from work notice. I quickly left and travelled as far away as i could. Within 2 weeks i was contacted to go back at the same pay, in three weeks the pay was at the rate the job was worth and i was back there.

If people take the credit and no one else can do the work go on holiday/vacation for a while. When the project comes to a halt they realize who's doing the work without even saying anything.

Rob

Servers live with the rule - What goes up must come down

 

[gbaughma]

Yeah... kind of the same situation here. Underappreciated, and underpaid. I gave my 30-day notice a couple of weeks ago.... now I've just got work piled on me... a "before you leave" todo list. <Shrug>



Just my $.02

"In order to start solving a problem, one must first identify it's owner." --Me
--Greg

 

[jsteph]

DoubleV,
You are this guy's 'tool'. He is the project manager, and he uses you, his tool, to build his project. Now, you say you want credit...So if someone said "Good Job" to you would you say: "Well, I've got to give credit to DreamWeaver (or Visual Interdev or whatever)", since they are your tools?

See, it's just a heirarchy--he's the one who puts his credibility and possibly job on the line, so he gets credit for the project as a whole and doesn't much need to give detailed credit to everything down the line. Now, you would have a legitimate beef if the project failed due to something that was his sole input, and then he blamed you. But other than that, his boss doesn't care how or who did the actual coding--the scope of what his boss sees is just he--the project manager.

Nor do you care who actually wrote Dreamweaver or VI or whatever--your scope is just the coding and you just use the tool to do the job and if it works well you take credit (within your scope), and if it doesn't, do you blame VI?
--jsteph

 

[LTeeple]

Unless you have your own company, this is bound to happen.
Such is the life of a web developer for hire.

Think about it, it could be worse! You could be unemployed.


Cheers!
Laura

 

[SQLSister]

Sorry I have to disagree with the last two posts. Any competent boss I have ever had made sure that he gave credit where credit was due. Not giving credit is one of the sure signs of incompetence in a supervisior. This is a critical skill for a manager. A manager who doesn't give credit will have employees who do not work at their full productivity level and costs the compnay serious money as a result.

Questions about posting. See faq183-874

 

[Dimandja]

Giving credit is a matter of management strategy, not a requirement. I have worked with teams that strongly believed that credit to their manager was also, however indirectly, credit to themselves. Everyone in the company understood this.

Problems always arise where there is poor communication.

 

[Nortellian]

Keep the credit I want cash.