Be the better person.

Kill them with kindness.

Ever heard of these phrases?

Having worked in research for a number of years you have a responsibility to the person paying for the report that you are providing an accurate, quality product. Allowing a product to go out like that is wrong, don’t you have ethics or pride in your work? I’d point the inconsistency to your manager, that person should be able to figure out who made the error without you pointing fingers.
When things like this get out of your hands there is nothing you can do to make it right. Unless you don’t like working there anymore and you don’t care what happens to the company’s reputation or the person who has to sign off on the accuracy of the report.

Did I miss something? You didn’t say you told your co-workers about the issue…you told your FRIENDS. That’s not the same thing. Your friends are meant to be your support network, and are looking out for you. However, if your friends are related to your work or they are your co-workers, you could be screwed. These kinds of tidbits always make it to superiors. Hearing that you were snooping around in a report which has nothing to do with your job, seeing an error and not reporting it, but crabbing about it to everyone in the company looks BAD. As in, “recession time; have to weed out the people who aren’t team players” BAD.

You don’t owe Julie anything… but you do owe the company (and yourself) to speak up about it. I’m certainly not a corporate Yes-man, but I’m also not looking to be living under a bridge because my company lost a major account due to my negligence. Whether you want to involve Julie or not, you should still go to someone and note the error. It also works in your favor; going outside of your responsibilities to be looking out for the company’s best interests is how you move from being a research assistant into a leadership role.

As far as going through Julie…that’s up to you to figure out the repercussions. If you shut her out of the solution and make her look bad, she’ll be gunning for you. If she has any power at your firm, you’d darned well better make sure you have enough power to survive the poopstorm she’ll rain down on you. It’s also possible that you could use this to create an olive branch with her. However, I’m a professional pessimist and wouldn’t put too much faith in that.

“You have made a fundamental tactical error in discussing Julie with her and your co-workers.” - Posted By BKH San Antonio, TX

Yeah, you screwed up big time by running your mouth. Just do the right thing. You blew your chance at stabbing her in the back. You are not worthy of moving up at this firm. Julie will probably be your boss in six months and your life will really be horrible.

I suggest you start looking for another job or move to another department. Your poor decision-making skills and lack of discretion will always be your downfall. You need to learn how to think for yourself and how to be discreet. Until you do so, you will always blame people like Julie for your station in life. Admit that you are a loser and change fast. The clock is ticking!

You have made a fundamental tactical error in discussing Julie with her and your co-workers.

One of them might be sleeping with her. Another might be her friend.

You have no choice, none, but to point out this mistake gently and correctly, with tact and calm - first to Julie herself, and then to YOUR (not her) leadership.

Otherwise, you are dead.

Had you not been so stupid as to make yourself vulnerable, my advice might be different, but you AND the company would have won. Now, you are in saving-your-arse mode.

You deserve little and have earned less, but I offer you good luck. You must be 17 or something to be so naive.

Good grief on some of these answers! I am SO glad I don’t work with you!

Plain and simple, the mistake cannot go out because it will harm the company that employs you. It’s no use getting your rival fired if the company loses business and either lays off additional people, including you, or closes shop altogether.

I would ask Julie about it; not tell her, ask her. There’s always a chance that you’re wrong. If you are correct, she’ll have the oppportunity to change it, saving herself and the company, and hopefully she’ll recognize that she isn’t all that perfect and you have something of value to contribute. If she doesn’t treat you better, you can always let your boss know that you are the one that found the mistake, perhaps by showing him/her the e-mail that you sent to Julie as a follow-up to your conversation about the error…

The ultimate goal is to support your employer, the company that is paying you to do a job and to go above and beyond that job when you can. However, be prepared to answer the question about why you were looking at a report that’s not your responsibility - enhancing your job knowledge would be a good response.

I see about 4 ways you could handle it:

1. If you want to try and improve relations with Julie, tell her (and only her) about the mistake. You won’t get any credit for it but she might stop being nasty and might even return the favor if the unthinkable ever happens and you make a similar mistake.

2. Tell her and CC the boss. This is guaranteed to piss her off and make her even nastier to you. If your boss is the nasty type you might get some credit for it, otherwise all you’ve done is gotten her in trouble and made it even more unpleasant to work with her. This is usually the worst option unless you have a sadistic streak and actually want things to get worse between you and Julie.

3. Just say nothing and let her roast for it. She might get in trouble and you don’t get branded as being a jerk. For you, it’s already too late to do this one because you already let the cat out of the bag and people will find out. This option only works if you keep your mouth shut.

4. Tell Julie about the mistake so she can fix it. Don’t tell the boss about that specific mistake but propose some type of policy or procedure change that could prevent that TYPE of mistake.

Personally I prefer option 4, but I actually like all of my coworkers.

A note to Jeff: If you would like a personal response to your question, please write to us at our email address (it appears at the bottom of the column).

Jeanne & Leonard

My money is on the response given by the columnists, as well as on many of the so-called do-gooders. To the folks who dream of violence, the groin-stomping, back-stabbing, giving her rope to hang herself with, to [those] who openly advocate lying, to the ones who advocate ‘mistakenly’ replying to all, to the ones who immediately make negative comments about anyone who advises doing the right thing: Please take a deep breath. Then please consider re-reading the original Q&A. You are not bad people. But I do respectfully suggest that things are not as dire as you suspect. That’s all. Peace.

WOW!!!

What a pathetic bunch.

Sorry guys, but in my line of work? If we covered up a major mistake we run the risk of people being killed.

And as such, the penalties for covering it up or not correcting it would be severe.

Ever try making big rocks into little ones with a sledge hammer?????

Then again, we have a way to deal with the Julies of the world too.

Some days, when I wake up tired and hungry and far from home with no idea when I’m gonna be home again? I find comfort in the fact that at least I don’t have to work with people like the majority of you here.

INTEGRITY……….LOOK IT UP!

Please give me a break with some of the do gooder answers people have given. This is a dog eat dog world in business, good jobs are scarce. I say, if Julie is a $#@%^, throw her under the bus. She certainly wouldn’t do you any favors if the situation was reversed. I do agree that you should never have told any coworkers about the situation (the appalled ones), you have to keep things close to the vest. I work in a similar enviroment, it’s very cutthroat and competitive, so you look out for number one, YOU.

Do the right thing, tell Julie about the error, and get over yourself. Anything else, and everyone else on this board suggesting that you do anything else, is wrong and pathetic.

Your aim in all this of course is to use your knowledge to your advantage without harming yourself.

Getting Julie fired and run out of the industry, at the bare minimum, is the up-front goal, with the longer term one of making certain she never gains a foothold on life, ever, ever again. Ill will must be punished.

Revenge is, however, a dish best tasted cold, as they say.

Thus:

Point out the error to YOUR boss. Mention to (it) that you have spoken with Julie at GREAT LENGTH and that she remains adament she is correct. Prepare a secondary issue of the report with the error corrected, but do nothing with it yet.

Your boss will of course do one of two things - use this to bash his rival, or tell this in confidence to his friend - Julie’s boss. If he is sleeping with Julie, you are dead, so make certain he isn’t.

Either way, you have done YOUR BOSS a good turn - and left it in his hands to help the company.

Now…..if nothing changes….just AFTER the document is sent to the printer (ideally, millions of copies)- with the error intact - send the whole kit & kaboodle to your bosses’ bosses’ boss or the CEO, right along with YOUR CORRECTED copy. Send it to the client also if you have big ones, and are willing to take real risk.

You will then: a) be fired, no one likes to be made a fool of (hence the risk) or b) be made a hero, promoted to your boss’s level, and will gain a rep as a major bad-ass throughout the company.

You have many choices - safe, not so safe, and reckless. You can vault yourself forward as a savior, or merely do Julie in.

Either one is a righteous and perfectly Christian course of action. You want the lions in their dens to tremble at your approach.

Here is your chance!

I think most of the comments thus far are symptomatic of our culture at large. The “me first” mentality is a complete hindrance to a company’s success.

You are hired by the company not to merely promote yourself, but to work for the betterment of the company. Period. Your advancement will be a natural byproduct of acting in that capacity.

So what if this co-worker is an idiot. That is her problem and she has to live in her own skin each and every day. Imagine what it must be like for her? I have a co-worker at work who is similar in that he thinks everything has to be his way or no way, everyone’s an idiot except for him, etc. All of our customers think he’s a joke and don’t like working with him.

You don’t have to throw anyone under the bus. She’ll find her way there all by herself.

Do the right thing. Be the best employee you can be for your employer, your family, and for yourself. That’s what integrity is.

Don’t stoop to her level. Sooner or later you will move on to bigger and better things and this person will still be stuck in her misery.

Office politics and workmanship are not limited to those working in an office, it happens in all jobs. First, the report or job has to be corrected. It’s more of a job security thing than getting back at someone. These workers like Julie are prevelant in every job and are adept at manipulating their co-workers and bosses, so it takes some tactiful means to show the real Julie. The fact that Julie took on the job of writing the report show initiative whether it is right or wrong, this is what bosses see. The manipulative Julie knows that any mistakes she makes, others will correct for her and she will get the credit. The thing is to take her work and initiative from her and do it yourself, this will pop her bubble and make you look better. When a job comes up that you can do, offer to do it and say you can do it better and faster. Keep Julie out of the mix and opportunity to manipulate her co-workers and bosses. Workers that think they are better, but their performance is lacking, can easily be outdone by their own mistakes. The initiative factor far outweighs the error factor of a worker, especially when others are constantly covering up for her. If someone has to correct a co-worker’s report, try to make it your report and not that of Julie’s, put your name on it, she would do it to you if she had the chance. And tell the boss she couldn’t handle the job in a professional and timely manner if you had to rewrite it. Although it may cause delays, you also have the option to return it to Julie for rewrite and pencil the errors, typos, numbers, etc., in red. Use the office mail system to return her work for correction and put any delay in her lap. This shows Julie’s couldn’t get the job done and her worth to the company and your boss. Let Julie fend for herself and explain why she couldn’t handle her tasks. Sometimes in rewriting a report one may not have all the information to do a proper correction so it could backfire to make corrections on your own. But no one should cover for a sloppy and manipulative co-worker that is using others to cover up for her. Julie knows others are covering for her, and she uses this and co-workers to her benefit. Bosses are not dumb and see who is the real office or job asset, the boss didn’t get where he is because he/she did not present themselves as an asset. Julie is presenting herself as an asset by manipulation and initiative, take that away and she becomes a liability. Complaining about her only makes her look stronger and you weaker and a lesser asset.

Amazing. CNN’s response reeks of always helping the corporation. Most of these responses reek of helping yourself. Everyone … deserves the prozac popping unhappiness they have earned.

I can’t believe the depravity in these responses. No wonder we Americans can’t compete, we’re too worried about stabbing each other in the back than producing a good or better product.

Don’t complain and whine that you are not getting recognition, no one is paying you to complain. Your complaining serves as a tax on your time and productivity and your negative attitude detracts from your contribution. Take some pride in your work, both in the product and the compensation.

Produce the best product you can and you will get the recognition/compensation you deserve. If your product is just as good as everyone else’s, expect the same level of compensation as everyone else’s. If your product is unique and stands above the crowd, you will be rewarded as such. If you are getting less recognition than you expect, take a critical eye to what you are really producing, the market does not agree with your assessment.

It is true competition leads to a better product. If you produce a better product, in this case a more accurate report, and your management does not see that, take your work elsewhere. Eventually those bad at management will lose their talented staff and their product will suffer, indicating that they should be replaced. That is how competition works, survival of the fittest, failure of the weak.

Don’t say anything. Let Karma happen. The only person responsible for your career is you.

Based on my experience, trying to save the company, client or the coworker (who acts superior) is going to put this research assistant in trouble. The coworker is not going to even say thanks for correcting. Instead she may create problems for her with management. Manager may just ignore this as a small mistake and ask the coworker to correct the report and forget about the incident. Companies tend to reward the wrong person and penalize the right person. So better to let the coworker, company and the client make a fool of themselves.

As I agree with the operating room analogy- this is not the operating room we are talking about. If this is a continous problem and management knows about it and is reluctant to curb her performance, then let it go out unmentioned. But don’t go talking about it around the office later. Sometimes people have to be accountable for their actions. I know it is not a popular idea anymore. And thanks to the writer for over dramatising with the operating room example. Is there nothing worse than using examples that are so far from the issue.

you want to make sure that
a) your company does not lose the client
b) you get noticed ( in a good way) for the extra effort you spent on reviewing the report.
c) you don’t end up looking like ( or being) a sucker for helping Julie.

Remember one thing, if your boss is not going places, you are not either. Your job security and promotions depend on how you make your boss look good.

Email Julie and CC your boss about your “suggestion”, and make sure you have a good reason to have read the report. You don’t want to come across as a maniacal stalker who goes out of his /her way to correct others mistakes.

Bring up the fact that you found an error and corrected it in a couple of private conversations with your office friends.

Food for thought: many others may have read her report. Why did not others spot the mistake?

Why would you derail your own company’s reputation for your own personal gain? What would happen if your boss found out that you knew about the mistake and didn’t do anything to stop it, and this mistake cost your business money? You would be just as responsible as this woman that you despise so much. Be the better person, point out the mistake, and stop this before it gets any worse.

And if this woman is such a problem for you, why not just report her to your supervisor instead of being passive aggressive and avoiding the problem?

Situations like this are a test of character and integrity. Regardless of how we have been treated by someone else, we should all strive to do what is right.

The right thing to do is to tell the coworker about the error. Do it because it’s the right thing to do. Period.
You know in your heart that keeping it a secret is not right; otherwise you wouldn’t have written asking for advice (read:permission).
Besides, you never know: this coworker may be so grateful that she will treat you better - or at the very least, it will knock her superiority complex down a few notches. Furthermore, it will make you look smart and like a team player.
And if you decide not to tell, you run the risk of people finding out you knew all along and said nothing. Julie’s accidental misstep will be forgotten in light of your intentional one.

Stab Julie in the back.

Ethics and business are not compatible. If you do not have the courage to use this situation to your advantage, quit and go work for the Peace Corps.

Business is about doing as much underhanded stuff as possible and getting as much money and glory as you can. If you are not in it for the money and glory, get out. If you do the right thing, you will get stabbed in the back for a similar error in the future. Pull the trigger while the target is in sight, because someone will be gunning for you next!

I was once in an eerily similar situation and made a mention of the error to our manager.

What happened?

I got no recognition and the coworker who made the mistake got a promotion.

Do the “right” thing? Based on my personal history, not worth it.

If it’s on an email on a distro list - mistakenly click “reply to all” pointing out the error in a constructive way.

I personally hate people that think they’re better than me.

I hope you get this woman. She’ll never be your friend, and she will never admit she is wrong unless publicly humiliated.

How stupid would you look if you were wrong about your assessment of the report? Instead of taking that risk, go to your boss and tell him/her in a caring and non-aggressive way that you “THINK” there may be a problem with the report, and you’re not sure what to do! You could even say that you are afraid you might offend the co-worker if you approach them about it, and directly ask your boss for help. Bosses love it when their employees ask them for help.

AND ….. You’re off the hook with everyone, you’ll score “brownie” points with your boss, and you get to passively “throw” the co-worker under the bus. What could be better?

It’s worth noting that the author of the question said her “friends are appalled”, not that her coworkers are appalled. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m assuming the author of the question is smart enough not to have told others in the workplace that she’s considering throwing Julie under the bus. She simply could have been discussing this issue with her friends from outside the office.

You are right to use this situation for your own advantage.

As you already know, office relationships are competitive and political. Don’t listen to all this self-righteous, do gooder crap. Never listen to people who tell you to shut up, sit on the bench and just watch others play. This is the oldest trick in the book. When competing, the more people I can sideline and get to be passive, the less competition I have and the better for me!

When coworkers are behaving in a superior manner, they are telling you indirectly “we are not on the same team and you can kiss my ….” So forget about all the team work crap also. However, because she doesn’t feel she needs your support, it tells you something very important: that she has strong support from her superiors. Beware; when you criticize an individual, you are also criticizing the group of friends and colleagues that person has at the company. Naturally, unless this person is on their way out or down, it is likely this person’s mistake will be minimized and forgotten by the collective that supports her. Therefore I recommend you wait until the document has been printed and then report it as a team player, “oh gosh, did anyone notice…blah, blah, blah.” So, instead of just being a minor error, and hearing your boss tell you later the error was, “so obvious that someone would have caught it before the printing anyway,” you have now made it an objective fact, an expensive reprint will make it a concrete issue for the whole company. Then you can just put a little note in your pocket about the expensive mistake and keep it as ammunition for future use. This saves your customers from getting the bad data and objectifies the problem so everyone can remember the mistake. Remember, you are competing, and competition, not morality, creates efficiencies within companies. So don’t be afraid if the company drops a dime on the printing. In the long run, you are performing better (just by asking this question) and so will your competitor when she loses face, and that will make more money for the company.

… Your job is to GET JULIE out of your FACE by any means possible. This includes backstabbing her until she moans in pain.

Point this error out to YOUR BOSS, indicate that you have spoken to Julie about it and got nowhere (now, bear in mind, you are NOT to tell Julie a thing! Blindsiding her is the goal!) and work up the proper answer or solution to the problem posed - in great detail, rehearsing your presentation, but NOT saying one negative word about Julie. Be objective.

Trash her and you’re dead. You must be subtle. Say nothing bad…let your boss infer how miserable this little witch is at her job and her life.

Play the game to win!

Now, never, never, EVER, tell your colleagues about these things ahead of time. One might be a Julie ally. Another might be as clever as you and stab you in the neck.

Note, also, begin to snoop Julie’s desk, wastebasket, and if available her files & computer. Find out every bit you can….and use it carefully!

If you touched this report in any way, it also has YOUR name on it. Ethics and karma aside, what you choose to do depends on whether you want to potentially end up under the bus with Julie or not.

I’m going to kick your butt!

I just can’t believe that you are actually comparing a mistake on a report to a leg being amputated. Wow.

If Julie is in a position to undermine you or you expect that she will be in a position to do so in the foreseeable future, then discreetly tell ONLY her, and not in a condescending way. You’ll win her trust and alliance. If this Julie is in no position to undermine you, then simply point the error out to both your boss and Julie’s.

You can just let it go, and when the client discovers it and takes his job elsewhere, maybe you’ll also have to look for another job opportunity?
Let’s put sarcasm aside for now.
If you’re working for somebody else (that is, not being your own boss), you’d better do what is best for your employer (so you can still have your job later), and forget about personal animosities.

Throw her under the bus. It might not make you feel better, but it will straighten her out.

Wow. First off, please tell me what company you work for. ‘Cause your company seems like a bunch of petty back-biters. Secondly, I do a fair amount of hiring for people in mid-to senior level positions, and I would hope to be discerning enough to never hire/promote someone who would even consider this a legitimate question to ask. Ask yourself this…if your boss finds out you left the company hanging, what would his/her reaction be? Now, the next time you wonder why you didn’t get that promotion, title, whatever, maybe you should consider whether they are more “in tune” with your character than you think. Good luck.

I have been in a few similar situations recently. There was not just one error; but several errors that I noticed. In the interest of the company, I decided to speak. Guess what ? Since I am new to this firm, nobody was happy being pointed at. The next thing I see is an email from my supervisor asking me to keep out of things that are not part of my job responsibilities. Escalation is not helping either. What should one do ?

Perhaps she appears to be acting superior to you because she spends too much of her time correcting your mistakes.

Did you consider that one of the people you told may ‘rat you out’ and you could end up the loser and not Julie? Just remember there may be others with as little character as you are showing. My real advice is ‘do the right thing’ - you will feel better and be a better person. Ignore all this nonsense about making it apparent to the ‘right people’ you found the issue - that’s nonsense - just be a decent human being (it will get you more in the long run).

If Julie acts superior to you, then she thinks she is, and in fact she is. If it’s not your job to proof the report, then don’t. Let it go out; after all she’s superior to you. She wants to be superior, let her. All this talk of “being a team player” is BS. Julie’s not, why should you be? She wants to play lumberjack, she better learn to handle her side of the log.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you! I would quietly tell Julie, thereby treating her as I would like to be treated, and doing the responsible thing in your job!

In the workplace we should strive to be “team players.” Go to Julie, tell her about the error, and also go to your superior and tell them you saw it and you notified Julie, or in some other way document that you caught the error and notified Julie. If Julie is smart, she’ll thank you and fix things, and you will have won points both from her and from your employer. If Julie is dumb, she will get defensive and reactive and ignore you.

People make mistakes, and some day you will too. If you do not act like you are on a team,you will not be treated as part of the team and will make yourself more replaceable than you know. This is an opportunity to show that you are valuable. If indeed you are.

Let’s think logically here…1) You have a moral and ehical obligation to report the error. The fact you are covering for Julie makes the work both yours and hers. 2) You should use this to your advantage and show your co-workers and Management that you are awesome at your job…and hers. Make sure the ‘right’ people know what you did. If Julie doesn’t appreciate your efforts, then you should use this opportunity to your advantage. Remember, people are usually rewarded for doing the right thing. People that do the worng thing are always caught.

I would say first bring it up to the coworker diplomatically. For example:

“I was just curious about this” or
“I noticed this and I was wondering…”

The very fact that the writer is inclined to “cover this up” indicates that they do not have the right judgment in the first place and cannot be trusted.

I wouldn’t say anything. We all have to be responsible for our own actions. This is not surgery - and that’s an extreme example. We work in a modern society where our actions, reactions and most importantly, interactions with colleagues directly impact our performance, reviews and quality of life. Hopefully this will land your co-worker looking for a new job, and make your life better.

I say give her enough rope to hang herself, wait until the very last minute, then bring the issue up to a manager. This means the manager has to call in all personnel to handle the mistake and her head is on the chopping block.

Yes, you need to find a way to point out the error. In the future, this could turn on you because you saw the error but didn’t say anything. Your co-worker is guilty only of the error…you will be guilty of covering it up.

In the end you have to live with yourself. For all the unkind things this person may have done, the right thing is still the right thing.

I agree that you can’t let poor work get out, whether it’s in your job description or not. If the error is not caught now, it’ll be caught later and it could damage your company. You don’t want that. And if it ever gets known that you noticed the error and didn’t speak out, you’ll be in more trouble than Julie for making the mistake in the first place.

But it’s also an opportunity to show everyone your worth and work ethic. You’re a good team worker that your superiors can count on. Especially if everyone knows your uneasy relationship with the Julie. It shows that you can look past that when the best interest of the company is on the line.

But who you alert depends on office politics and culture. Alerting the manager only may result in the whole thing getting shoved under the rug, and you may not get the credit you deserve (and Julie the blame she does). Hopefully not, but there are places like that too.

Alerting the whole office may not be looked at well by management depending on confidentiality of the report and general procedures. Also, alerting the whole office is probably not gonna improve the relationship between you and Julie, so if you frequently need to work in collaboration with her, that’s not gonna help.

I’d recommend against talking to her directly. People very rarely change and you pointing out that she messed up isn’t likely to help if she’s got negativity towards you to start with. But a healthy serving of humble pie from managers and coworkers may get her ego down a bit.

You should definitely report the error. However, you can use this situation to your advantage. Make sure key people, those in charge of your promotions and raises, are aware of your effort to do work beyond their expectations. Document it and bring it up during your next negotiation.

Unfortunately, in your quest to do in Julie, you idiotically mentioned the error to your co-workers - who you state are “appalled.”

You will lose, and lose big, if you don’t speak up in any one of the ways the column leaders mention.

Truth be told, if you had remained silent, I would have counseled you to give Julie the shaft. But carefully. Remember, she may know that you have read the report, and may very well have told her superiors that YOU in fact HAVE proofed the work - in a preemptive (and clever) strike at you.

Bottom line: stress and strife in the office is normal and valuable, and slots for the top jobs are few. You do nothing by being a wallflower - take every opportunity you can to get ahead.

Step on heads, stomp groins, it’s all good.

I have to agree that the bigger point is the product that the writer is contributing to. Also, pointing out the error could make him/her the star. What s/he has no obligation to do is to tell “Julie” about the error — although not doing so enters into the forum of office politics, which is something I always tried to avoid.