My colleague presented my idea as hers in a meeting. Was I wrong to call it out there and then?
The complainant says
I shared a detailed idea for improving our onboarding process with a colleague over lunch, including a rough document I'd written. Two days later, in a team meeting with our manager and a director, she presented it as 'something I've been thinking about'. Same structure, same examples, even the same name for it.
I said, in front of everyone, 'That's great, it's the proposal I sent you on Tuesday, happy to share the full document.' It went very quiet. Afterwards she told me I'd humiliated her and that she was going to credit me later.
The other side says the colleague, as the complainant tells it
She says she was building on my idea, not stealing it, and intended to mention me once the director had reacted. She says a professional would have raised it privately rather than embarrassing a colleague in front of senior people.
Jury discussion (6 comments)
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'Happy to share the full document' is the most professional mic drop I've ever heard.
Intended to credit you later. Sure. Later, as in never.
If you'd raised it privately afterwards, the director would already have associated the idea with her. You did it the only way that works.
Exactly. Credit is decided in the room.
She humiliated herself. You just said a true sentence politely.
You did nothing wrong but I'd still email your manager the original document with a timestamp. Paper trail.