Break of confidence

HandsomeBob

Going to keep this one short!

I emailed my team leads manager about things happening in my team and conditions that I was concerned about.

I was sent quite a short response saying that my concerns were forwarded to my team lead for response which took me aback. For background I've never been in trouble in the job and have a very good reputation in general including in getting on with things. I have a good relationship with this person also.

I felt my email had sensitive info that shouldn't have been forwarded to my team lead particularly because I had raised this issue directly with my TM before.

I'm currently on annual leave so I'm concerned about what I'm coming back to. What I want to know is if my manager has done anything untoward by forwarding the mail as I'm concerned about bullying when I go back next week.

_Brian

Had you specifically requested that the conversation be kept private.

Did you state that you had raised these issues already with the team lead, did you follow up with this communication to see what the team lead had been doing about your communication.

HandsomeBob

No, yes and yes.

Jim2007

HandsomeBob wrote: »

I felt my email had sensitive info that shouldn't have been forwarded to my team lead particularly because I had raised this issue directly with my TM before.

So you expected to be able to make acquisitions about your manager behind their backs and that they would not be entitled to an opportunity to respond to them? Seriously that was never going to happen unless your complaint related to a criminal offence or something similar.

HandsomeBob

Jim2007 wrote: »

So you expected to be able to make acquisitions about your manager behind their backs and that they would not be entitled to an opportunity to respond to them? Seriously that was never going to happen unless your complaint related to a criminal offence or something similar.

They were not accusations towards my TM and I explicitly stated in the mail that my TM had tried their best to fix the issues within the team. I went over their head so to speak because I no longer felt it was within their power to fix the situation and went to the person who I felt could.

_Brian

You didn’t request it was kept confidential and so there’s the answer.

It’s likely tuere was a considerable conversation in the background along with forwarding on the email to your team leader.

You should have expected this was going to develop into a bigger deal and you’d have to interact with your team leader about this at some stage.

Now it’s time to face it down.
Hold your nerve, don’t get bogged down with who told who etc, stick to your facts.

Always remember, management teams work closely with each other and communicate with each other regarding personnel issues.

dubrov

It's pretty bad form from the manager and quite unprofessional.

He has firmly backed the team lead and now the team lead knows you went over his head.
This will almost certainly damage your relationship with him.

Personally, I'd be looking to move on if possible.

Jim2007

HandsomeBob wrote: »

They were not accusations towards my TM and I explicitly stated in the mail that my TM had tried their best to fix the issues within the team. I went over their head so to speak because I no longer felt it was within their power to fix the situation and went to the person who I felt could.

And how would you expect that they fix anything without involving your team lead? Team leads are there to lead and they have to have a certain amount of autonomy to do things their way, you may not like the way they are doing it, but don't expect that senior management are going to stick their nose into it just because you don't like the way the team lead is sorting things out. In fact they may well have anticipated your move and put their seniors on notice to expect it....

FizzleSticks

This post has been deleted.

skallywag

I've been in the same situation myself, both from the the team member perspective early on in my career, and later on from the team manager perspective where members of my group wished to voice criticism concerning their own immediate team setup, etc. One thing that I certainly learned along the line was that such topics are much easier to resolve without leaving a bad feeling in someone's mouth by talking them out rather than penning an email. When you put something of this manner in writing then some manangers will interpret it as a more formal complaint. My own approach on this would have been to ask the team lead's manager for a short informal chat, where you could also then very quickly guage their own feelings on the topic, and then take it from there. Another possible approach would have been to suggest to your team lead that the two of you bring this up together with the manager in question.

HandsomeBob

It's resolved anyway. I took a wrap in the knuckles and can move on now with a few lessons learnt.

beauf

Constructive criticism rarely works. Neither does going around the management structure.

If you have problems and they are ignored, then vote with your feet and move, even if its within the company.