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I am on a committee with three other managers, and we are analyzing customer service systems. In order to update the vice president of operations on our progress, we agreed that one of us would write a summary that would include comments from all of us. I had some important points that conflicted with those of the individual writing the summary, so he eliminated them and then emailed it. I am furious. What should I do?



Instead of being furious, you should be curious. You need to find out why this individual thought he had the right to delete your comments. Even if your written comments were absurd, it was wrong of him to eliminate them without prior discussion with you. If he and the rest of the group had a separate meeting and all three concluded that your input should be out, he still needed to run this by you.

Your next step depends on his response. If he provides you with new and acceptable reasons why he omitted your comments, you should take a deep breath and then make sure he understands that you are extremely dissatisfied with the method he used. Let him know that he needs to inform you whenever he is considering any unilateral changes.

At the same time, if he provides you with nothing new and indicates that he simply believes you are wrong, tell him this is unacceptable. Then tell him that you will be sending your deleted comments directly to the vice president. It looks like your vice president needs to analyze management as well as customer service.



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