Who am I, Miss Nobody?!!

[gadget--gal]

AS mentioned in another thread, I work in IT. I’ve been working through Christmas a New Year, tying up loose ends  for a New System, on which we will training users.

One of the loose ends is a toolbar button for MS word, that another department needs to “enable” for us.

So yesterday I remember this and rind the other contact and say

Gadget-gal: hi, Peter. My name’s [gadget--gal] we’ve met before, I need to check how [insert technical jargon] is going. IS there anything we need to do from our end? A and D are away this week and I’m working on this.

Peter: hi, [gadget--gal] I just need a list of user IDs that A and D (my colleagues) need to give me. They said they’d contact [other helpdesk] to get the info.

gadget—gal: OK, I’ll get onto [Other helpdesk] and see if they can get the info

Peter: Yeah, A and D or even B really need to push this through so I can get it done.

gadget—gal: [grr!] I’ll get it done.

SO I ring the other helpdesk and get it moving. One engineer emails the info, which I forward to Peter. I decide to give him a day or so before I follow up.

So imagine my surprise when B (whose desk is next to mine) asks if I’ve seen Peter’s message about the progress of the job. B forwarded the message to me: Peter has just (five minutes ago) emailed A, B and D about the progress of the job and ignored the person, who’d supplied the information and made queries about the progress in their absence!

I felt like writing an email like “thanks for the update” but I decided against it and phoned him ‘innocently’ asking how things are going. He sounded a but surprised at my asking and said he’d emailed A, B, D  about what he was doing. So I just asked him to let me know what’s up because they won’t be back before next week. He didn’t say anything about ‘forgetting to email me’ or anything.

Maybe I’m making a mountain out of a molehill but I felt a little bit slighted.

[Yarnspinner]

Are A, B and D all male by any chance?  It hasn't happened to ME, but I have a friend who is in IT and she's in charge of her area--and some of the contacts always want to talk to her underlings because--yeah--they're male and will understand better 

In any case, I send you hugs and sympathy.  Don't let the turkeys get you down, gadget girl.

[gadget--gal]

lol! Yes they are all male, Peter has had more interaction with B and D  but we have met more than once, so he knows who on earth I am!   

[ShadesOfGrey]

That would irk me too. Is it possible that he was just so used to working with A, B and D, that he didnt think to include you (I know you told him to, but perhaps if this was a long term project, it simply wasnt at the forefront of his mind?) Also, if the project has any sensitive/authority matters, not having someone introduce you to him as "also working on the project" might have affected his willingness to share info with you (it sounded like he was trying to tell you something when he said 'A B or D need to push this').  If it was just a mundane project, and you are at the same level as A, B and/or D, then yes, he was little rude, but unless this is a pattern of behavior that affects your job I would let it go. 

[Leemum]

Just a guess - since you sent him information, maybe he thought you were wholly in the loop and didn't need his input. That would explain why he sounded surprised when you called.

[gadget--gal]

That would irk me too. Is it possible that he was just so used to working with A, B and D, that he didnt think to include you (I know you told him to, but perhaps if this was a long term project, it simply wasnt at the forefront of his mind?) Also, if the project has any sensitive/authority matters, not having someone introduce you to him as "also working on the project" might have affected his willingness to share info with you (it sounded like he was trying to tell you something when he said 'A B or D need to push this').  If it was just a mundane project, and you are at the same level as A, B and/or D, then yes, he was little rude, but unless this is a pattern of behavior that affects your job I would let it go.  

It's a tiny component of a large-ish project (for my team) A and B are on the same level as me  and D was in and "acting position" as out manager. As of next week D will be back on the same level as us. As far as "Peter's" work goes there's no sentive information involved, moreover, I obtained the data he needed but he still didn't feed back to me.

Anyhoo, my "innocent" phone call may have done the trick. He rang me a few minutes ago to give me an update and asked me if the final task should be scheduled immediately or to wait for D's sayso on Monday. (seeing as we'd prefer to have it ready for Monday morning, I told him to go ahead.)  

I'm not too ruffled by this situation, but it's been a fortnight of me giving users IT advice only to have them say "ask [obviously more knowledageble person ] to ring me when they are back in the office". I guess I don't give users the easy answers they want to hear, lol!

[gadget--gal]

Just a guess - since you sent him information, maybe he thought you were wholly in the loop and didn't need his input. That would explain why he sounded surprised when you called.

Nah, he said he would get started as soon as someone sent him the information but after I sent it he contacted the others with the details of what he was doing and how long it would take etc. etc. My point was,  no one else was around (B is on another project) to solve problems if any arose and "Peter" wan't feeding back to the only availbe person.

[Lexophile]

Where I work, if you are female, you work for someone more important and they want to talk to the more important person. If someone did this to me here, I would be furious.

[Suze]

female = secretary?

ARGGH....sounds like a case of "woman don't know nothing" syndrom.

Time to get out your tastfully decorated Clue-by-Four and give them a lesson

[Lauren]

I work for a glass replacement company and there are a number of men who will call up and ask to speak to a male, because clearly as a woman I know nothing. It frustrates the hell out of me, as I've been there longer than every single male in my call centre. I know more than they do and can answer your questions. If they insist I have to put them through to the branch (where the guys generally do know more than me, but that's because they deal with the actual doing, where I'm more selling) and stay on the line to take them back (branches can't book call in jobs)

Thankfully, most of the guys know now me at the branches and KNOW how frustrating it is (they're extreemly busy and don't really have time to answer questions that we're trained to answer) for us females at the call centre. Nine times out of ten now (they'll only do it with the women they know have been there a while) they'll ask me to provide the answer. Usually shuts the customer straight up.