How to act when your MD is blatantly wrong?
I had a situation today in which I didnt know how to properly handle.
MD gave some verbal comments over the phone to apply to a deck which I diligently wrote down. I submitted the work. Then got a book sized email saying how he is confused with why I would give him the deck like that when it is exactly what he wanted. He also said he never said anything like what I did.
What is the best way to reply? Eat it up and move on? I dont have anything but my notes to prove what he said. I even ended the call with a summary of the to do list.
Any thoughts?
This happened in a different setting in my office. Whenever my immediate superior gives specific instructions, I shoot an email either after the discussion or in the email with the deliverable summarizing the discussion.
"Hey X,
As per our discussion the other day, I made the following changes...
Please see the deliverable attached.
Thanks, Y"
In this instance, if he's just blatantly denying it, my advice is to grit your teeth on this one and then make the habit of emailing summaries of discussions for future instances.
I wouldn't go so far as to email a checklist right after the call. Some MDs may like that but as a default, I'd expect the average MD to be slightly annoyed by that. It comes off almost like you're agreeing to a contract or something. Could be seen as (i) you trying to limit your role to precisely what's "agreed upon" instead of taking ownership and (ii) at a minimum, adding another chore for him in that he's being asked to read your checklist. Stick to the original idea of "here's the work, here's a list of changes". At most.
nah man just bend over