Today I let a peer of mine know about a task one of his employees was not completing in a timely manner. It’s a task that results in reporting I use in my job. It’s a recurring, monthly need and he’s very aware of it.
My peer suggested I should send a request monthly to this employee so he “wouldn’t forget” to complete it.
I told him I didn’t think it was reasonable for me to monitor his employees task completion and that it should be a coaching opportunity for him within his department. To his credit, he agreed and said he’d address it with his employee.
It got me thinking though. This is pretty common. Somehow I’ve become responsible for monitoring the employees in other departments when their work serves my department. This doesn’t happen when my department provides work—I’m responsible for that too. It applies in other ways too—like if I’m involved, I become the “owner” of whatever the project or task is without any discussion of it.
Either I’m being punked, or it’s because I’m the only woman on my orgs leadership team. I think the men I work with have a base instinct to assign responsibilities to women and I’m the only woman.
Anyone else experience this?