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I've been working with a non-profit to help my resume. Last year I was asked to write the meeting report and, in addition to the materials covered at the meeting, I ended up expanding it with illustrative boxes on key topics and case studies. The report was (according to my friend, the president of this non-profit) a huge hit, you know, the Governor's wife read it and such and such Senator gave it to such and such important person. I know the board loved it and personally I received a lot of congrats.
So I was asked to write the meeting report again for the meeting that took place last November. This same friend, the President, just kept expanding the scope, calling people for submissions, writing boxes herself that were obviously not covered at the meeting and were getting pretty far outside of the scope. In February the Board told us to "get it published" (I ended up publishing an Executive Summary because the longer report still needed too much work for the legislative deadlines). Next thing I know this friend (the president) emails me that she's contacted more people for submissions and some new data has come out that needs to go in the report. When I protested she said "you don't understand, people need our information, this is our chance, if we get it in this report, they will read it".
So finally it's done and one draft was published to get to a particular meeting. And the same friend emails me that her daughter is doing some edits to the electronic version. I told her that I had the master copy, there is one master copy, to send me red lines or corrections by page and line number. It's all laid out very carefully and I was tinkering with my master copy.
Anyhow, it's bad.
My basic question is: when there is a report and someone is designated as the lead author, isn't it "odd" for anyone else to take an electronic version and start working on it? And, gosh, wouldn't you be frustrated? I let her know that I signed up for a month long project, not a 7 month project and she gave me some thing about "sacrificing for the cause". I'm just trying to get a job. (Well, now I have one, but not in the field, etc.). She's gone kind of manic and I really think she is trying to bypass the board of directors.
Sounds like she's on an ego trip. Put your foot down. Depending on how much you value her friendship, you could always go to the board of directors. Or just walk away, retaining the original document.
Right, it's partly her activist agenda and partly her personal (social) agenda. She's pretty much my best friend. I let her have it on the phone yesterday and she was partly apologetic and responsive and partly "we're all making our sacrifices for the cause" (you know, the line). You know when someone's blocking your feedback, filtering it - it was like that.
Unfortunately, the situation you describe is not all that uncommon in the workplace. In my line of work, its drawings rather than reports, but the person responsible for the final production & assembly of the drawings often gets dumped on. Everyone else waits until the 13th hour to turn in their revisions and comments and information and then the production person has to pull off a miracle to get it done. And there's never any thanks for their efforts. It's not pretty.
In this case it sounds like the situation is exacerbated because your friend is taking advantage of both your friendship and your need to beef up your resume. If it were me, I'd finish this year's report, keep a copy of it for my records/proof of my abilities, and then resign the position. Maybe--just maybe--it will make her/them rethink how they treat their volunteers in the future.
Thanks kodaka, also working directly with my electronic file is really baffling. Who does that? (She doesn't even have the program I used to create the file). I keep thinking .. how would anyone feel if they had written something and I just took their electronic version and started doing things to it?? (She's a physician in real life so she may not understand some of the etiquette here).
It also sounds like she may be attempting to ride your back into a higher position or recognition for herself. Since your original work received so much praise, she has decided that she will take it and expand upon it. But it's at your time and expense.
I say find a way to document what you contributed to this project and refuse to work on it next time it comes up. No one should steal your original ideas and attempt to make it into something bigger without your permission.
As the lead author, you need to have complete control over the content. For anyone to decide to let someone else "edit" your work is simply wrong. I would refuse to accept the edits and if that can not be understood, I would simply walk away.
As the lead author, you need to have complete control over the content. For anyone to decide to let someone else "edit" your work is simply wrong. I would refuse to accept the edits and if that can not be understood, I would simply walk away.
I see you're a new member of CD (welcome!) and just wanted to point out that this thread is over 18 months old and in fact the OP's last post on any CD forum was nine months ago. Cheers!
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Lead Author
