DEAR HARRIETTE: My boss dropped the ball and is blaming it on me. She was supposed to send out an internal email with an important deadline, but she never told anyone about it. She was sitting on the information for a while and didn’t let anyone know. Today, my colleagues and I got an urgent message from her stating that we have to work to meet the deadline within 48 hours. When my colleague asked why we were given such short notice, she said that I was the one who was supposed to remind her to send the notice. I’m furious. What should I do? -- Scapegoat
DEAR SCAPEGOAT: Take a few deep breaths and calm down. You have to think strategically here. Your goal is to get your boss to be more collaborative and to communicate more fully with you so that you can successfully support her. In this case, that didn’t happen.
Ask to talk to your boss after this deadline is met. Tell her that you were surprised that she said you were remiss in not reminding her of this email; you were unaware of it. Suggest that you have a daily or weekly check-in with her where the two of you address priorities and deadlines. Point out that you want to be able to have her back. In order to do so, you need to be aware of what is needed and when.