7 Ways to Deal With Coworkers Who Take Credit for Your Work

Has this ever happened to you? You’re working with a colleague on a project, and they say, “I’m just slammed with work. Can you take on the presentation this week, and I’ll take the next one?” 

You graciously agree, but the presentation comes, and your colleague talks as if they did just as much work as you did. Later, you discover that they’re telling managers that you shared the responsibility. 

Or perhaps you’ve had a colleague like “Mary.” One anonymous professional shared her experience writing a newsletter by herself. Though she and her colleague Mary pitched the newsletter together, she did all the work alone. However, Mary took credit for the newsletter when sharing it with peers and managers, believing her colleague would never find out. 

When someone takes credit for your work, the first response is usually incredulity – how do they justify claiming work they didn’t do? You might wonder how your colleague doesn’t think they’re going to get caught, or, more emotionally, how they can sleep at night! 

Credit stealing gets even more complicated, of course, when your colleague does some work, but you do more or most of it. How can you make sure your extensive contributions are noticed and appreciated without coming across as petty? 

Here, we’ll talk about how to navigate the tricky times when someone takes credit for your work.

Keep your cool.

One of the worst things you can do when someone takes credit for your work is to lose your cool – visibly. You may be boiling mad, but it won’t do you any good to show it. Instead, wait until you cool down before making your next move. 

Don’t start out assuming the worst.

You never know if your colleague wasn’t trying to steal your work and you could end up embarrassed for calling them out too quickly. For instance, your colleagues could have tried to put your name on a PowerPoint, but it didn’t stick because of a tech error. 

This is what happened in a scenario shared by Indeed:

“He takes a moment to maintain his composure, then evaluates the situation. After looking at the presentation again, he can see that the program automatically applied the names to each slide. He edits his slide to include his name and avoids creating unnecessary conflict with his classmates.”

So, give yourself time to evaluate the situation before jumping to conclusions. 

Speak up for yourself.

Perhaps you’re in a meeting where a colleague describes a project you’re working on as “my project” and continues to make statements like “I thought about…” or “I planned…” while leaving you out. 

This is certainly unfair, but your colleague may be thoughtless rather than actively malicious. But it’s still appropriate to chime in and say something like, “We collaborated on ____ idea” or “He thought of ____ and then I added my ideas about ____.” 

Be sure that you’re adding, rather than correcting your colleague, as you’ll never look good embarrassing someone else. 

Claim the credit without “outing” the thief.

Again, it can be tricky not to come across as the bad guy when “reporting” your credit-stealing colleague to your boss. Instead, you could talk about the situation more generally, wondering about how your part in the project or idea got misattributed. 

For instance, in the newsletter scenario mentioned above, you could say something like, “Donna told me that the newsletter somehow didn’t have my name on it, though I write those every week. Do you think there’s something wrong with the technology we’re using?” 

Use restraint when discussing the issue with your co-worker.

It’s perfectly fine to address your co-worker about the situation, but again, avoid being confrontational. Instead, ask questions that will subtly call them out without making yourself look like the bad guy. 

For instance, you could say, “I noticed that you used a lot of ‘I’ statements in the meeting, and I wondered what impact you thought that had.” 

Or if you’ve noticed that a colleague is taking credit for an idea you had, you could say, “I mentioned a similar idea to you last week to the one you shared today. Did you recognize that?” 

“I have found that a non-accusatory approach helps to work through the situation better. Explain that, from your perspective, there appears to be a great similarity in your ideas. Share your observation, then listen to the other person’s perspective,” said Alyssa Krane, Chief Talent Strategist at Powerhouse Talent Inc. 

Be proactive to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Now that you know you have at least one credit stealer on your team, it’s time to be proactive to make sure you get the credit you’re owed. Keep detailed logs about how you spent your time and check in regularly with your boss, sharing exactly what you’ve been doing. Perhaps you can also find tactful ways not to work with this person in the future.

Dealing with When Someone Takes Credit for Your Work

It’s never pleasant when a colleague doesn’t give you credit where credit is due. That said, you shouldn’t always assume that your colleague’s credit stealing is intentional – or even their fault. So, you should start off by retaining your composure, making sure you understand the situation before assigning blame. 

What’s more, if you have a credit stealer on your team, you need to use tact and share your contributions more actively in the future. You can also work to create a workplace culture of attribution – where everyone wants to do their best and celebrate their colleagues’ achievements. 

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Related Article: 3 Ways to Come Out on Top if Your Colleague Throws You Under the Bus

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