What to Say When Your Boss Takes Credit for Your Work

Summary: Nothing cuts deeper than when a boss takes credit for your hard work without even acknowledging your efforts. Use these examples to prepare a comeback when your boss tries this next time.

There isn’t anything much better feeling than when all your hard work transforms into an amazing project or idea. There also isn’t anything much worse feeling than when your boss takes the credit for your ideas or projects. We all want to be recognized for our work and that recognition helps us succeed in our career.

When someone tries to take credit for our work, there is an appropriate way to handle it that we will teach you. Never respond in a snarky immature way. Read these five examples of how you should respond to your boss.

1. “(insert boss’s name), you are so right. When the thought first occurred to me, I realized how much impact this kind of social media strategy could have.”
2. “I’m glad everyone liked how the presentation turned out. We worked so hard to put it together.”
3. “I just want to make sure you know how much I enjoyed working on the report.”
4. “I’ve noticed that when we talk about group effort projects that the team’s hard work often gets lost in translation.”
5. “I wanted to talk about something that has been bothering me. I worked really hard on our last project, especially how it turned out. However, when it comes up, I notice that my name is often left out. I wanted to see if there is a reason for that because I would love to chime in about my personal experiences working on it next time.”

Notice how the examples progress from a simple statement that should get their attention to having to call them out when meeting one-on-one with them.

Photo: vanderbloemen.com