Off-Topic

How do you deal with colleagues who take credit for your work?

by Jasmine Tan·February 25, 2026

Third time this has happened to me. My manager presented my analysis in a townhall with zero mention of me. Didn't even say "my team did great work" — it was all "I've been looking into this and found that..."

I know this isn't unique to Malaysia but it feels especially common here where hierarchy means you don't push back openly. My colleagues all whisper about it but no one says anything.

What have you actually done to protect ownership of your work in a professional way? Things that worked and things that backfired would both be useful.

#workplace#credit#manager#toxic#politics

Comments (3)

Serena Tan94

What worked for me: always follow up meetings with an email summary — 'as discussed today, I completed X and the key findings are Y.' Creates a paper trail with timestamps. Hard to deny authorship when the email exists.

Hafiz Amran76

I directly but politely raised it with my manager once. Said 'I noticed the presentation didn't mention the team's contribution — I'd appreciate being credited in future.' He looked uncomfortable but it hasn't happened since.

Winnie Khoo55

Backfired story: I CC'd my manager's manager on a piece of work I led. My manager took it as a power move and made my life difficult for months. The paper trail approach is much safer than skipping levels.