'My boss takes all of the credit for my work': Worker told by CEO that they're not doing enough... because their boss takes credit for all their contributions

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Aug 11, 2023 12:00 PM EDT

While it's often said that the early bird gets the worm, for some reason—in the workplace—it's often the loudest bird who gets the worm. While yelling at worms isn't necessarily a great career move, it stands to reason that one should always advocate for themselves and their work whenever possible. After all, everyone's going to be doing the same thing, and if you don't add your voice to the worm-yelling narrative, the rhetoric may turn against you—or at least out of your favor.

It's a bird-eat-worm world, and you want to be on the side of the birds—or, at least, be a worm pretending to be a bird.

The politics of the workplace can be hard to navigate. It's often easy to get stuck into your work and focus on your own productivity, but even if you're the most productive worker in the group—you need to make sure that everyone knows that you're the most productive worker in the group, else you come to find that a less-than-honest boss has been taking credit for all of your work.

This worker was told by the CEO of their company that their "imprint" on the organization was lacking, and that was how they came to find that their boss had not only been taking partial credit for their success but had actually been taking credit for their work itself and passing it off as their own.

They turned to this online community to share their current predicament and ask others for advice on what they should do. Readers responded with advice and shared their thoughts. See these, along with screenshots of the original post below.

Next, see this worker who quit their job and went full-scorched-earth on the way out.