We have been dealing with a complex issue regarding the product that we’re selling at work. I thought I had a great idea that fully solves the problem yesterday and wrote to my coworker detailing it, to which he replied in a bit of a frustrated tone “Oh, so exactly like the solution I suggested 3 weeks ago?”. Reading this made me a bit confused, as I had come up with this myself and don’t even recall us discussing anything close to this approach before.
Nonetheless, I scrolled up our chat to 3 weeks ago just to double check and sure enough, there it was: Basically “my” idea (with a few differences in the details), which he had messaged me at 2 AM 3 weeks ago. My next message was me talking about something different, so I assume I must have somehow missed his message back then, but I can’t fully explain this myself either. I feel terrible because this solution clearly works but we will now most likely miss an important deadline since we’ll only start working on it now instead of 3 weeks ago like we could have.
I haven’t replied to his message to “my” solution yet, as I’m not exactly sure how to best handle this situation, would love some advice from those more experienced than me in this.
2 comments
Go to your colleague. Tell him exactly what you’ve told us. Ask him how the hell you’re both gonna get his solution to work. Neither of you sleep for days until you make it happen. Form an unbreakable bond of friendship through adversity. Go on to form your own super-successful company. Support each other’s ideas. Laugh about this together when you’re old and rich.
I’m serious. Get in behind him. Back his idea with everything you’ve got. Work together. Everything in life is doing your best to solve stupid, petty, avoidable problems.
Front up, tell him the truth, give him credit for the idea and then have at it getting it going together.