A couple of weeks ago an email circulated about something that needed to be taken care of. The person directly responsible for this issue was out of town on business. My boss inquired in the email, “Fred (responsible party), since you’re out of town, should I have Jasper (me) take care of this?”
There was no response from Fred and I was not assigned to do anything. Time passed and I didn’t think much of it and assumed it had been taken care of.
I was singled out in a meeting this morning by my boss directly saying, “Jasper, I asked you a couple of weeks ago to take care of this, please do so.”
I didn’t really defend myself, just said that I’d take care of it. I wouldn’t have a problem with any of it if it was a private conversation between my boss and me, might even offer, “I perhaps misunderstood the email and didn’t see an action item for me.”
What is your take on this? I’m currently thinking that I will just know going forward that if I am mentioned in an email that is my action item and to jump on it. This is the first time in over three years of working here that anything like this has happened.