Hi all. First post in this subreddit. I originally posted on r/jobs but I think this is better suited here. I work as an account manager, facilitating operational requests as well as managing client relationships. My team has had an exceptional year with regards the workload we have had to endure, for various worthy reasons.
I have a client who I have not been as responsive to as I would like, because my workload has been large the past few months. However I have not been negligent and I have carried out the supportive operational tasks this client requires. I also have gone above and beyond to facilitate something that my organisation historically is not able to – no risk to me from this, just some effort that I was willing to explore.
After some persistent chasing by this client to several members of my team, I felt the need to email this client outlining some of the context of the past year. I did not present this as an excuse, but as context for why there have been some delays. Given the industry I work in, and the way i like to work, i did not feel this was inappropriate. Working collaboratively in an open and honest way is important to what me and my team do, our style of work and relationship management. I feel the tone of my email was not overly sentimental or exaggerated.
The response to my email from the client was that sending my email was unprofessional, frustrating and counter productive. They ended their email by saying “Please do not email like this again or I will escalate this to your manager”. I felt this was deeply unfair and uncaring, and I was in floods of tears.
I will be notifying my senior manager tomorrow to intervene. I feel that the email sent to me was threatening and borders on bullying. I am going to recommend I am taken off this particular clients workstream.
I've worked with difficult and pushy people before, but this feels too far. I know my boss has my back but I'm wondering – in my self critical style – if I have severely misread this situation and done the wrong thing? What do you think?
Tldr – I contacted a client to give context to why me and my team have not been as responsive as “normal”. They responded with borderline bullying email and called me unprofessional.