no, I'm great, really! and I have emails to prove it!

March 31, 2006 7:56 AM

Is it appropriate to forward compliments about yourself (relating to work) to your boss?

I'm never really sure what to do in corporate situiations. I work for a massive company, and I will occasionally get emails praising me from clients, or reports from other coworkers about visits with clients where they were all saying wonderful things about me.

Should I be saving these? Forwarding them to my boss? Smiling and moving on? Printing them and bringing them to my performance reviews? Seems like they would be a great thing to have when salary review time came around...

posted by Kellydamnit to work & money (23 comments total)

Print them out and include them with the supporting materials for your performance review.
posted by ferociouskitty at 7:57 AM on March 31, 2006

My boss is also the founder of the company, so when a client is happy, she wants to know. So I do forward e-mails like that to her. Not all of them; I particularly send ones from clients that have been known to be fussy.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:58 AM on March 31, 2006 [1 favorite]

I second ferociouskitty. Not only are they a great thing to have at your performance review, but collect them all in a small portfolio for any application to another job. (This has worked well for me.) I wouldn't forward the compliments unless it is something positively spectacular or someone else is taking credit for the work you have done, wait until the review.
posted by meerkatty at 8:00 AM on March 31, 2006

Yes, it definitely is ok. It is always a good thing to remind your boss how excellent you are, as long as you don't go overboard. You might save these emails also, though I don't think random emails can really contribute much to a formal performance review. But heck, they can't hurt.
posted by nixerman at 8:05 AM on March 31, 2006

Definitely print them out and keep them in a safe place. In addition to their usefulness in showing your good work, they may also be useful contact records in future years if you leave the company.

As to what else to do with them, it really depends on the nature of your corporate evaluation system. If you have a traditional, formal system where you're required to do a self-evaluation and "make the case" for why you should get a high rating/bonus, then you should definitely submit these materials, or at least the ones that came straight from clients. If your company is more touchy-feely and self-promotion like this would be considered gauche, you may want to just pass along selected prases like TPS does. You can mention in a review that you have received many compliments from clients during the review period, and offer to pass along the e-mails if your supervisor wants to see them.
posted by brain_drain at 8:06 AM on March 31, 2006

The Jesse Helms seems to be giving some odd advice today. No, don't forward them to everybody. Personally, I would respond with a "thank you so much! now, if you could just send that exact same email to my boss, at [e-mail]". That way you're not tooting your own horn, but you still get some kickass praise, and possibly your BOSS will forward it to [e-mail], praising you for doing such a great job.
posted by antifuse at 8:14 AM on March 31, 2006

Remember--they aren't just emails about yourself, they are emails about the performance of the company. Treat them as such. If you can edit yourself out, send a digest of them to the boss. When he asks for the originals, send them. antifuse has it right.
posted by Ironmouth at 8:16 AM on March 31, 2006

antifuse nails it. It's better if it goes right from happy customer to boss. I do this when I get great service. I ask them 'what is your name and what is your bosses email address?'
posted by fixedgear at 8:18 AM on March 31, 2006

I agree that you should bring this to your boss's attention.

To be more subtle about it, you can respond to the customer with a nice 'thank you for your feedback, I really appreciate it...' sort of thing, and CC: your boss. That way you don't have to inconvenience the customer to send another thank you, but it's not quite as blatant as "Look! See how good I am!".
posted by Philbo at 8:24 AM on March 31, 2006

Personally, I would respond with a "thank you so much! now, if you could just send that exact same email to my boss, at [e-mail]".

If someone I had praised personally asked me to do this, I'd think (in this order):

-"Ugh, more work."
-"I wonder if this person is about to get canned and is trying to save their job. It seems like they were doing a good job, but I guess I was wrong."

In my experience, it's a bad idea to make your clients do additional work for you unless you have a really compelling reason. If you want to forward the email that the client already sent you to your boss, I'd say go ahead. It couldn't hurt to email the client and say, "Hey, mind if I send this to my boss?"
posted by MarkAnd at 8:25 AM on March 31, 2006

Absolutely. The advice to get them to send it to your boss direct is dead on. (If I am sending complimentary emails I always CC the person's boss).
posted by unSane at 8:25 AM on March 31, 2006

Speaking as a supervisor, I really enjoy getting copies of these kinds of emails. A more savvy customer would include me on the message that they send anyhow. Sometimes I can get milage out of them in ways that my staff might not anticipate.

I would suggest that you only send ones that are particularly glowing or significant. If you sent me every short "Thanks for doing your job" type message you get, I'd start to roll my eyes. But seeing copies of ones that mark the successful completion of significant projects or special extra-effort items are always appreciated. In fact, most of my day involves crisis management of things that are screwed up, so the occasional upbeat message is almost always a good thing to find in my inbox.

The idea of collecting them for inclusion at eval time could be effective done right, but it might also get on my nerves done in a heavy handed way.
posted by Lame_username at 8:36 AM on March 31, 2006

Philbo's suggestion is an excellent one, by the way.
posted by Lame_username at 8:39 AM on March 31, 2006

I agree with MarkAnd, and third (or fourth) ferociouskitty. Save them and bring them with you to your performance reviews. (Or even to a new job as additional reference material).
I personally would never get around to rewording it for your boss. Others might have more patience or time for that, though.
posted by rmless at 8:46 AM on March 31, 2006

Personally, as a manager, I'd personally dislike Philbo's suggestion and antifuse's suggestion. Asking the client to email your boss smells a bit of dishonesty. CC'ing your boss on the reploy is a bit more direct but it has a passive-aggressive feel to it. I'd still say the way to go is a simple forward with a direct note 'Here's something to brighten your day' or the like.
posted by nixerman at 8:48 AM on March 31, 2006

I used to build up a text file of these sorts of emails throughout the year, making sure to save the headers, subject field etc. as well as the body. During the review my manager would pick out a few that particularly supported whatever KPI/capability was being assessed and and paste them into the form that went off to senior management and HR. YMMV, but I too worked in a vast corporation and in my reviews they were always extremely useful. Save the emails themselves too, and remember to keep a backup of your mailfile and text file!

If you get any especially glowing feedback and you can find any excuse to do so, forward them to your manager when you receive them as well (the perfect situation is if the mail praises your team/organization in general, and at the same time singles you out for specific wonderfulness). In my experience my line managers loved to be made aware this kind of thing, and they would often forward the mails on to their superiors further up the corporate food chain (in a 'Hey, look what my team is achieving' kind of way). They get to bask in your reflected glory, and you're raising your profile as the higher-ups get to see your name associated with satisfied customers. You need to gauge the attitude of your manager and the general culture of your corporation as you don't want to overdo it, though. I used to preface the forwarded mails with a simple remark such as "Another happy customer" or "Praise for the team for that xyz project we completed last week". Let the management decide if it should be forwarded to anyone else: I wouldn't go sending emails out to your colleagues.
posted by boosh at 8:53 AM on March 31, 2006

Absolutely, 100% yes.
posted by suchatreat at 9:45 AM on March 31, 2006

And as an afterthought...I agree with nixerman. I usually make a little joke in the body when I forward a compliment, such as, "What's that sound? Me, tooting my own horn." I have a good relationship with my boss that allows this, obviously YMMV.
posted by suchatreat at 9:47 AM on March 31, 2006

Save them! Forward them!

Send them on to your boss by saying: I received a nice note from such-and-such today. They're a great client! (Or words to that effect that are pertinent to your situation).

If you're doing a good job, your boss will feel that s/he's doing a good job (which may or may not be true). In a sense, you're promoting yourself and spreading the wealth at the same time.
posted by aladfar at 9:59 AM on March 31, 2006

What I do is to write a brief thank you to the person who complimented you and cc your boss on that email. It seems quite natural.
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 10:08 AM on March 31, 2006

Absolutely feel free to forward them to your boss, but be careful that you don't do it too often. Just save the truly glowing emails for forwarding.

I'm not a fan of asking the client to email your boss. I have been asked by certain people in the past if I didn't mind sending a complimentary email/letter to their boss, and I found it tacky. Your clients are probably busy people who don't necessarily have time to send a reworded email to your boss, and if your boss is like mine and is very picky about client service, she might specifically ask you not to request that your clients re-send their emails, as it's a bit rude and not too respectful of their time. Plus, if you start asking your clients you'll inevitably get an email sent to your boss which starts "Hello, Kellydamnit asked me to send this to you." As a boss I would be hard-pressed to decode that, and I'd probably wonder why my employee couldn't just forward the email (bad), and I would wonder if my employee were requesting complimentary letters from clients (looks very bad). A complimentary email sent to you has just as much weight as an email sent to your boss, so long as your boss sees it. No need to inconvenience your clients.
posted by apple scruff at 10:56 AM on March 31, 2006

Taken Outtacontext writes "What I do is to write a brief thank you to the person who complimented you and cc your boss on that email. It seems quite natural."

This is a perfect idea.
posted by apple scruff at 10:57 AM on March 31, 2006

I attach them to my weekly status report and call them out explicitly. My status report takes has three sections, Accomplishments, Goals, Issues/comment. Pleasing the client is definitely an accomplishment!
posted by crazycanuck at 11:33 AM on March 31, 2006