What do I do about a boss who takes credit for my work?

I was born a slave, and I learned early to sort the world into two heaps. In one are the things that are up to you: your judgements, your efforts, what you choose to do next. In the other are the things that are not: your reputation, other people's opinions, who gets the praise. Most misery comes from mixing up the heaps.nnThe work was yours. Nobody can take that. You thought it, made it, did it well. That belongs to you completely. The credit was never in your heap. It lives in your boss's mouth and in the minds of those above him, and you have no more power over it than over the weather.nnThink of a dinner where someone else is served first. They paid for that, perhaps by flattering the host, perhaps by being at the right place in the right way. If you want the same treatment, pay the same price. If you are not willing to pay it, do not complain that you did not get what you did not pay for. You kept your dignity, and that was worth more than the dish.nnNone of this means you must stay silent or stay put. You may decide to speak up, or to leave for a place where good work is noticed. Those are your actions, and they are in your control. But do them calmly, as choices, and not because your peace depends on someone else's praise. It does not have to.

I disagree with the Stoics on this, as on several things. Honour is not nothing. It is one of the external goods that a good life includes, and it is the natural reward of excellence. A person who does fine work and lets someone else take the honour for it is not being admirably detached. They are falling short of a virtue.nnThe virtue I mean sits between two vices. On one side is vanity, claiming more than you deserve. On the other is a kind of smallness of soul, claiming less than you deserve, out of timidity or a false modesty. The person of proper pride knows their worth and claims what is due to them, no more and no less, and does so without fuss. You may be erring on the timid side.nnThere is also a question of justice. Rewards in any shared enterprise should be distributed according to merit. When your boss takes credit for your work, he is not only wounding your pride. He is taking a share that belongs to you, of reputation, of advancement, perhaps of pay. That is an injustice, and it is reasonable to correct it.nnSo correct it, prudently. Make your contributions visible as you go: put your name on your work, speak about it in meetings, keep records. Then, if it continues, raise it with your boss directly and calmly. The aim is not to humiliate him. It is to see that things are distributed justly, including to you.

The sage acts and does not claim. Accomplishes and does not dwell on it. When the work is done, steps back. Because the sage does not claim, nothing can be taken away.nnYou will find this hard to hear. You have been taught that what is not seen is not counted. But look at water. It does the most necessary work in the world, nourishing everything, and it does not compete. It goes to the low places others avoid. Nothing is softer, and nothing wears down the hard and strong so surely.nnYour boss is grasping. People who grasp must keep grasping. They live in fear that the source of what they claim will be found out, and in time it usually is. The one who boasts is not given credit. The one who shows off does not shine. I do not say this as a promise of revenge. I say it because it is how things tend to go.nnSo ask yourself what you are really holding on to. If it is the joy of doing the work well, that is untouched. If it is the name on the work, that was never solid. If your livelihood truly depends on being seen, then by all means let your work be seen, quietly, without fighting. But do not let this become a contest. Contests make people small. Keep doing good work, keep your own counsel, and when it is time to leave, leave lightly.