What was going on there then?

I was off on one of my irregular visits to one of the outlying depots. This time I have been doing a grand tour updating the local HR managers on some process changes we are making. I tend to do most of the work with my manager helping with the bigger bits. My manager is more than happy to delegate these meetings to me as I know exactly what is going on and can brief it with no problems.

So my boss delegated responsibility to me to arrange and give this briefing. So I contacted the manager and suggested we meet up. She kind of dithered about it so I left it a few days, it went a bit quiet and when I bought it up again she told me she had contacted my boss to arrange the meeting. My boss had already passed it on to me so we kind of said fair enough, if they need a bit more senior manager hand holding then we can go do it together.

So we get there my boss (female) and me (male) to meet this HR manager (female). My boss does a quick intro and then hands over to me as I know all the detail. So I am going through everything and any time the HR manager asks a question she addresses it to my boss. Its almost like the entire conversation is between her and my manager and I am nothing more than an audio tape. This was accompanied with her generally looking at my boss and using body language to focus on my boss and not me.

It was very disconcerting and if the sexes were reversed so that I was female with two males you might interpret it as sexism. I find it difficult to believe it was sexism but equally I find it hard to believe she didn't talk to me because I clearly know my stuff and my area of work. I have a good reputation around the organisation and am known for my thoroughness.

My boss and I did talk about it briefly afterwards but she was none the wiser and it had made her feel a bit awkward as well, because she is completely confident with my briefing ability and would have happily left it to me. She had already tried to convince the HR manager that I was completely competent in giving the briefing.

So I don't know what that was about but it will be interesting to see what happens in the future.