I was written up for being too pessimistic. It was about 8 years ago, I was a project manager at a small retail company. I was in a small meeting with my boss and the owner of the company. I was telling the owner all the possible risks associated with this new project I was given, the major one being that we didn’t have enough time to complete everything by the owner imposed deadline. Calling out risks is literally one of the main responsibilities of being a project manager. Also the meeting went fine, no one got upset, it seemed everyone understood. A few days later I get called into HRs office with a write up for basically being a Debbie Downer. I was told to be more positive with my updates and stay away from any bad news. I was in total shock! A few days later I put my notice in and found a new job making twice as much. So it all worked out in the end. Thanks for the motivation Todd!
in most companies formal interactions, like writing people up, have to go through HR. Tha you can write people up in the US for such silly things is truly remarkable though. In my country writing someone up is only valid, if they violated the terms of their contract or disobeyed proper and legal procedures. While i guess you could write “has to be positive all the time” in the contract or company regulations it would not hold in court.
