Csdrhrt

My manager often assigns tasks to whoever is in front of him, rather than the correct person to each task, which often annoys me.

Recently, I've found out my colleague was assigned with scheduling a meeting with a representative from other company about a part of a project that was mainly my responsibility, although we were together in the overall project.

I just happened to find out because one person from the other company attending the meetings is a personal friend who contacted me directly once the meeting had to be re-scheduled, and she needed to talk promptly to my coworker.

I talked normally to my colleague, offering to give him my friend's number, but he almost literally ran away from the office (and I later saw him on the company's reception phone, which I found suspicious, but could really be just a coincidence). He didn't ask for my friend's contact.

My concern is: I believe I should have been called to attend the meeting, otherwise, he would present my work as if it was his doing. I did notice this guy trying to present as his the work in which he had meaningful participation of others. So, it wouldn't be a first time.

I think I need to have a straight conversation with both my colleague and my boss, and I'm really not sure how to do it.

My boss never reacts well to whatever seems reduced to interpersonal relations. It's not like he would lecture my colleague upon my complaint, or tell him explicitly to invite me next time. He is very likely unaware that I've developed most of this part of the project, though it was explicitly mentioned in meetings with the whole team.

Right now, I'm considering just to tell my boss that my colleague did talk to me about the meeting and, I wanted to check with him about how the subject should be approached. Hopefully he'll either say I should go or, clarify that the topics do not concern me (I know that's not the case). If he has any good reason I should not attend the meeting, I'd like to hear from him, but he's not used to being that frank.

As for my colleague, I guess I'll wait and see if he invites my (since he was already caught red-handed). But I'm not feeding hopes that would be the case. I've now noticed that never redirects people to talk to me when he's asked about something from our project that was my responsibility, and even if I never intrude his conversations uncalled, when he's asked about something I did, he often moves away from me to talk about it. I feel like threatening to intrude all his conversations, but for sure this would not end up well. I'm also considering just giving him kind words like "just know you can count on me to talk about my work", which does not seem effective.