On Friday, I was given an urgent task in a short notice. Manager requested I gave status update by the end of the day. The task was given to me at 7am during a meeting call. After that I needed to get kids ready for school. This coworker recently joint the company who was higher ranked but not my lead or supervisor. He/she offered to help look at the issue while I was busy with kids. I kindly accpeted and then went on doing my things.
By the time I got to office. There were multiple messages left in the team chat room. He/she posted a number of messages showing he/she had solved one problem already.
I was a little surprised, but I quickly moved on as the task wasn't completed.
During the day, he/she tried to check with me on my progress a few times. I kindly replied. He/she thought it's unfair they gave this task in such a short notice and he/she would be very happy if he could be any help. Again, I showed my appreciation.
It was after 10pm Friday night, and I finally decided to wrap up the day. Everthing was done except an error message that's out of my knowledge. So I included it in my status to manager and other involving team members. Half an hour later, before I turned off my computer, i received a pm from this coworker asking again how I was doing. I honestly told everything and he/she said I did well and I should get some rest . He/she also asked me fir a copy of the status email to my manager. I thought he/she just wanted to be in the loop, so I did.
The next morning, I as usual checked for emails and replies from manager. There was none. I then checked on the team chat room. Guess what I saw? A number of people posted thanks messages to this coworker. I scrolled up to see what happened. Turned out he fixed the error I mentioned in my status email to my manager last night. Looked like he did some investigation and resolved the issue once again after I went to sleep and then publicly announced it to everyone!
No wonder no one replied to my email. I feel I was ignored or rather redundant. Thanks to this coworker for making me look bad.
What am I gonna do? Pretending a fake smile and then move on? I understand as a new comer you are keen to show your worth, but by doing things to make yourself look good and others bad? So low!
This coworker sounds like a great employee. Going above and beyond to make sure the job gets done, even though it was outside their responsibility. Plus they regularly communicated with and helped you throughout the day. I wish they worked for me!
It isn't the coworker making you look bad
Thanking them for saving your bacon would be a good start. Stop focusing on what other people are doing in life/work and look at how you can make yourself better/happier. Don't look for faults in other's to compensate for your own.