Dear Tamara,

I appreciate your constructive criticism and your willingness to point out my flaws and where I can improve, however, I would appreciate it if, in the future, you could provide me with those criticism's in private.

I believe that I am a good, hardworking employee. I have been an asset to your team and I don't believe that you see that. I have provided critical support to the other team members and I have produced many valuable pieces of literature that has gone to print and has been met with nothing but praise from other members of the executive team. I've also increased your social media presence 400% in a short three months, which is impressive considering what your team was able to do in the prior 11 months. I've taken on extra responsibilities from my fellow co-workers in order to lighten their load. I've done so much overtime that I've banked two full days extra of vacation time. By these standards, it appears that I am a very helpful and dedicated employee.

I realize your boss gave you a hard time today because of an assignment you gave me, and I realize that maybe I could have done more on that e-blast, but as a new employee, it is very difficult to understand the nuances and inner workings of different departments. It is also very difficult to write about something that I knew nothing about and with no support, I had to do a lot of the research myself. I apologize if I did not get everything exactly correct as you would have, but that is the reason why I sent you those countless e-mails and tracked you down to ask questions. Unfortunately you were too busy to answer any of my e-mails and always brushed me aside and never answered my questions. So I was left to my own devices, which apparently don't measure up to your expectations.

I felt that, although I do not know everything there is to know about this company, any of my wording choices or information included would be corrected in the rigorous editing process I requested. As you can tell, I was not confident in my work or else I would have never e-mailed you many times asking for clarification and I wouldn't have asked four people to edit it before it came to you.

Maybe it's my fault for assuming that my co-workers would do their job. I guess that is my fault. But above all, when it finally made its way to you, I figured that as the VP of Brand Management, you would have an understanding of the type of image you want to project. And seeing that you are constantly in meetings with other members of the senior management team which is why you couldn't answer my e-mails or meet with me in the first place, I just assumed you knew what was going on in the other departments. My bad.

All this considered, you OK'ed this e-blast and asked for it to be sent to the CEO for final approval. For something "so shitty" as you put it, why would you put your final approval on it?

For your information, all of those "mistakes" and "errors" were done by the rest of your team - including yourself. It is very unfair to place the blame squarely on my shoulders when I asked for help and was ignored. It is not my fault that you approved something that was not up to the company's standards. We are supposed to be a team. That means when one person doesn't have the skills of knowledge, the other team members pick up the slack. I guess it was my fault for believing my co-workers when they made changes to my work. So while I accept my part in this problem, I believe you should acknowledge your part in this as well.

All this said, I do appreciate your constructive criticism, but next time, can you please approach me in private. I am working too hard at gaining respect in the office since I am the new kid, and you embarrassed me immensely. I have defiantly lost credibility with my co-workers, except for the few who sent me a private message telling me that it was OK and that you were out of line. As a team leader, you should be very concerned with team moral and right now, you are bringing down your team. I know for a fact that I am not the only one who has lost faith in this company and I believe that very soon you will find yourself short a couple of your key employees, and where will that lead you? If you are too busy to have a conversation about content, and your content writer leaves, who will write the content for you?

Yes I'm the new kid on the block, but you need me. You don't see what I have done and what I can do. You just see your mistake and you blamed it on me. I'll show you what I can do, and you will regret your decision to take your frustrations out on me when you are left alone.

With respect,

Kelly