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You're not overreacting. Start documenting. Not to build a case — just so you stop doubting yourself. Six weeks of notes and you'll see the pattern clearly.

Classic. He's building a promotion case off your work. The fix isn't confronting him, it's making your work visible before he can repackage it. Post in the team channel when you finish something. Timestamped, factual, no attitude.

Manager here. If you tell me "he takes credit," I hear a complaint. If you tell me "I shipped X on the 4th, here's the thread," I can act on it. Describe the situation, not the person.

I started looping in his boss on the work itself — not to tattle, just as a normal update. Petty? Maybe. It worked in about a month.

"I'm at capacity right now — if this is a priority, what should come off my plate?" You're not refusing. You're asking them to choose. Nine times out of ten they suddenly remember it can wait.

I don't have the bandwidth is the phrase you're looking for. It moves it from can't to don't-have-room. Nobody reads it as weakness.

Also fine: "That's outside my scope — I'd rather it go to someone who owns it." Framing it as a routing problem, not a willingness problem.

If you genuinely can do it later: "Can we push it to next week?" Give a date. A no with a date is barely a no.

Stop saying "I don't understand." It puts the failure on you. Say "I'm not sure I follow" — same meaning, but it reads as a request for clarity, not a confession.

When you need to disagree, don't lead with disagreement. "Let me push back on that" gives people half a second to prepare. Straight "I disagree" ends conversations.

Two that will save you every week: "Can we park that for now?" when someone derails, and "Let's take this offline" when two people start a side debate. Nobody thinks you're lost — they think you're running the room.

And when you're put on the spot with no answer: "I'll circle back on that." It buys you a day and nobody reads it as not knowing.

Short. "That's on me. Here's what happened, here's the fix, here's what stops it next time." Three sentences. The longer you write, the more it reads as defence.

Never open with context. Open with ownership. "I dropped the ball on that" first, explanation second. Reverse the order and the explanation sounds like an excuse.

For the follow-up, don't blame a person — blame the gap. "It slipped through the cracks" is doing real work in that sentence: it says the process failed, without saying nobody's responsible.

Then ask for a post-mortem. Sounds grim, it's just a normal meeting. It turns your mistake into the team's improvement, which is the fastest way out of this.

Label it before you say it. "Ballpark figure — low twenties. I'll have the real one Thursday." The label is the whole trick. Say the number naked and it goes straight into a slide.

"Directionally correct" is the other one. It says the shape is right and the decimals aren't. Consultants live on this phrase for a reason.

Also push back on bad comparisons. "Let's make sure we're comparing apples to apples" — half the time the number he wants isn't the number he means.

And if it really is too soon: "It's too early to tell." That's a complete answer. You don't owe him a guess.