How common is it to throw a colleague under a bus as an arse-covering exercise?

[JockTamsonsBairns]

It's happened to me this week, and I'm a bit taken aback. The details aren't particularly relevant, but I've been working hard on something for months which has required some input from my line manager - I've been asking for this frequently over the past two months, but it's been pushed down his priority list.
I have always had a good working relationship with him, and I fully accept that his workload has been overwhelming lately.
I emailed him on Friday of last week, giving him a final nudge, and saying that if we didn't make some changes then we could be facing a potential complaint against us.
I didn't hear anything over the weekend (fair enough, but we do regularly keep contact out of hours), and so I rang him first thing on Monday morning. Call went straight to voicemail, and I left a message asking him to ring me as soon as he got a chance. He didn't.
Tuesday morning saw the completely predictable complaint. Almost word for word, it lists what I have been asking my line manager to do since November.
On receipt of this complaint, the entire dept springs into action, and starts to implement the measures I've been trying to introduce for three months. Ok, I'm happy that things are finally moving forward.

This morning, I was summoned to my manager's office. He was sitting alongside the top director person, which I hadn't expected, and began a spiel about how we could have done things differently, and what lessons we could learn from this.

The outcome isn't relevant here, but I'm very interested in how common this is? Do people generally fuck over their team members, in order to cover their own arses?

I'm reeling.

Id forward the email trail to them and say, yes i agree, sadly fuckface didnt..

This happend to my brother years ago. He provided pages and pages of emails where he had emailed the person regularly .

You know I used to be a little mouse but years of being treated like shit by past bosses has firmed me up. I would be pissed off and in that meeting would look squarely at the wanker who tried to throw me under the bus and say well why didn't you act on my emails? Did you read them? And then I would tell them I was going to send them on to the bosses.

Depressingly common where I work. Every man/woman for themselves. I try to avoid internal politics like the plague...but if I were put in your situation, I would absolutely be sending the email trail to the senior manager.

Do what Custardy said and if you don’t, you really do have self esteem issues!

I just feel strange about this. If I produce this paper trail in my defence, then my line manager will be seen to be clearly culpable. This time last week, I would never have dreamed of dropping him in the shit, so to speak. But then, this time last week, I never could have imagined he'd drop me in the shit.

There is a huge difference though- he has dropped you in the shit by being dishonest and pretending you are incompetent. You would only be telling the truth about what actually happened.

This is awful. I've no idea what to do.

It is awful but you do know what to do.

@Serendipity79

Personally I would go back to the director and state that you were a little confused and taken aback by the meeting and by the feedback. Outline that you've been trying to address the issues for a while, demonstrate some of the evidence and could he please clarify where he feels you could personally improve things.

I find feigning absolute confusion whilst handing over hard evidence works in these situations - I've been both the employee and the director!

Oh yes. That does work well.

I learnt that skill when accessing the LA during my sons years of being on an ECHP.

The feigning innocence has led them to lie to me many a time and have to rectify things quickly

agree with CustardyCreams , your LM has broken the trust , you need to put the record straight

It’s common, you now need to cover your own arse, your manager will respect you for it more in the long term. Otherwise he’ll just do it again.

Reply to the email chain or whatever with the measures you were proposing cc’ing the director person in the meeting and anyone else you think should know and either go guns blazing “I was surprised we were talking about how we should have done things differently when I’ve been asking to prioritise those for months” or a bit more passive aggressive “see below the actions i recommended, what could we have done differently”? But either way DO IT. A man wouldn’t think twice about standing up for themselves.

I would get all your evidence out in a row and send the most passive aggressive email ever.

Dear Manager and director (BCC HR)

Thank you for the meeting today outlining where we fell short for our customer. I do agree there have been some failings and would like to now agree a new process where I am able to refer to a higher level on the event of you being unable to answer the multiple concerns (please see attached email trail) that I shared with you over the past 2 months that this project would not be completed to deadline. Perhaps we could instigate a traffic light system where a project nearing dead line is automatically referred to a senior leader or perhaps you could assign me a new contact that I can directly refer to if the situation is ever to arise again?

Thanks again for your time today, I feel that you have highlighted many actions for me that I can take forward.

Regards
JockTamsonsBairns

This time last week, I would never have dreamed of dropping him in the shit, so to speak. But then, this time last week, I never could have imagined he'd drop me in the shit.

This is the key point - you've still got the mindset that you're dropping him in it. You're not. You're just correcting your superiors and protecting your own interests.

Always look at it from the point of view of "what would the other person do". Clearly in this instance he's thinking more of himself than you and shouldn't complain/have anything to say if you did the same to him. All you can say to him is "I was totally blindsided by that meeting but in hindsight it wasn't right that I was getting all the blame for it, so I had to put them straight and protect my own career".

Sneaky fucker!

.You should have tackled this head on and challenged the lies. You have evidence (emails) so send that to the Director and show you have done your job while your line manager did nothing and then tried to blame you for the problem. As a senior manager myself I would sack someone like your line manager on the spot after getting evidence from you.

@JockTamsonsBairns

I have a lengthy trail of emails on this issue, and I would have no difficulty whatsoever in absolving myself. I can produce emails spanning back to November, highlighting that there was an issue which required immediate attention. Had my concerns been heeded, we could have definitely avoided a complaint - no question.

I just feel strange about this. If I produce this paper trail in my defence, then my line manager will be seen to be clearly culpable. This time last week, I would never have dreamed of dropping him in the shit, so to speak. But then, this time last week, I never could have imagined he'd drop me in the shit.

This is awful. I've no idea what to do.

Surely it's obvious. Why on earth should you be dropped in the shit when you have cast iron evidence that it's not merited? I'm just a bit surprised that your line manager hasn't been in touch to try some damage limitation, he must know that you have all the evidence to defend yourself.

In any event, your line manager seems to be seriously incompetent and the management needs to know that.

Why didn’t you speak up for yourself in the netting though? I understand you’re worried about dropping him in it but he had no issue with pushing the blame onto you, and ultimately this is HIS fault. Don’t let yourself be walked over like this.

Oh I have had this quite a few times. Once it was really serious, I was called into Deputy Directors office, I said "excuse me one moment", went to my desk, pressed forward on the email chain sent it to her and then went back to her office. She looked at me and said 'ha this is interesting' and immediately fired the two people response. I didn't feel bad. We had a process. They failed to follow the process and put students degrees into jeopardy.

What was the point if keeping all the emails if not for a situation like this?!

You can prove that you did the best you could without the support if your manager, your manager showed no loyalty to you and tried to blame you! I couldn't let that lie. Your working relationship will never be the same now whatever you do.

Defend yourself to the MD and forward the email trail so they can SEE the ineptitude of your line manager and not BELIEVE what the manager said about you not doing the job correctly.

I dont understand why youve no idea what to do. He wanted you disciplined to cover himself. You prepare the documents, and state why you should have his job.

very common I would say.
I'm an expert in arse covering, putting everthing, every watercooler discussion etc in email (summary of our discussion earlier...)

Drop him in it...why should you be in trouble?
I warned a manager once that he hadn’t sent out a pile of cheques that were due. He ignored them in his desk drawer for weeks, then went to our CEO to say I he had found out I had them and not sent them out. I was quite new, and totally gobsmacked. Luckily I was able to show that they were printed two months before I started working there. The CEO backed me up completely.
Stand up for yourself OP, you’ll regret it if you don’t.

If I produce this paper trail in my defence, then my line manager will be seen to be clearly culpable. This time last week, I would never have dreamed of dropping him in the shit, so to speak. But then, this time last week, I never could have imagined he'd drop me in the shit.

This is awful. I've no idea what to do.

The dispassionate and professional thing to do is as Custardy and other PPs have said, and just forward the trail.

If you have a close working relationship with your line manager, however, then perhaps I might speak with him and say "LM, you know I've been asking to address exactly this for months, and I warned you last Friday that it was going to blow up. So I'm pretty amazed to have been in that meeting where it seemed like you knew nothing about it. What's going on?"

And then wait and see what he says.

Then decide how to proceed.

You don't need to lie down and take it, though. Not if it's not your fault.
Your line manager sounds like he has something going on that is serious.

I've had it done to me at least twice - once by my own manager.

Both times I told the truth and/or escalated the issue.

It didn't particularly damage the working relationships because for someone to do that to you, they already don't respect or like you, and they already are not interested in maintaining a good working relationship.

Forward the original email chain to your line manager bcc the director, by email in which you politely thank line manager for actioning the points your raised in your emails of x date and y date (a long time ago) with the team, and tidy up any other matters that have arisen/need attention. Keep your email succinct and to the point, and give time lines for action points arising.

Keep director BCC to all future emails.

Job done.

I would send your boss your email trail and explain your disappointment in how he handled the situation when the inevitable complaint came in. I would ask him to put the director straight on whose responsibility this issue is and tell him how he has broken your trust and respect.

Don't trust your manager to handle this. Go over his head.

I would forward all of the emails and telephone message dates and say I don't know what I could have done differently.
FF's no way would I be lying down on the floor and letting my manager walk all over me like this.

I agree with Serendipity in the confusion tactic

Did he say anything to you afterwards or has he avoided you since?

Its easier said than done but I definitely think it needs confronting or raising with someone above his head because you don't know what else he's blamed on you that you haven't been privvy to..