Blame..
 

Ever get blamed for something you didn't do or have taken the blame for someone else just to save their skin?

What were the cirmumstances and how did you feel in either situation?

Yup. When I'm blamed for something that I didn't do, I argue it because I know I didn't do anything wrong. If I voluntarily take the blame for others, it really doesn't bother me at all since I decided to do it.

Happens all the time.. I take the blame for my friends so they won't get blasted and since I always do that.. people naturally place blame on me for things I didn't do.. it's not that big of a deal to me..

Part of my job description is to take "responsibility", I have often taken the blame for something that hasn't been done by my team. Part of the way it is my fault, and as I am responsible, I should've covered it.

Once though I was out drinking and punched a window thru, got cut on my hand and a little bleed runnin down my hand. Well went into a pub and a had a few drinks when this bird run in cryin cause some geezer had hit her. The barmaid at the time didn't like me much and saw I had a cut hand and put two and two together and got five. She flew at me punchin and scratchin', I wouldn't hit back and so pretty much ran out the door.
She got me barred from the pub for beatin' up this girl, which I hadn't done.
In the mean time the girl who got beat up explained to the barmaid that it wasn't me. But it wasn't until I threatened to charge the barmaid with assault that I was allowed back to the pub. Never ever spoken to the Barmaid in my life, she just didn't like me.

Weird.

I've "taken one for the team".
The problem is that they get used to it WAY too quickly.
And then all of a sudden they've got a new scapegoat.

Probably best to be honest, not tattle, but just say the facts.
If they set themselves up, they have to take responsiblity.

As a manager for 15 people at one time I took blame for lots of things. As manager working closely with another department I took blame because the other department dropped the ball and I should have been there to make sure it didn't drop or at least pick it up once it did.

I've learned that even if I take the blame for something I can usually turn it around to make it something positive for me and everyone else.

I have never and will never take the blame for someone else. I own up to shit when I do something wrong and expect everyone else to do the same.

A project manager takes the "blame" for his entire team as part of the job description.

This is how you protect your assets and keep morale as high as possible. It's appreciated and repaid by loyalty.

I can take a hit more easily than a team member. When I'm asked where the screw up occured I say that I should have caught it. Period, end of inquisition.

That being said, I avoid being the scapegoat by taking care of punitive action later. You have to have final authority over the team for that to work. The whole trick is to insulate the process. It works in certain situations and not in others. In others, a modified approach can work. The ultimate methodology and intention remains the same.

This is the goal. It's not always successful but it's worth the effort.

It does get more complicated then that though, Sixate. Read Cythetiq and Art's posts very closely. Unless you work for yourself in some capacity, group dynamics demand that everyone contributes, everyone plays a role. This includes sharing the blame. Especially since "whos to blame" is often somewhat ambiguous in group projects.

I grew up taking the blame for everything. I was the oldest living at home (older step brother lived w/ his mom.) Being the oldest unfortunately means taking the blame for younger siblings unwillingly sometimes. So now I get mad when I'm blamed for things I did not do. I can't say I've ever taken the blame for anyone willingly and I'm not sure I would. I guess it just depends on the situation.

Were do you think i got my nick from :p

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I am consistantly getting blamed at work for things that were above my control. I work in a sceduleing /workforce department of a large call center, and any time something goes wrong we are the first to have fingers pointed at :p

hmm.. i think everyone's been blamed and kept quiet about it once or so. but my biggest problems is i always feel like i should or would be to blame. even things i wouldn't even consider i'll sometimes mentally slink into the seat to hide. it makes no sense, but happens all the time.

i do take responsibility when i actually do fuck up..

I don't call that taking the the blame for anything. That's what I call owning up to it. If their is a mistake it is the project managers job to catch it, isn't it?

Then if you work for yourself you damn sure take all the blame - Not only for your screwups, but your suppliers screwups, and you damn sure take the blame for your employees screwups. When you own the place the buck stops here (if there is a buck left!).

Heh... good point. Thanks for pointing that out. :o

sixate, often the question is posed "who wrote the code" where the screw up occured. I probably didn't make that clear. The question is often an obvious attempt by higher-ups to find out which programmer is to "blame" for the mistake.

Often there's no way to test for things that may happen once the app hits the customer's particular environment, new data, etc.

When I say "I should have caught it". The person who is doing the questioning knows full well I am stonewalling and that I might as well be saying "I'm not about to give you leverage into my team operations. I'm taking the hit and I will deal with the error."

It's a sort of code that people understand. Believe me.

It's hard to explain but I think you can get the sense of what I'm saying.

I guess I better never work for myself. ;)

im no angel but when i dont do some thing wrong i laugh and people automaticly think it was me because of that :-/ what gives

Doesn't sound like a very friendly environment. Seems kind of insidious for someone attach the blame one of your team, rather than you, to undermine your authority. Insightful post.

Yes. Long ago, I used to be the manager of a Pizza Hut. On my day off, someone ran out of change bags to give to the delivery drivers, and instead gave them a deposit bag to use for their change fund. The deposit bag they gave to the driver was one that still had a deposit in it (the person who opened the store was supposed to have taken it to the bank that morning, but didn't), and a $1500 deposit came up missing because of it. Like I said, it was my day off...I didn't even come in that day. I got fired...well, not fired exactly -- I was "allowed" to resign, but I would have been fired if I hadn't. Turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me...I used the opportunity to get out of the food service industry forever (I hope).

Only once to speak of, and I lost one of my best friends because of it.

The night before I left for college, I went over to a friends house because his parents weren't home and he was having a couple of people over. He had purchased an ounce of weed earlier that day and was too stoned to walk by the time I arrived.
I took care of him, but did not get very messed up because I had a long drive the next day.

When I left for school, I thought everything was fine. However, it gradually became apparent to me that he was very angry with me, although I didn't know why. When I tried to ask him what he was angry about, all I got were curse words. He wouldn't even listen to me.
After an entire year of this, I found out through somebody else that Steve thought I had *tried* to steal some of his weed.
As the story went, he thought that I had been in the process of taking his pot when another friend, Zack, walked in on it and made me stop. Zack apparently then told Steve about it who just accepted it as fact.

Eventually, Zack told Steve that I hadn't done anything, and that Steve must have dreampt the whole thing, but that didn't matter.

Steve also knew that I am strongly against stealing, esp. from friends.

None of that mattered and he still wont' talk to me today. I think perhaps because he refuses to admit he was wrong.

I just don't understand how one person can have so much hate for something so trivial. If one of my friends stole something from me, I would probably have just told them that I would have given it to them had they asked.

I still get angry when I think about this fiasco, because nothing pisses me off more than not being able to clear my name of something I didn't do.

Being a saleman I have definately had to take the blame for screwups for other people. Whether that be suppliers, my engineers, or other such things. I am the front man my customers see, so I am the man that they will vent to if there is a problem.

I grew up in a household full of feminist females, so I was blamed for everything.

Boco, I love your icon. It's a refreshing blend of female beauty and edge sensibility.

I took the blame for a co-worker. I had cut aluminium pipes, and the boss was furious since they all were 3 mm's too short. I took the blame. I knew my co-worker must have given me a faulty list, since being sloppy while cutting metal does not give you 10 pipes EXACTLY 3 mm's too short.

I was only going to work there for three months anyway. It was a wierd place. I was the only non-Chinese guy on the factory floor, it was located in Australia and didn't have air condition, and the manager was a nervous guy who went psycho at the company dinner. He busted a wine glass against the table in a high-class restaurant, and yelled "I swear to God if anybody fucks with me tonight I WILL KILL them!!!".

Hey, it payed the bills.