How to Keep from Being Thrown Under the Bus

Office politics suck but they’re a fact of life. The risk you face is someone “throwing you under the bus” to protect themselves politically. There are steps you can take to reduce the risk of this happening to you.

Office politics can be nasty. People have their own agendas and, unfortunately, those agendas aren’t always above board. There will be times when a boss, a stakeholder, or a peer gets themselves in a jam. Rather than facing the consequences of their errors, they’ll look to “throw someone under the bus” to take the fall for them.

Sometimes that person being sacrificed is you.

When you get thrown under the bus and blamed for problems caused by someone else’s incompetence, you risk receiving poor reviews, losing promotion opportunities, or even being fired. No, it’s not fair and yes it’s ugly.

You can either ignore these possibilities and be intellectually pure by saying “this is a logical organization and our culture wouldn’t tolerate that type of behavior” or you can protect yourself. If you take the former approach, you might be making those comments from the unemployment line. So let’s focus on protecting yourself.

Know Who’s Doing the Throwing

There are a lot of folks out there who could look to throw you under the bus. Your boss (or their boss), a peer, a project team leader/member, and a senior stakeholder in another department are all candidates to shove you into oncoming traffic. They all face risks if things they’re working on don’t go well. Many of them could have new advancement opportunities created if you weren’t around. Anyone who stands to personally gain if you fail or anyone who can deflect blame in your direction is a candidate for throwing you under the bus.

Once you know who these folks are, assess their possible motivations. If they can sidestep blame and have it land directly on you, they have motive. If they can advance if you’re no longer around, they have motive. Once you understand their possible motivations, you know which direction a bus might be coming from.

Last, assess the likelihood they’ll throw you under the bus. The guy you’ve been friends with for 15 years? Not likely. The new boss who joined the company a year ago and he’s struggling with his new role? Prime candidate. That peer who you’ve beaten out for promotions three performance periods in a row? Watch out. The strength or weakness of your relationship with the individual is an indicator of how possible it is that they’ll harm you.

Know Who’s Driving the Bus

The people looking to deflect blame or damage you won’t be the ones driving the bus. They might not have the power to harm you directly. Instead they’ll find someone with more clout who can run you over. If you’re on a project team and it’s not going well, the Project Manager won’t be the one driving the bus. They’ll be the ones blaming you for problems and the person they’re going to tell is the senior project sponsor. Now that person drives a big bus.

Bus drivers include senior stakeholders, important clients/customers, regulators, legal groups, auditors, the media, and important business partners. Spend time thinking through who could make a decision to assign blame to you and then take action against you.

Dodging the Bus

There are two primary techniques for dodging the bus – do great work and build strong relationships.

If you consistently do great work and give your best, it’s a pretty good insurance policy. You’ll have a track record of doing what’s right for the organization and people will know the quality of your work. When someone then goes to push you in front of the bus for shoddy work, their accusations will be questioned because they’re inconsistent with what everyone knows about your performance. And as long as you’re doing what’s right for the organization no matter what, you can’t be accused of self-dealing and putting your own interests ahead of those of the organization.

In terms of building relationships, the more people who know you do great work and put the organization first, the more people can come to your rescue before the bus crushes you. I know one executive who has a fantastic reputation in the organization. He had a new boss come in at one point who wasn’t very competent. After a prolonged period of poor performance, this executive’s boss looked to toss him under the bus. Fortunately this executive had a large network of other more senior executives who knew he did great work and always placed the organization’s interests ahead of his own. When the shove came, those strong relationships came into play. The senior stakeholders who the executive had relationships with came to his rescue and saw the situation for what it was.

Don’t Play Politics but do Understand Them

If you decide you want to play politics, you’re going to lose at some point. People will see you for being a political animal and they won’t trust you. Eventually you may get caught up in politics because people see you as a threat. That’s a horrible situation to be in.

You can’t ignore politics though. It’s naive and idealistic to do so. You expose yourself to significant risks by ignoring the political climate around you. Pay attention to the political climate around you. Know who could have an agenda. Know what that agenda is and how likely they are to sacrifice you to protect themselves. If you understand who could do the shoving and which way the bus could be coming from, you’ll be able to better protect yourself from getting hit.

I know this isn’t a pleasant topic to think about. That said, you’re better off thinking about it and staying in your role than ignoring it only to find yourself looking at a bus speeding in your direction.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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Photo: 3192 2011 Blue Bird 77 Maximum Passenger School Bus by Bill McChesney