Handling a “Blame Passing Glory Hog”

Today, I’m passing along some excellent advice on handling a political situation. A long-time correspondent, Dov Trietsch, gets the credit. – Bob

Dear Bob …

You must have already encountered this scenario. We have amongst us a blame-passing-glory-hog (BPGH) and many benevolent yet innocent contributors (BIC). Every now and then (actually much more now than then), BPGH encounters a problem he cannot resolve. Instead he looks at its history in an attempt to pass the blame. When he finds a wussy BIC in the chain, He’ll send an email, CCing everyone in sight, asking the scapegoat if he had anything to do with it. Effectively he’s trying to pass the blame.

Now one of two things may happen. BIC send back a private mail (reply but not reply-all) saying he knows nothing about it. This actually closes the trap. Not copying anybody means acceptance. BIC unknowingly accepted the blame.

Even better, BIC is a problem solver and finds a solution to the problem, which he stupidly sends in a private email to BPGH. This is perfect. BPGH now sends an email to everyone in site stating: “Problem solved!”, which is the truth. This way, without lying, he maintained the blame and hogged the glory, dealing a on-two knockdown to the real hero.

Of course, BIC might use the reply-all option in his response effectively (though unknowingly) blocking the illicit gambit. Our disappointed BPGH can now try to find another scapegoat.

How do you protect yourself from such attacks? If you had been stung before and suspect that this is what BPGH is attempting, you can simply always reply-all. There is a much better tactic. reply in private, but send an FYI email to everyone in sight. BPGH, thinking that he successfully blamed you will wait patiently for a solution. Again, if you solved the problem, send a private mail to BPGH, but FYI it to all the rest (you may also BCC, but if BPGH is an admin, he’ll see the BCC and understand that he’s in danger). After a few times, everyone will understand the true nature of BPGH.

In the martial arts we learn to use the opponent’s strength against him. This is an email martial arts maneuver.

PS — a scapegoat was the goat that was thrown into the abyss in the Ben-Hinom valley in Jerusalem on the eve of Yom-Kippur before the temple was destroyed. It symbolically purged us of our sins. The Hebrew name for a valley or in this case a ravine, is gay (gey). The ravine where the scapegoat was thrown is Gey-Ben-Hinom (named after the family who owned it) or shortened GeyHinom, which is the Hebrew word for hell.

– Dov Trietsch

Bob’s Last Word: Better advice than I would have given. I would have suggested the “Reply All” option. As Dov points out, that has the disadvantage of failing to prevent the next occurrence. Reply followed by Forward/FYI looks like a winner to me. – Bob