How to deal with a coworker that throws you under the bus?

[Rondo2287]

I work in accounting and at my company there seems to be a constant struggle between sales and accounting.  Some of the other people in my department constantly talk about sales people messing things up and people in sales throw us under the bus to customers and to their superiors whenever they can. 

I don't engage in any of the office politicing, and whenever I notice a sales person making a mistake I shoot them an e-mail with a plan to correct it and dont place any blame, I always just kinda see it as we are all on the same team with the same goal and playing the blame game is a waste of time when you could just be correcting it.

I thought that me and the sales team had gotten over the bus throwing because it hadnt happened for a while, and I thought that my strategy may have rubbed off on them.  I get into work this morning and there is an e-mail to a customer throwing, "the accounting department" under the bus and the best part is that we didnt even make a mistake.

At this point do I just put up with it? is this just the way things are going to be? or is it worth saying something?

[Chris]

Well, what does it actually do when the accounting department gets thrown under the bus?  Does it affect you in any way from a business point of view?  Does it appease the customer? 

I definitely think it is something you should have open communication about.  You should talk to the salesmen, and find out what is going on. 

I would not be surprised if that is simply a sales tactic they are using to appease customers, by deflecting blame onto someone the customer will never interact with. 

Without knowing the details, its is tough to say whether it would be a fruitful tactic, or would just be putting the company in a worse situation by losing the trust of the customers.  But, the key is having open communication about it, so you know what their thinking is, and they can open the dialogue of whether it is a practice that is good for the company or not.

[greg683x]

I've never been into playing these games either.  People need to keep their insecurities to themselves or find a way to get over them.

My advice to you, hopefully it's helpful, if not I'm sure someone else will chime in....In the email that was sent out throwing the whole accounting department under the bus, I would respond in a very tactful way like youve done in previous emails and point out the real problem and explain why the problem was never in accounting, and just make sure that response gets sent to everyone they originally sent the email to begin with.

As far as stuff like this goes in general, I usually always keep my mouth shut and do my job, and do it right.  If someones throwing me under the bus, they can do it all they want, eventually someones gonna come to you and ask you to explain the situation.  Then you can happily do so, knowing youre not at fault at all.

[Rondo2287]

Well, what does it actually do when the accounting department gets thrown under the bus?  Does it affect you in any way from a business point of view?  Does it appease the customer? 

I definitely think it is something you should have open communication about.  You should talk to the salesmen, and find out what is going on. 

I would not be surprised if that is simply a sales tactic they are using to appease customers, by deflecting blame onto someone the customer will never interact with. 

Without knowing the details, its is tough to say whether it would be a fruitful tactic, or would just be putting the company in a worse situation by losing the trust of the customers.  But, the key is having open communication about it, so you know what their thinking is, and they can open the dialogue of whether it is a practice that is good for the company or not.

I think there is a good ammount of appeasement going on, but I am also in a customer facing role so I do work with alot of the customers over the phone and via e-mail.  Its just very frustrating for somebody who takes alot of pride in their work to get cc'd on an e-mail to a customer saying that I didnt do my job.  Its just not something that I would do.

[rickyfan3.0...]

You should try punching them in the face.

[bdm860]

I think the best thing for the “team” is for you to get thrown under the bus.

Now depending on what you do actually, it’s the sales people who the customers have a relationship with.  The customer isn’t signing up with the company so much as they’re signing up with the sales person.  I have experience in a couple of different industries like this, where the salesman leaves for a competitor and most of the accounts he signed up follow suit shortly thereafter.  If the customer needs something done, if they have questions, if they have problems, if they have concerns, if they need a favor, it’s the salesman they go to.  It probably helps the company more if they customer fully trusts them, rather than thinking they’re making mistakes.

Unless “customer satisfaction” is part of how you’re graded come review time, it really doesn’t matter, and I think you’re putting your pride in the wrong place to be overly bothered by this.  I mean it’s perfectly understandable not to like being blamed, but just realize it’s basically an unwritten part of your job to be blamed for problems, and don’t let it bother you too much.  Complaining internally to each other is just blowing off steam to others who understand your plight, I don’t know if I’d view that so much as politics.

Also again depending on how you’re company is actually set up, I would imagine the only boss you and the sales people have in common is the CEO.  There’s probably a VP of Sales, and a VP of accounting, and then there’s like 5 different bosses down to the sales team, and then there’s another 5 set of bosses down to the accounting team.  So even if the sales people complain to their bosses about you, it probably doesn’t affect you at all.  I’m sure your boss knows exactly what it’s like dealing with sales and is fully on your side for the most part.   Two different teams, two different set of objectives, two different set of goals, two different hierarchy’s, etc.

Now with that being said, it would be awesome if you have a great relationship with the sales team.  But letting them get thrown under the bus to the customer instead of you isn’t the best way to do that.

The one final thing I’ll say is, there’s a lot of good salesmen out there, but some are just jerks.  They only care about their commissions and nothing else.  They’ll gladly sign up the worst customer for the company, even if they know the company will lose money on them, just to get their commissions.  90% of the sales guys I worked with were good guys, but there were always that one or two that didn’t care about anything but their commission.  Dealing with them is just part of the job.

[indeedproceed]

I work in accounting and at my company there seems to be a constant struggle between sales and accounting.  Some of the other people in my department constantly talk about sales people messing things up and people in sales throw us under the bus to customers and to their superiors whenever they can. 

I don't engage in any of the office politicing, and whenever I notice a sales person making a mistake I shoot them an e-mail with a plan to correct it and dont place any blame, I always just kinda see it as we are all on the same team with the same goal and playing the blame game is a waste of time when you could just be correcting it.

I thought that me and the sales team had gotten over the bus throwing because it hadnt happened for a while, and I thought that my strategy may have rubbed off on them.  I get into work this morning and there is an e-mail to a customer throwing, "the accounting department" under the bus and the best part is that we didnt even make a mistake.

At this point do I just put up with it? is this just the way things are going to be? or is it worth saying something?

I sell and service insurance, and there is a lot of that in my business as well. Its frustrating when you can't control it (IE when say..a customer is changing cars with a dealer..dealer drags their feet with the paper-work, and says 'your insurance company couldn't get me the paperwork I needed'.)

And there isn't really anything to be done there. Do I go find that salesperson's boss and inform them what is going on? Well, that might get a minor reprimand for the sales person, but ultimately it might just as much taint my business's image to the whole sales team, and word of mouth is the very best motivator in screwing business in a small town.

In the end, when people are asking me about people, if I like them, I'll say, 'no, I haven't heard anything like that.', and if I don't I say, "Yeah, I've heard some things, but its not worth getting into..people just talk."

And on top of that I try to do my job well, so I create more positive experiences with my customers.

Rondo, in your situation, it looks like you're unwillingly playing the role of 'best buddy' to your Sales team while they blame all their problems on you to their GF. Since you aren't going to ever interact with the actual customers (or do you?), they figure that your PR credit doesn't matter, and it gets a problem off their plate. Kind of like when a buddy throws another buddy under the bus to their girlfriend, even though their buddy had nothing to do with it.

[Kiorrik]

I think the best thing for the “team” is for you to get thrown under the bus.

Now depending on what you do actually, it’s the sales people who the customers have a relationship with.  The customer isn’t signing up with the company so much as they’re signing up with the sales person.  I have experience in a couple of different industries like this, where the salesman leaves for a competitor and most of the accounts he signed up follow suit shortly thereafter.  If the customer needs something done, if they have questions, if they have problems, if they have concerns, if they need a favor, it’s the salesman they go to.  It probably helps the company more if they customer fully trusts them, rather than thinking they’re making mistakes.

Unless “customer satisfaction” is part of how you’re graded come review time, it really doesn’t matter, and I think you’re putting your pride in the wrong place to be overly bothered by this.  I mean it’s perfectly understandable not to like being blamed, but just realize it’s basically an unwritten part of your job to be blamed for problems, and don’t let it bother you too much.  Complaining internally to each other is just blowing off steam to others who understand your plight, I don’t know if I’d view that so much as politics.

Also again depending on how you’re company is actually set up, I would imagine the only boss you and the sales people have in common is the CEO.  There’s probably a VP of Sales, and a VP of accounting, and then there’s like 5 different bosses down to the sales team, and then there’s another 5 set of bosses down to the accounting team.  So even if the sales people complain to their bosses about you, it probably doesn’t affect you at all.  I’m sure your boss knows exactly what it’s like dealing with sales and is fully on your side for the most part.   Two different teams, two different set of objectives, two different set of goals, two different hierarchy’s, etc.

Now with that being said, it would be awesome if you have a great relationship with the sales team.  But letting them get thrown under the bus to the customer instead of you isn’t the best way to do that.

The one final thing I’ll say is, there’s a lot of good salesmen out there, but some are just jerks.  They only care about their commissions and nothing else.  They’ll gladly sign up the worst customer for the company, even if they know the company will lose money on them, just to get their commissions.  90% of the sales guys I worked with were good guys, but there were always that one or two that didn’t care about anything but their commission.  Dealing with them is just part of the job.

Nice, I concur.

I think you've done a good job trying to get along with the Sales people though. Keep doing that. Sometimes it's better to take the blame for something you haven't done, as long as internally people *know* it's not you.

Main thing: talk.

Communication makes or breaks a company.

[35Lewis]

Read the email. Pause. Go get coffee. Table it until the end of the day. Then write a reasonable response.

Or do nothing.

Sales people drive the profits and are often viewed as more valuable than the costly overhead that comes from back off processing.  I'm an accounting manager so I'm not saying that I agree with this thought process but I've been in my fair share of battles to know when to just let certain things go.

Sales people make the money for the company, and we find ways to appropriately run the company.  At the end of the day, if that balance isn't ruined then the problem isn't that bad.

[Kiorrik]

Oh and also; solve issues where you see 'm. Tends to work better than going around blaming people. So many processes within companies can be made better if people would just think towards solutions, as opposed to just pointing at problems.

But yeh, that's probably a major "doh".

[clover]

I wouldn't want to play the bad cop, with an incompetent label pasted on me at that, in my professional life.  But I think the only way to deal with it if you want to change it is to work with the sales guys in coming up with an equal or better internal excuse to feed to customers--or eliminate altogether whatever is causing the need to give the customers an excuse. 

You don't want to be seen as an impediment to the salesman-customer relationship or to overall company sales.

So I'd suggest some friendly brainstorming with whatever salesman you want to deal with immediately to see what even better excuse/cover you could come up with or, going to the root of the problem, way the company could stop whatever is leading to the need for such an excuse.  Perhaps you could approach it with some humor about your role when offering to come up with an even better solution for them.  I mean, they can't keep rolling out the same exact excuse, can they?

[Fafnir]

Well, what does it actually do when the accounting department gets thrown under the bus?  Does it affect you in any way from a business point of view?  Does it appease the customer?  

I definitely think it is something you should have open communication about.  You should talk to the salesmen, and find out what is going on.  

I would not be surprised if that is simply a sales tactic they are using to appease customers, by deflecting blame onto someone the customer will never interact with.  

Without knowing the details, its is tough to say whether it would be a fruitful tactic, or would just be putting the company in a worse situation by losing the trust of the customers.  But, the key is having open communication about it, so you know what their thinking is, and they can open the dialogue of whether it is a practice that is good for the company or not.

I think there is a good ammount of appeasement going on, but I am also in a customer facing role so I do work with alot of the customers over the phone and via e-mail.  Its just very frustrating for somebody who takes alot of pride in their work to get cc'd on an e-mail to a customer saying that I didnt do my job.  Its just not something that I would do.

If you have to interact with customers as well then you should say something about it internally. I'd be specific about it and ask them why they throw you under th bus. If its really just a tactic to get them to calm down then be prepared with an alternate tactic.

[indeedproceed]

Well, what does it actually do when the accounting department gets thrown under the bus?  Does it affect you in any way from a business point of view?  Does it appease the customer? 

I definitely think it is something you should have open communication about.  You should talk to the salesmen, and find out what is going on. 

I would not be surprised if that is simply a sales tactic they are using to appease customers, by deflecting blame onto someone the customer will never interact with. 

Without knowing the details, its is tough to say whether it would be a fruitful tactic, or would just be putting the company in a worse situation by losing the trust of the customers.  But, the key is having open communication about it, so you know what their thinking is, and they can open the dialogue of whether it is a practice that is good for the company or not.

I think there is a good ammount of appeasement going on, but I am also in a customer facing role so I do work with alot of the customers over the phone and via e-mail.  Its just very frustrating for somebody who takes alot of pride in their work to get cc'd on an e-mail to a customer saying that I didnt do my job.  Its just not something that I would do.

If you have to interact with customers as well then you should say something about it internally. I'd be specific about it and ask them why they throw you under th bus. If its really just a tactic to get them to calm down then be prepared with an alternate tactic.

Seconded. If they say its because you're incompetent, I suggest a 'ladder match' scenario.

[Chris]

Well, what does it actually do when the accounting department gets thrown under the bus?  Does it affect you in any way from a business point of view?  Does it appease the customer?  

I definitely think it is something you should have open communication about.  You should talk to the salesmen, and find out what is going on.  

I would not be surprised if that is simply a sales tactic they are using to appease customers, by deflecting blame onto someone the customer will never interact with.  

Without knowing the details, its is tough to say whether it would be a fruitful tactic, or would just be putting the company in a worse situation by losing the trust of the customers.  But, the key is having open communication about it, so you know what their thinking is, and they can open the dialogue of whether it is a practice that is good for the company or not.

I think there is a good ammount of appeasement going on, but I am also in a customer facing role so I do work with alot of the customers over the phone and via e-mail.  Its just very frustrating for somebody who takes alot of pride in their work to get cc'd on an e-mail to a customer saying that I didnt do my job.  Its just not something that I would do.

If you have to interact with customers as well then you should say something about it internally. I'd be specific about it and ask them why they throw you under th bus. If its really just a tactic to get them to calm down then be prepared with an alternate tactic.

Exactly.  It may seem cliche, but it is all about communication.  There may be a good reason they are throwing you under the bus, or they might not even realize what they are doing.

As someone who has been reprimanded for being a little too abrupt in emails, I can say from experience that you don't always realize how other people will read what you are writing.  Even if, to you, it is perfectly clear that they are throwing you under the bus, it may not register that way to the person who is writing it.  And, if they are a good employee, they should welcome the criticism.

As far as how to actually deal with it, that all depends on the dynamics and culture of your organization, and your relationship with the salemen, their supervisors, etc.  But, it is definitely something you want to deal with in a tactful way, in house, and most importantly, after you have had enough time to cool down.