How not to play the blame game while working from home
How not to play the blame game while working from home
How not to play the blame game while working from home
By Rachel Weingarten
April 29, 2020
Summary
One of the more challenging things about working from home during the COVID-19 crisis probably isn't the working from the home part, but rather managing your work relationships while you do.
A huge issue we've been hearing about is what seems to be people shifting the blame when things go wrong.
Placing blame on others when cornered isn't a new practice at all.
In March 2019, the U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health published a research paper titled "The effect of admitting fault versus shifting blame on expectations for others to do the same." The document authored by Elizabeth B. Lozano and Sean M. Laurent began with a quote from Roman historian Titus Livius who said, "Men are only clever at shifting blame from their own shoulders to those of others." As described in the paper, to avoid appearing blameworthy, people "Quickly point their fingers at anyone but themselves when something goes wrong."
Traditional blame vs. the work from home variety.
In the paper on admitting fault vs. shifting blame, the authors discuss something they refer to as "Downstream consequences" in which when something gets screwed up, the blame can continue to flow until it lands.
They also refer to another concept of "Blame contagion" in which once the blame starts, it can be hard to stop until everyone is blaming everyone else instead of working to fix the problem.
How can you avoid playing the blame game, especially when you can't see your coworkers face to face? Take time now to set up a solid plan for whatever needs to be accomplished moving forward.
"It is important that even while you are working remotely, you co-create these goals together and establish a way of working, so everyone feels comfortable." If you set up an action plan and even a contingency plan for what happens if everything gets messed up, Holst said: "The blame game can be avoided if everyone feels like they have a stake in what is going on, and their voice was heard."
If you do feel as if your colleagues or team has already started to blame each other, this might be a good time to hit pause.
Reference
Weingarten, R. (2020, April 29). How not to play the blame game while working from home. Retrieved May 1, 2020, from https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/how-not-to-play-the-blame-game-while-working-from-home