Who's To Blame?

[D'kian]

When faced with the results of an error during work, throught my working life my reaction has always been "Ok, how do we fix this?" Once it's fixed I think "Why did this happen and what can we do to keep it from happening again?" Lastly I concern myself with who commited the mistake or who is at fault.

I stet this merely as a fact, not as an argument to prove anything.

My current boss does care first about how to fix things, but very often his solution is to kick the problem to a different deparmtent, or to a suplier, and make sure neither he nor his department will get the blame. I find this attitude incomprehensible.

Now, I undertand if someone keeps amking the same mistake aover and over, or if he finds new mistakes to make at every turn, and grinds the work to a painful halt, such a person probably shold be gotten rid of. But that's the only value I see in finding someone to blame, or finding the person responsible.

The boss' attitude has rubbed off on the department, too. Sometimes it seems as though everyone else is finding someone else to blame, rather than doing their work. All except me (again, this is merely a fact).

For example, we sell a lot to government agencies that have little discretion regarding their procurement process. So if a given agency wants, say, ice cream in ten gallon tubs, we either have to find it or forego selling them ice cream and whatever other foods they grouped with it (such as dairy products). Sometimes they want samples, and the samples have to match the requirements exactly.

Just today we needed vanilla extract in a 250 ml bottle. That's absurd, as extract only comes in tiny bottles a tenth that size. The customer wouldn't budge, so somehow we ahd to find it. The boss told me to dump the problem to the dried goods department. I did, but I also went shopping and found an acceptable substitute: natural vanilla flavoring in a 250 ml flask (it's amde of vanilla extract and solvents, water and alcohol in this case, plus coloring). Our dried goods people came up with 9 29 ml bottles, which is ridiculous and would cost ten times as much.

And the boss told me "When you get stuck with every problem in the office, don't look to me for help."

Now, his attitude may have some merit, though I doubt it. Still, I don't know all he has to deal with, but I think he's wrong. I should say that half the time I deal with such problems by calling other people and asking them for help. For example, another customer wanted juice concentrate in plastic-lined carboard containers (like those used for ultra-pasteurized milk, the kind that keeps unrefrigerated for months); only they would take mannufacturer's specs in lieu of samples. So I called our concentrate supplier and asked for specs (had he refused I ahd two other suppliers I coudl try). Other times I do knwo where to get the missing sample when the supply departments don't (it happens, I like shopping and have a good memory).

Many customers do ask for non-existent products or for things that are too hard to get because of scarce supply. The thign is government agencies procure goods through open contests, and if we don't get the samples they want we loose such contracts (which are really big). SO the way I see it is we have to secure the contract first, and worry about all else later. Certainly we should worry about who's to blame last.

[MichaelH]

Your post illustrates the difference between a reality-oriented mind and a politically- or socially-oriented mind.

Your response to the problem is to address the problem as it is. Your concern is fixing the problem. Your results are to produce solutions.

Your bosses' response to the problem is to make sure the problem isn't theirs. Their concern is who will be blamed when things go wrong. Their results are to produce problems for other people. (When done correctly, this is delegation, and a fundamental management tool. It sounds like your boss is doing it to a pathological extent.)

A few managers retain their reality orientation and focus on actually solving the problems brought to them. I have (and currently do) work under such managers, and they are a joy to have a work relationship with. It seems to be less common than it should, because management attracts politically-oriented minds.

[Castle]

I think that Michael is right except for the part where this is delegation. Passing it to you is delegation. Passing it out of the department is just obfuscation. You see the problem that "X = incorrect". He sees the problem as "There is a problem within my sphere of influence".

On a humorous note. My answer to "When you get stuck with every problem in the office, don't look to me for help." is "When I've solved every problem in the office, don't look to me for a job."

[JASKN]

Sounds like you need a new job.

Like MichaelH, I currently work under management that finds and fixes problems. That is what their explicit goal is as stated to the people to which they delegate work (me). Previously, I worked under "politically-oriented" management, and it was a daily battle of common sense versus various forms of appeasement and evasion. Super frustrating.

Do yourself a favor and search for better management to work under. It was night and day with my life.

[D'kian]

Thank you all for replying.

Due to the nature of the work securing such contracts (which is a yearly process, BTW), we've established procedures involving other departments. For example, when the reeuirements are published I send them to the dried goods dept., the meat and dairy dept. and the fruit and vegetable dept. They in turn suggest alternatives to some products, send questions regarding others, and ultimately give us the cost of each item. When we need samples, they also prepare them.

We then have one chance to make changes during a meeting with the customer (this is a highly formalized act where all participants attend at once). Sometimes we get the changes we want, sometimes not. Over the years I've developed a feel for how the various customers will respond to change requests. I say a feel because 1) the staff at the customers' changes often and 2) they act as much on whim as on reason. So there's a lot of uncertainty prior to the meetings.

I'm in charge of presenting samples to the customer. In the dried goods category (by dried goods I mean anything that's canned, boxed, bottled or packaged which requires no refrigeration) I know substitutes are either hard or impossible to find. If the customer wants boxes fo cron flakes weighing 960 grams each, I can get away with presenting two 500 gram boxes ( a 5% to 10% margin is common). But if they want preserved serrano peppers in cans of one kilogram, there's nothing I can do about it.

Now, my responsibility is supposed to be to make sure the various departments get the requirement on time to ask questions and proppose changes, to incorporate their questiosna dn changes for the meeting, to amke sure they gather and prepare their samples on time, to label the samples or to provide labels to the departments responsible, and to present the samples on time. Fair enough. But if a sample or three are missing we'll loose regardless of who was responsible.

Therefore I try to solve the problem. Granted the department in charge is most suited to solving it, but sometimes they can't and I can. Shouldn't I do so? The dried goods people rely too much on manufacturers' catalogs and websites. Sometimes they miss changes that havent' made it there.

I am looking for another job, yes.

[Zip]

D'kian, its a sad story for all the reasons above however I'd watch out for your boss...

"When you get stuck with every problem in the office, don't look to me for help." is exactly the response I would expect to hear out of a Jim Taggart type. When you do start to get every problem and solve them, and the higher ups start to notice this attitude will be most likely be replaced with resentment and possibly outright hostility from him and all his minions that are pushing their problems on to others.

Watch your back.