Just had a boomer with 40 years of experience throw me, a 1 year vet in the industry, under the bus to our boss because I ‘took too long’ to do something so he couldn’t finish his work, even though I tried coordinating the handoff to him 2 hours before the end of the day.
Same guy who loudly listens to right wing talk radio (Glenn beck and Megyn Kelly of all people) from across my desk. The day after the kidnapping of Maduro I made some comment about being woken up to news of an invasion and the guy somehow got super defensive about it not being an invasion and US just taking a bad guy out.
Like, I’m always polite and personable but I just want to go mask off. I’m not going to throw people under the bus, and hell, if I did, I’d still get fucked. In a reasonable world my boss would be like, ‘dude you are a grown man complaining about the most junior person on the team’
But this will likely result in me getting fired for undermining the performance of the company. Fucking ridiculous man.
My advice, don’t go mask off. Accept the blame and ask what you can do to make it not happen again. It is unlikely they will fire you for a one time offense, however if you blow up over it, you’re done. It’s not fair, but corporate America is built on sadism and masochism.
Afterwards, anything having to do with this team member, document, document, document. Record meetings, only talk through email, if they want to run something by you, tell them to drop it in your inbox. Always have a paper trail. Never talk on the phone without a third party. These things are extremely tricky, especially with senior employees. The best thing to do is cover your ass.
And you can never call them out or blame them by name. But if they come at you again, you’ll be ready.