This happened few years ago. Back then I had just graduated and joined a firm as Trainee. I was into Product Development Team along with couple of other gus and my manager (lets call him R) was least interested in work. He was the typical boss who always blames others for failures.

The product I was working on was developed by another manager ( call him S) who was heading a different department now. As a result any change I wanted to do, my manager asked me to go ahead and contact S. S on the other hand would help me depending on his mood even and he was not a very good person to work with either. S at times would get angry and ask why don’t I consult R and keep coming back to me for it. To this I would reply that I approach him most if the times I come here but R would always ask me to discuss with you (S) and if you agree he will also agree. S had this thing against R and wanted to pin him down whenever he got an opportunity.

It so happened that any change in te product would have to be informed, discussed and then ‘approved’ by S and then R would give his go ahead depending on whether S’s approval. To be honest R’s role in product development was ZERO. In addition R also did not like when I would directly contact S to save time and decision making. One fine day I had to discuss a change in one of the products and took the details with me informed R about it and requested him to accompany me so as to freeze the config then and there. When we went to S’s cabin, S pointed out multiple mistakes in my work. Since S was already waiting for an opportunity to pin down R he turned to him and asked how come there are so many mistakes in the work to which R directly started speaking against me before S. He said things like What have you done? Why don’t you pay attention to your work? Because of you i have to get embarassed and stuff like that. (To be really honest the mistakes pointed out could have been pointed out by somebody experienced only. On the other hand I was only like 16–18 months in the job.) R’s act left me embarassed . He not only did not take responsibility but also passed on the blame. Ideally he was my manager and I had no business consulting S. R being my manager I should have shown my work to him and he would be the one pointing out the changes and if required discuss with S.

But then the damage was done so I decided to be cautious henceforth. After couple of months, next set of changes came in the same product. I was determined not to go to S and not to repeat the same mistake again. So i went to R and told him about the product change. R as usual, asked me to go to S and I denied that. I told him I want you to review the changes before we go to S.

What R did not know was that I had committed a very deep and big mistake purposely. I knew R would not catch this one. So R tried to act smart and reviewed the change for the sake of it and okayed it. Further we were to discuss the change with S. R and me went there together and as expected S pointed out that mistake before me and R. As usual, R tried pushing this stuff on me(ofcourse I am to be blamed for the mistake I did on purpose) but this time I was determined to give it back to R. Below is the conversation as far as I remember.

S to R- so why have you have added XYz component in this. This won’t be given in the said config and you should know this

R to me- Why have you added this component? Don’t you know what S is saying?

Me to R- Sir I am new to this job and team as good as a fresher. I do not have any authority here. The things I have done are per my knowledge and I am ready to rectify my mistake. That is exactly the reason why I had discussed this change with you before coming here and you had okayed it.

R (in shock)- Yes, but in this case its your fault

Me to R - I agree it is mine but then t was overlooked by you too. By any means I am not to take any decision on my own. I am in this organization since almost 1.5 years. You on other hand have completed more than 25 years, so how can I make a mistake and you couldn’t point it out.

S who was listening and enjoying the conversation broke in. He came to know that this was done purposely by me but did not break that out. Perhaps he was enjoying it coz he wanted to pin down R.

After our meeting S Called me up and told me, “I already know you did this on purpose but yes i understand why you did it and so I did not want to spoil the fun. I was enjoyin R getting exposed.”