Incompetent CEO blames an employee for their screw up, so the employee pulls the receipts exonerating themselves from fault; CEO goes on "sabbatical": 'Funny how that works'

When you play the blame game in the workplace, make sure the person you're pinning your failures on can't summon receipts. Because when it comes to company follies, these days, any hardworking employee is smart enough to keep things in writing—not only to record their efforts, but to protect themselves from incompetent CEOs. 

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Author image for Jesse Kessenheimer Jesse Kessenheimer
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  • C-level bosses are notoriously useless. 

    Primarily, their function is to slake the insatiable thirst of the shareholders but hosting encouraging meetings and talking about ever-rising stonks. But it's the hardworking employees on the ground who do most of the real, tangible work. Without the lower-level employees, who would do the actual work? Well, after finding out their boss was utterly incompetent, this employee decided to keep a diligent record of the workplace benchmarks, ultimately using the receipts to exonerate themselves from blame after the CEO botched a huge client interaction. 

  • Cheezburger Image 10527821824
    via iJeab

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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  • "My boss tried to blame me for a client disaster, so I pulled the receipts"

    This wasn't my first time taking heat for someone else's screw- up. But it was the last. A few months into my job, I noticed something off. My boss, Carrie, loved delegation but only the risky stuff. Anything high-
    via UnoMaconheiro
  • profile and polished? That was all her. But the last minute fire drills? Always dumped on me, usually without context, and always when she was mysteriously "unreachable."
    via UnoMaconheiro
  • It finally blew up last Thursday. A major client presentation tanked. Slides were missing. Data was outdated. The CEO was in the room. Carrie looked me de d in the eye and said, "Apologies my associate must have sent the wrong version." She meant me.
    via UnoMaconheiro
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  • Problem was, I hadn't touched the deck. I'd offered to help earlier that week, but she told me she had it "totally under control." So I sat down, opened our project folder, and like magic found everything. Timestamps. Versions. Even a Slack message where she told me not to worry about it.
    via UnoMaconheiro
  • So I did what any accused employee with cloud backups would do. I compiled everything into a PDF, titled it "Timeline of Project Ownership," and quietly sent it to her boss with a short note: "Happy to walk through this if helpful."
    via UnoMaconheiro
  • By Monday, Carrie was "taking a leave to focus on personal development." I'm not saying I took her down. I'm saying she handed me the rope and then tripped over it herself. Anyway, I'm leading the next client pitch. Funny how that works.
    via UnoMaconheiro
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  • Valuable-Role-7264 Boss tried it. You ended it. Fuzzy-Big6664 It's good practice to keep all records.
    via Valuable-Role-7264
  • Longjumping_Sir9051. I always document everything because people want to take credit for your work. I always answer anything with a reply that includes a memo my orders, date, time, names of original contact, details. Keep it short. You just want to verify. Keep it short like bullet point. Or just keep a log.
    via Longjumping_Sir9051
  • Make sure is not in your work computer which can be erase. It's company property. I had people take credit for my ideas and work and took then from the computer and I didn't get paid or credit for it. The work was done during unpaid lunch on the company computer. Lessons learned.. I don't know how they got in without my password.
    via Longjumping_Sir9051
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  • Skipper114. Well done on standing up for yourself! I took down a whole top management structure from the MD to the branch manager when they pushed me too far.
    via Skipper114
  • VonShtupp⚫ I learned this the hard way while still a 15yo working her first job. I got fired for the supervisor's mistakes. After that, I used a notebook and calendar until computers, alpha/numeric paging, and email became a thing.
    via VonStupp
  • Today, everything is documented (there are tons project tracking apps and online systems. And every bit of communication gets a follow-up email.
    via VonShtupp
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  • It may take a bit of time getting used to always documenting on the app/emailing back. But once you get the rhythm, it ends up being a seamless part of your day.
    via VonShtupp

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