What a topic to start off the new year’s 2 on 1 Friday Blog Post with! It is my idea for it and I hope that my readers and Chuck’s will enjoy reading our takes on a topic that must ring bells to all of them. Please do go over to his blog too to read his.
I have been in Non Management, Lower Management, Middle Management and Top Management and have come across this phenomenon at all levels. Sometimes overt but, mostly covert. I personally have passed the buck, to the bottom, sideways and to the top without any shame and have also received the buck from all sides to know what a delightful pastime this could be in corporate life.
Passing the buck can operate in our normal every day life too, like it just happened to me which is what prompted me to come up with this topic.
My classmate’s grand daughter who lives in Gujarat, wanted to study in a college near where I live which offers a very expensive Liberal Arts programme. My classmate asked me to find out details and I was quite lost as I have had little to do with colleges for over a quarter century. I however remembered that another friend’s daughter had gone to that college and so asked that friend if she could talk to my classmate and she readily agreed. Both of them not only talked to each other but got the girls to talk to each other too! Just see how many bucks were passed! The girl in Gujarat talks to her parent, who in turn consults his mother, who talks to me, I talk to my friend, she talks to my classmate and also to her daughter and both the young ladies talk to each other too. At the end of it all, the decision maker continues to be the first girl in Gujarat who will decide one way or the other. Nobody else will be responsible.
Or take the Uber driver I had the pleasure of going with recently. He missed a pothole and jarred the vehicle so badly that I was thrown up and my head banged the roof of the vehicle. The driver, coolly looks at me and blames the Municipal officials for the poor condition of the roads.
I hope that you enjoyed reading my post, if not, I accept responsibility for the disappointment.
Indeed buck passing is a standard part of life – I chose the international politics sie for my tome – excellent topic choice to begin rhe new tear
Yes, as I had commented on your post, you took the macro route and I the micro. It was fun writing it though.
I’m not in the habit of passing the buck. If I’ve made an obvious mistake, I’ll freely admit to it. Politicians of course pass the buck all the time, it seems to be a job requirement. Their latest blunder was entirely due to the previous government, incompetent civil servants or an administrative error.
If there are any typos in the above, it’s totally your fault.
My sincere apologies for your typos Nick.
Being a lowly teacher, the buck always stopped at me, so I never learned how to do it. Nick, on the other hand, has demonstrated that he is an expert!
Ah, teachers. I hope that you will write about some of your buck not passing experiences in your blog. Should be interesting.
LOL!!!
on a more serious note in passing the buck… my husband had an old family story that his great great uncle or whomever it was… always had a real FEAR of riding in a car.
at the time of the story it was a model A or a model T. and when he was finally talked into trying it … the driver hit a pot hole (like in your story) and this old guy flew up and his head hit the ceiling of the car. his neck was broken and his first car ride ended his life!
so your Uber driver might have been a little more apologetic about hitting the hole and less nonchalantly passing the buck! if anything he could learn some simple manners… like “I’m so sorry! are you alright?”
but then that’s not passing the buck sufficiently I guess!
Those old cars had hard tops! Luckily for me, the one that I was in had cushioning otherwise I could have gone too! I have come across all sorts of cab and autorickshaw drivers Tammy and most of them are courteous and apologetic when something goes wrong. Like in other walks of life, here too there are oddballs.
Great story of your grand father in law.
Good start of the Year, Sir !
It’s the only way Patanjali Yoga suggests reducing tension and well being of the whole body!! and mind.. Unless all the limbs co-operate, one can’t be wholly oneself!!
Please , therefore, continue…
Nice to hear from you Jay. Why bring in poor Patanjali into our lives now? You have first hand experience of my passing the bucks to you!
The Blame Game as I call it and our pols out here are experts at it, always harping back to previous politicians.
I believe one of the few politicians who accepted responsibility was Harry Truman who had the big sign on his desk announcing “the buck stops here.”
I don’t believe in it myself tho I did do it a lot when little and blamed my brother for all my sins.
XO
WWW
I doubt very much that there can be anybody who has not blamed others for one’s one sins!
there’s another side to that coin which is to do with a poem – I’m pretty we’ve all met these kind of people in our lives!
https://allpoetry.com/poem/9326367-Everybody–Anybody–Somebody–Nobody-and-Someone-Else-by-YoungDumbCrazy
Catherine de Seton recently posted..New Start – New Year – Refresh
Indeed and thanks for bringing that old poem back to my mind.