The blame Game.

Something more or less happened at work today. Something to do with a student assignment paper that went missing. And the lecturer's been scrambling to find it, we've been scrambling to find it, some swear words were thrown in, some people got scolded as on our tick-sheet we marked that we actually received the paper. But considering it's a huge class of 400+ students, errors do happen.

Then eventually we had to do the last thing, which was to accept defeat, and call the student inquiring whether they have submitted their essay. Which turned out they did not hand it in. It was mistakenly ticked.

Okay, mistakes do happen, I agree. But the part that got me somewhat frustrated, was not the problem itself, but rather the attitude of individuals involved when we were scrambling for solutions.

I'm talking about the blame game.

And even in the end of it, one of them was happily singing to herself "It's not my fault, it's not my fault". Sure it's probably not your fault, but nevertheless, despite circumstances, I feel, that working in a office, being a part of a organization, mistakes are unavoidable, but it is how we work as a team to rectify mistakes in a timely and efficient manner.

Playing the blame game does not help. I personally think its a piss poor attitude to simply point the finger and do nothing to help. It lacks team spirit, it is not a first class mentality, it creates an environment of distrust, disunity, hatred and does not rectify the situation. And the awful thing, is that it not only happeneds on the ground level with people of low education, but all the way to the top.

I remember my dad used to say, in work politics its the same. It's a matter of learning how to dodge bullets and build yourself up by arse-kissing the boss. I think these kind of individuals are only building their career on shakey ground. As eventually they will fall, and its going to reveal all the mess that they have all buried inside. Kinda like the story of the tell-tale-heart. The grave would spring open.

I remember someone famous, a boss said about his worker, that the worker made a $50,000 mistake. But the important question was whether the worker learned a $50,000 lesson. Which the worker actually did actually learn from his mistake, and was a extremely valuable asset to the company from then on, making many times back from the mistake that he did.