Blaming and shaming at the workplace: How to stop making scapegoats
Scapegoating is all about letting someone take the fall for you
British novelist Daphne Du Maurier explained the idea of a scapegoat best, with a dash of murder-mystery and familial dysfunction. In her novel The Scapegoat, a depressed man named John encounters his lookalike Jean in France. They spend an evening, sharing drunken confessions about how meaningless their lives seem. The next morning, John wakes up to find his possessions and identity is stolen in his hotel room.
He is now compelled to play the role of Jean; a man with a host of fractured relationships and probably murder on his hands. Much to his shock, he has to play the role of a husband and a father, among many others.
John finds himself absorbed by the family, and tries to set about setting things right for them, something Jean was not able to do. Jean, on the other hand, has no plans of returning to his family, which includes a pregnant wife and a young child. The story doesn’t have quite a happy ending, but you get the idea.
That’s what scapegoating is all about: Letting someone take the fall for you, and not taking any accountability. Now think of it in your workplace situation, without the thrilling suspense of a British murder mystery involving misplaced identities.
What is scapegoating at the workplace?
Did your mother ever hit the table and say ‘bad table!’ whenever you knocked into it as a child and hurt yourself? It sounds cute; you would have felt relieved and returned to playing. The adults would pat themselves on a job well done. While this could usually be harmless, this mollification can have some severe long-term ramifications.
A person can enter the workforce with this kind of conditioning, but they can’t physically lash out because the consequences are larger, says Denis Murphy, life-coach, wellness expert and author of The Blame Game. So when they feel hurt or offended, they exhibit rather insidious and passive aggressive behaviours looking to get what they want or avoid getting into trouble. It can also stem from low self-esteem, and the fear of being in trouble with authority. This can be the result of strict parenting, or a childhood filled with fear owing to presence of authority figures.
In short, people tend to make scapegoats out of everyone else. You didn’t finish your work by the assigned deadline, but that’s your manager’s fault, you insist. You might have had a week to prepare, but your manager could have given you more time. Your co-workers distracted you from the task at hand. The excuses go on.
Ironically, people bond over these blame-game tales, explains Murphy. It fosters a feeling of group cohesion, like when several employees enjoy banding together to discuss how awful their manager is. It sounds like solidarity, but yet, most of the time, the end result is anger, misery and a lot of anxiety for everyone around them. Soon, the workplace resembles a warzone, where everyone has their ‘blame fingers’ ready on the trigger to fire at any moment.
Blame-game fosters a feeling of group cohesion. Soon, the workplace resembles a warzone, where everyone has their ‘blame fingers’ ready on the trigger to fire at any moment.
What is the root cause of workplace scapegoating?
Why does a person want to make a scapegoat out of another? It is a method for the person to use their means to channel fear, anxiety, resentment and frustration, says Rubina Malik, a Dubai-based strategic advisor, thought leader and motivational speaker.
There are multiple ways for them to express their fear, insecurity, owing to the fear of retaliation, office politics and an absence of accountability culture in the office workspace. In this rather unstable atmosphere that breeds fear and insecurity, a person lacks self-accountability. And so, they resort to blaming others to avoid personal responsibility.
According to Dubai-based psychologist Ritasha Varsani, people make scapegoats out of others, in order to vent their own personal frustration, try and feel superior and deflect blame, as they fear being in trouble. “It’s a form of defense mechanism. We all consciously or unconsciously tend to do it. It becomes problematic, when we realise how our actions affect others,” she says. “They don’t have to face their own vulnerability, and they tend to shift their blame onto others. It protects their ego. It helps them to be in that superior position, and it is a very dysfunctional method for the person..."
Scapegoating is a form of defense mechanism. They don’t have to face their own vulnerability, and they tend to shift their blame onto others. It protects their ego. It helps them to be in that superior position, and it is a very dysfunctional method for the person...
Competitive work environments are also to blame
Sometimes the rush to prove yourself can also be your downfall.
Highly competitive environments can lend themselves to a scapegoating culture - where employees are too afraid to expose themselves and hold their hands up when something hasn’t gone to plan,” says April Kearns, director at the organisation, Tish Tash Communications.
If this is a case, this is as much of a reflection on the employer as it is the employee, she adds. “The employer should be creating an environment where employees feel safe to admit errors in their work - a great place to start with this, is for visible leadership to openly admit when they could have done something differently or are in the wrong,” she says.
The employer should be creating an environment where employees feel safe to admit errors in their work - a great place to start with this, is for visible leadership to openly admit when they could have done something differently or are in the wrong...
When you are the scapegoat
Sarah James, a Dubai-based public relations manager, recalls rather bitterly a textbook case of being a scapegoat at work. “My manager would claim that she had not approved pitches, when she actually had. She would take all the credit when everything was okay, and then take no ownership when things went wrong, and she would never answer her phone, or read important text messages, and then claim that she wasn’t told,” says the American expat. This vicious cycle of blame-game led to James going through a long period of depression and anxiety, till she finally quit the job.
Melissa Drew, a Canadian expat and a school teacher based in Abu Dhabi, has similar past experiences. “I remember before a normal weekly test, one of my colleagues, a fellow teacher, made a mistake with one of the questions. It was for the ninth grade, instead of the eighth grade. Rather than acknowledging the error, she blamed me for the mistake, saying that I hadn’t proof-read the paper … even though that wasn’t my job, at all. It became a huge scene, and I had to keep defending myself, just because she didn’t want to accept her mistake of carelessness,” says Drew.
So are you someone’s scapegoat? If you find yourself being blamed for something that you didn’t do at work, then you’re a scapegoat. If you find yourself being singled out whenever something goes wrong, though these issues might have existed before you joined an organisation, then you are a scapegoat. You are one, if you find yourself facing flak for a mistake that isn’t even part of your responsibilities.
Is there a solution to the blame-game at work?
“Scapegoating in the workplace can do a number of things - it will either highlight systemic issues within a business structure, flag problems with capability, attitude or performance in general or draw negative attention to the person who is guilty of scapegoating - probably the opposite of what they were hoping to achieve,” says Kearns.
The solution isn’t so straightforward and neither is it black-and-white, as the responsibility lies at both the organisational and personal level.
“To avoid a scapegoating culture - accountability is a value that should be prioritised - employees who are accountable and confident in their own capabilities are less likely to blame others when things go wrong. Having employees who can review the situation, discuss it openly with colleagues and report back in a neutral way that doesn’t lend itself to the blame game, will make for a positive and successful environment,” says Kearns.
Here are some strategies for both organisations and employees to follow:
• Cultivation, and practise of empathy. People who make others scapegoats don’t practise mindfulness and don’t practise being empathetic towards others, explains Varsani. People need to have honest conversations with them, explain to them what the problem is, and get them to self-reflect. Empathy is for both sides, even if the other colleague is actually at fault. Try to see where the other is coming from, and see if they’re open to coaching, and being mentored.
• For managers, ensure openness in the office, and request regular inputs from your team. Ensure that people are not practising ‘groupthink’, where they worry about upsetting others.
• Organisations need to introduce training initiatives that focus on emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, and enhanced communication, can curb office scapegoating, adds Malik. “Enhancing these competencies in a workspace creates a culture of empathy and ultimately operates as a sturdy shield against a blame-shifting mentality,” she says.
Organisations need to introduce training initiatives that focus on emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, and enhanced communication, can curb office scapegoating. Enhancing these competencies in a workspace creates a culture of empathy and ultimately operates as a sturdy shield against a blame-shifting mentality
• Reframe perspectives. Instead of examining who is at fault, see where to go from here. Observe it as an opportunity to learn.
• If a person has been blamed unfairly, get the other to apologise and have an open conversation.
(Note: Published in August 2023)