Upon Revision

this began as a rather mundane post about election day, but I am not really feeling that any more. I am however tired of the pass-the-buck attitude that permeates the work environment. People who fail to take ownership of their own responsibilities really bother me to no end. 5 minutes ago I was called in to review a letter. While reviewing this letter, and co-worker (supervisory capacity) volunteers "Did we ever write a thank you letter to ________?" Without going Bill Clinton on her, I wanted to inquire "What is your definition of 'we'"? Is this a royal we? Do you have a cat in your pocket? Now, I will leave it to the reader to guess who was assigned to create this letter:

(A)Perhaps the person who suggested the letter, and should be responsible for creating it?? Never.
(B)This person's secretary, who often creates letters for them?? Of course not.
(C)Me?? Ding-ding-ding

I hate when these people conveniently happen to mention work that needs doing in front of my bosses, when there just happens to be no one else around. It is obvious who is going to get stuck with the work.

If this were an isolated incident, it would be much easier to dismiss as a mere annoyance. However, passing the buck (PTB) afflicts the workplace in pandemic proportions. Bird-flu has nothing on this disease. I certainly understand a chain of command structure, and the fact that supervisors need to prioritize and delegate. I am not shirking my own responsibilities off onto others, or hoping someone will do my job for me. I do chafe at the notion of others trying to do so to me. The most galling aspect of this is when someone attempts to out-wit me to PTB. I am certainly one of the youngest people who works in my entire building, but I am also far from naive. When someone disregards me to the point where they feel they can use a simple ruse ot fool me, I get offended. give me some credit here. An example:

I have written an email from my boss to a person, directing that person to complete a task and return it to me for my boss' review. I have received the language directly from my boss, typed it on their computer, and sent it out with their permission. I have had the person who is assigned the task subsequently come to me, and tell me that I had been assigned this task, and was to complete it and give the finished product to them. I have then taken this person over to the computer that I wrote the email on, showed them the "error" that they made.

It makes you sick.