Passing the buck might seem easy, until it lands in the wrong hands.

What would you do if your boss promised to take over a sensitive case, only to toss it right back at you when it got inconvenient?

Would you push back and remind them of their responsibility?

Or would you cover your own bases and let the chips fall where they may?

In the following story, one HR employee finds herself in this exact situation.

Here’s what happened.

No escalation needed – You got it

I work in HR, and recently, an employee called me with a rather serious concern.

One I could not fix due to legal regulations.

I explained this, and they said they needed the matter escalated to my superior, and they were considering taking legal action if it wasn’t addressed properly.

(Sorry, keeping it intentionally vague to ensure privacy & prevent repercussions for me)

I talked to my manager while the employee was on hold, they said they couldn’t take the call right then, but to escalate it to them via the email thread this employee had also started.

I explained this to the employee, they seemed reasonably happy, and I sent the email to my manager immediately after getting off the phone.

It took the manager a week to reply.

A week later, my manager responds to the email thread with the employee included, @’s me, and says they’ll have me handle this from here.

They never sent any other email.

They never did anything to help.

Just waited a week after it was escalated to them, and then immediately sent it back to me.

I responded to the email without including the employee and explained the situation again, reminding them why they said they would be handling it.

They told me that this was in my job description and that I had to handle it, as they didn’t have time.

They also said they never agreed to handle it.

The employee wasn’t happy and decided to sue.

So, I handled it.

I explained there was nothing we could do, again, and that I couldn’t provide them with any further assistance or escalate the case.

A few weeks later, we get a lawsuit.

Guess who finally steps in to handle the situation?

Too late, the CPO and President were already involved, and I was able to provide the supporting documentation showing my supervisor refused to take over & prevent a potential lawsuit.

They didn’t fire her, but she was removed from a supervisory position, so I call it a win.

That manager sounds like something else.

Let’s see what the people over at Reddit have to say about these types of situations.

Yes, a paper trail is always helpful.

Here’s someone else who saves the receipts.

Some HR people need to do better.

This manager was pretty bad.

She had it coming to her!

Glad the company discovered what she was doing, and they were able to help the situation.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.