Being Thrown Under The Bus: The Dilemma of Blame

This last week, I got pulled back into a Hewlett-Packard Enterprise ($HPE) news cycle. Last Thursday, the UK courts ruled there was fraud by Autonomy, their CEO and CFO related to its acquisition by HPE. When HPE wrote down $8.8 billion against the acquisition in 2012, HPE executive leadership got busy throwing HP staff under the bus to avoid being held accountable. The famous quote that caused me to grant interviews to the press back in 2012 was, “Those responsible for the Autonomy deal are gone.” Leadership action affected teammates I respected and who were not responsible for the CEO and the board’s poor decisions. I had to say something, and I did.

This week’s announcement caused the press, and others to reach out for my opinion. This caused me to reflect on HPE’s willingness back then to throw teammates under the bus to avoid blame. Thus the topic for this week’s essay.

Being Thrown Under The Bus

Some people are more than willing to “throw others under the bus” rather than take the blame for any mistake. The phrase “being thrown under the bus” has its origins in hockey. It was first used by player Eddie Shore to refer to someone getting stomped on by an opposing team member. The phrase later became popular in the business world, where it is often used to describe someone who others are…