Resume Now Survey Reveals Widespread Workplace Culture of Blame-Shifting

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Table of contents

Key Findings
The Most Prevalent Dirty Workplace Moves
Why People Throw Colleagues Under the Bus
Generational Insights
Methodology
About Resume Now

A new survey from Resume Now reveals a surprising workplace contradiction: While 61% of employees report being thrown under the bus by coworkers, 73% claim they've never engaged in this behavior themselves. So, where is all the blame coming from?

The survey, conducted with over 1,000 U.S. workers, exposes a workplace culture of blame-shifting that undermines trust and collaboration. Alarmingly, 63% of employees have witnessed this behavior firsthand, with 29% seeing it happen at least once a week.

Blame culture isn't just an occasional workplace annoyance—it can damage professional relationships, lower morale, and create a toxic environment where employees feel they must watch their backs instead of working together.

Key Findings

61% of employees have been thrown under the bus at work, with 32% experiencing it multiple times.
Despite this, 73% claim they have never engaged in this behavior themselves.
63% report seeing this in action in their workplace, with 29% witnessing it at least weekly.
64% cite peers as the main culprits, followed by teammates (37%) and direct managers (26%).

The Most Prevalent Dirty Workplace Moves

The survey highlights the most prevalent tactics of workplace sabotage:

Blaming others for their mistakes (26%).
Sharing negative information about a coworker to leadership (21%).
Withholding critical information that could help a colleague succeed (10%).
Deliberately setting up a person to fail (6%).

What this means: While the survey highlights widespread blame culture, employees may benefit from taking proactive steps to protect themselves and build a healthier workplace culture. Strategies such as maintaining clear communication, documenting contributions, and fostering strong professional relationships can help mitigate workplace blame-shifting.

Why People Throw Colleagues Under the Bus

The survey reveals that career ambitions and self-preservation are the primary drivers behind this toxic behavior:

47% to protect their own reputation.
45% to avoid personal consequences.
40% to advance their career.
40% to gain favor with leadership.

Here's a visualization of this data:

Infographic bar chart depicting common motives for workplace backstabbing.

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What this means: Office politics can be unavoidable, but employees can navigate them effectively by building positive relationships with colleagues and supervisors, being transparent about their work, and building strong conflict-resolution skills to address problems directly rather than letting them escalate.

Generational Insights

Although some generations are perceived as engaging in blame-shifting more than others, nearly half of workers believe this issue exists across all age groups.

Gen Z (17%) and millennials (18%) are more likely to be perceived as engaging in this behavior compared to Gen X (8%) and baby boomers (9%).
However, nearly 49% believe that this behavior is consistent across all generations, suggesting it's a workplace issue that transcends age groups.

What this means: Rather than focusing on generational differences, employees should prioritize fostering a culture of accountability and support. Open discussions about workplace expectations, values, professional ethics, and conflict resolution can help reduce these toxic dynamics.

Looking for a change of scenery? Our Resume Builder can help you land a new role by creating or updating your resume to meet the standards of the competitive job market.

Methodology

The findings provided were gathered through a Pollfish survey conducted of 1,010 U.S. respondents on Feb. 3, 2025. Participants were asked about their experiences with workplace blame-shifting, perceptions of coworker behavior, and the frequency of being blamed for mistakes at work. Participants responded to various question types, including yes/no questions, open-ended questions, scale-based questions gauging agreement levels, and questions that permitted the selection of multiple options from a list of answers.

For press inquiries, contact Joseph Santaella at joseph.santaella@bold.com.

About Resume Now

Resume Now is a powerful resource dedicated to helping job-seekers achieve their potential. Resume-Now's AI resume builder is a cutting-edge tool that makes creating a resume fast, easy, and painless. Resume Now has been dedicated to serving job seekers since 2005. Alongside its powerful AI resume builder and stylish, ready-to-use templates, it also features free advice for job seekers at every career stage, guides for every step of the hiring process, and free resources for writing cover letters. Resume-Now is committed to supporting job seekers and workers alike and has conducted numerous surveys related to the experience, trends, and culture of the workplace. These surveys have been featured in Business Insider, CNBC, Fast Company, Yahoo!, Forbes, and more. Keep up with Resume-Now on LinkedIn, Facebook, X, and Pinterest.

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Keith is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and trusted media source in the career industry with over a decade of experience helping job seekers stand out.