I HAVE no clue what to do. Almost two years ago, I was promoted to an interim position. I was excited and worked diligently in my new job, but what I didn’t realise was that most of my superiors were unethical. Before long, I was being blamed for things beyond my control; several hundred thousand dollars came up missing; and work grew unbearable. The stress put me in the hospital for two days. The persons responsible were quietly given a slap on the wrist or allowed to retire. I, on the other hand, was discredited.
Once my interim position ended, I struggled to find another permanent position in my company. I had too little experience to find a like position outside the company, so I was forced into a demotion of title, though not of pay. The new permanent position was similar to my old one. It was a great opportunity, and I was excited to accept it.
Then I found myself in a worse predicament than I was in before! Now I have a direct supervisor who is completely incompetent. It’s become my job to make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid, and to anticipate when he does, to avoid embarrassment.
No matter how well I do my job, he finds some way to mess things up. I then spend large amounts of time trying to clean up his mess, get him out of trouble with his bosses, and prevent his humiliation. He, in turn, tells everyone in the office I am to blame for what happened.
I became so frustrated, I started allowing him to do stupid stuff. Sure enough, within a month, he messed up so much stuff to the point he could lose his job. When I stopped cleaning up his messes, he tried to fix them and made them bigger messes. To top this off, he embarrassed his supervisors, and now they are coming after him.
My boss’s answer to the problem is to tell everyone everything is my fault. I have factually responded to every accusation. Usually, my boss does not deny what I have said, but tries to find something else to complain about.
Everyone knows he is a complete idiot. However, he is a complete idiot with over 20 years with the company, while I am still early in my career, and now have a disastrous Year Two to add to my resume. How do I bulletproof myself until I find another job?
Evan

Evan,
You took the new position thinking it was one thing, but like many jobs, your job has nothing to do with the position description kept by the HR department. Catch up with reality: Your job has been redefined and you don’t seem to know it; your job is saving your boss’s bacon.
Acting like a burro in the office is a losing strategy. If you allow him to fail, your boss will play Pin the Tail on the Donkey, and guess whose tail will get pinned? Yours. Don’t think others don’t know he is incompetent. They do, but for whatever reason, his job seems to be secure.
So, accept what your job really is, and consider how to perform it well. Exclude what you can’t do, and that includes changing your boss. People in the business world don’t accept “That’s not in my job description” as an excuse.
It’s a buyer’s market; not a seller’s market. There are a huge number of smart, highly motivated and desperate people out there. Many of them would take a job, even if their boss took all the credit for what goes right, and blames them for all that goes wrong.
If you stay with this company, you can let this go, knowing exactly what your new role is. If you grow skilled in this new role, you may be surprised by what opportunities open up, perhaps even within your present company.

Wayne & Tamara