buck passing
Avoiding personal responsibility
Buck passing is shifting responsibility or blame to someone else rather than handling it yourself.
The phrase comes from poker, where a marker (the buck) indicated whose turn it was to deal—passing it meant passing the duty along.
There's too much buck passing in this office; nobody wants to own the problem.
The opposite sentiment appears in Truman's famous desk sign: "The buck stops here."
- blameAssign responsibility for wrongdoing
- blame gameCompetitive fault deflection
- shirkingAvoiding obligatory tasks
- deflectionChange in trajectory
- scapegoatUnfairly blamed person
evasion · responsibility · excuses · plausible deniability · dodging · hot potato · musical chairs · finger-pointing · pointing fingers · denial · avoidance · cowardice · weaseling · sidestepping · coverup · bureaucracy · red tape · runaround
- bureaucracybureaucracy, bureaucrat, bureaucrats, red tape, civil service
- accountabilityaccountability, responsibility, accountable, take responsibility, answerability
- runaroundevasion, dodge, sidestep, avoidance, stall
- Customer complaintshold times, wrong order, overcharges, lost package, late delivery
- evasionevasion, avoiding, avoids, evade, dodging
buck passingaccountability
Obligation for one's actions
taking responsibility · personal responsibility · stepping up · facing the music · falling on one's sword
buck passingthe buck stops here
Accepting final responsibility here
taking charge · moral courage · servant leadership · integrity · backbone
buck, pass, bucks, bucked, bucking, passes, passed, passing, passer