I'll never forget many years ago when I was working at another company.
A boss was being squeezed out.
No one knew it for sure at the time. But they sure did sense it.
Turns out his boss wasn't inviting him to some meetings, and then started leaving him out of more meetings.
Then colleagues of mine who used to suck up to this guy, started avoiding this guy.
Then began sucking up to those they thought might replace this guy.
Bottom line, the boss they thought was under fire, invariably did get fired.
He was out. And they were shocked.
Not because he was out, but because he was replaced by someone from the outside. So it turns out they had all been sucking up to the wrong guy!
I see this a lot, but it never ceases to amaze me.
Because it happens not only with folks at companies, but whole companies.
Take this GM mess. Once Washington's darling, now GM is the target tomorrow of what could be a nasty hearing. Because the carmakers' image is careening.
And so many GM friends are bailing.
Delphi Automotive the latest to say it warned General Motors about these ignition switches that apparently didn't meet the company's specifications.
Just like the un-named engineers reportedly saying they warned too but no one listened.
Look, I don't really know what's going on here.
I do know none of this finger-pointing is surprising.
It's human nature to want to cover your own hiney, even if that means kicking the very hiney you used to kiss.
Here's what I'm betting.
All of GM's bailout pals start bolting.
And start blaming not themselves for screwing up. But anyone but themselves so they don't end up going down.
Watch how quickly they turn on GM chief executive Mary Barra, who just months ago was Joan of Arc now getting set to be burned at the stake.
It's human nature for some humans to be worms.
But it's still wormy how quickly humans become worms.
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