Sasha’s Story: When Blame Turned Into Respect

The Day Sasha Stopped Blaming Accounting

The Complaint That Started Everything

Sasha jabbed the print button harder than necessary. The supply order had been rejected again—third time this month. She grabbed the paper as it slid out, her jaw tight.

“Accounting,” she muttered to Cooper, who sat two desks over. “They reject everything. Do they even look at what we need?”

Cooper glanced up from his screen. “They’re probably swamped.”

“Swamped doing what? Saying no?” Sasha folded the rejection notice and shoved it into her desk drawer. “We’re trying to run a warehouse here. We can’t do that without supplies.”

She’d been managing the warehouse team for eight months now. The job was harder than she’d expected—inventory constantly shifting, drivers showing up early or late, and equipment that broke down at the worst moments. And now, every time she tried to fix something, Accounting blocked her.

The rejection notices always had the same vague language: insufficient documentation or not aligned with quarterly budget priorities. Never a phone call. Never a real explanation.

Sasha walked to the break room and poured coffee she didn’t want. She just needed a minute away from her desk.

The Meeting That Made It Worse

Two weeks later, Sasha sat in the monthly operations review. Her boss, Tammy, stood at the front of the conference room, clicking through a slide deck.

“We’re seeing delays in warehouse shipments,” Tammy said, eyes scanning the room. “What’s causing that?”

Sasha shifted in her chair. She knew the answer. They were short on pallet wrap, and one of their forklifts had been limping along for a month. The wrap request kept getting rejected, and the forklift repair was stalled in approvals after being sent back for reclassification.

“We’ve submitted requests,” Sasha said carefully. “But Accounting keeps turning them down.”

A few heads turned. Someone from Sales nodded in agreement.

Tammy frowned. “Have you followed up?”

“I sent emails,” Sasha said. “No response.”

Tammy made a note on her tablet. “I’ll look into it.”

After the meeting, Cooper caught up with Sasha in the hallway. “You might’ve just made Accounting your enemy.”

Sasha shrugged. “They already were.”

The Offer She Almost Refused

Three days later, Tammy stopped by Sasha’s desk.

“Got a minute?” Tammy asked.

Sasha closed the spreadsheet she’d been working on. “Sure.”

Tammy leaned against the desk. “I talked to Naomi in Accounting. She mentioned you’ve been frustrated with the approval process.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Sasha said.

“She suggested something,” Tammy continued. “She said you could spend a day over there. Shadow her team. See how they work.”

Sasha blinked. “Shadow them?”

“She thought it might help,” Tammy said. “You’d see what they’re dealing with. Maybe it clears up some of the friction.”

Sasha’s first instinct was to say no. She didn’t have time to sit around watching people push papers. She had a warehouse to run.

But Tammy was still looking at her, waiting.

“When?” Sasha asked.

“Next Tuesday. Seven-thirty. That’s when Naomi starts.”

Sasha nodded slowly. “Okay.”

The Morning That Changed Her Mind

Tuesday morning arrived cold and gray. Sasha walked into the Accounting department at seven twenty-five, holding a travel mug of coffee. The space was quieter than the warehouse—no forklifts beeping, no pallets clattering. Just the hum of computers and the occasional rustle of paper.

Naomi looked up from her desk and waved Sasha over. She was younger than Sasha had expected, maybe early thirties, with reading glasses perched on her head.

“Morning,” Naomi said. “Thanks for coming.”

“Thanks for having me,” Sasha replied, though she wasn’t sure she meant it yet.

Naomi gestured to a chair beside her desk. “I figured I’d just walk you through a normal day. No script. You can ask questions whenever.”

Sasha sat down and pulled out a notebook.

Naomi opened her email. “I usually start here. See what came in overnight.”

The inbox had eighty-three unread messages. Sasha watched as Naomi scanned the subject lines, flagging some, deleting others.

“How many of those are urgent?” Sasha asked.

“Most of them think they are,” Naomi said with a small smile. “But maybe ten actually need attention today.”

She opened a message from Facilities requesting emergency funds for a broken HVAC unit. Then another from Sales asking for budget approval on a client dinner. Then one from HR about payroll discrepancies.

And then—Sasha’s stomach tightened—a purchase request from the warehouse. Her request. For the pallet wrap.

Naomi clicked it open.

The Rejection That Suddenly Made Sense

“This one’s tricky,” Naomi said, reading the request. “Pallet wrap. Needed for daily operations. I get it.”

“So why not approve it?” Sasha asked, trying to keep her voice even.

Naomi pulled up a separate spreadsheet. It was dense with numbers—columns for every department, rows for every week of the quarter.

“Because we’re here,” Naomi said, pointing to a cell highlighted in red. “Warehouse spending is at ninety-four percent of the quarterly budget. We’re only halfway through the quarter.”

Sasha leaned forward. “We’re over budget?”

“Not yet,” Naomi said. “But if I approve this, you will be. And then I have to explain to Tammy why one department blew through their allocation early.”

Sasha felt her face flush. “I didn’t know we were that close.”

“Most people don’t,” Naomi said. “That’s not a criticism. You’re focused on keeping the warehouse running. I’m focused on keeping the whole company solvent.”

Naomi scrolled down the spreadsheet. “Look at Sales. They’re at one hundred and two percent. I’ve been negotiating with them for three weeks to defer some travel expenses. HR hit their cap last month. Facilities is barely holding on because they keep having equipment failures.”

Sasha stared at the screen. She’d never thought about it this way—never considered that Accounting wasn’t just saying no to her. They were saying no to everyone, trying to keep dozens of requests from turning into a financial mess.

“What about the forklift?” Sasha asked quietly. “We really need that fixed.”

Naomi pulled up another tab. “I saw that request too. It qualifies as a capital improvement under our policy—the repair crosses the capitalization threshold—so it runs through a different budget bucket. I was going to green-light it this afternoon.”

Sasha exhaled. “I didn’t know that either.”

“Why would you?” Naomi said. “You’re not supposed to be an expert in budget categories. That’s my job.”

The Flood She Didn’t Expect

Around ten-thirty, Naomi’s phone rang. She picked it up, listened for a moment, then grabbed her jacket.

“Come on,” she said to Sasha. “We’ve got a situation.”

They walked quickly down the hallway to a storage room in the back of the building. Water was seeping under the door.

Naomi pushed it open. The room was flooded—three inches of water covering the floor. Boxes were soaked. A burst pipe dripped steadily from the ceiling.

Facilities was already there, two guys hauling out damaged boxes.

“How bad?” Naomi asked.

“Could be worse,” one of them said. “Mostly old files. But we need to replace the pipe and dry this out before mold sets in.”

Naomi nodded. “Get me an estimate by noon. I’ll pull emergency funds.”

She turned to Sasha. “This is what I mean. I could’ve approved your pallet wrap this morning. But now I have to cover this. If I’d spent the money earlier, we wouldn’t have it now.”

Sasha looked at the water pooling around her shoes. “You can’t predict a flood.”

“No,” Naomi said. “But I can keep a cushion for when it happens.”

The Afternoon That Opened Her Eyes

Back at Naomi’s desk, Sasha watched her work through the rest of the morning emails. Every request had a backstory. Every approval had a consequence.

A manager wanted to hire a temp worker. Naomi approved it but flagged it for review next month.

Another department wanted new software. Naomi asked for a cost-benefit analysis and three vendor quotes.

Someone submitted an expense report with a missing receipt. Naomi sent it back with instructions on how to file for reimbursement without one.

“Do people get mad at you?” Sasha asked.

Naomi laughed softly. “All the time. I’m the person who says no. But if I said yes to everything, we’d be out of business in six months.”

By three o’clock, Sasha’s head was spinning. She’d filled half her notebook with observations. Naomi wasn’t the enemy. She was doing a job that required her to make impossible choices every single day.

“Can I ask you something?” Sasha said.

“Go ahead.”

“Why don’t you just tell people this stuff? Why not explain the budget situation when you reject a request?”

Naomi looked at her screen for a moment. “Honestly? I don’t always have time. I get forty requests a day. If I wrote a paragraph explaining each rejection, I’d never finish.”

She paused. “But maybe I should. At least for the big ones.”

The Walk Back to the Warehouse

Sasha walked back to her own desk just before four. Cooper looked up as she approached.

“How was it?” he asked.

Sasha dropped into her chair. “Eye-opening.”

“Good eye-opening or bad?”

“Both.” She opened her laptop and pulled up the budget tracker Naomi had shown her. Tammy had given her access that afternoon.

For the first time, Sasha could see exactly where the warehouse stood. Ninety-four percent. About half the quarter left. If they kept spending at the current rate, they’d be over by mid-month.

She thought about the pallet wrap. They needed it, yes. But maybe they could stretch what they had for another week. Maybe they could negotiate a smaller order.

And the forklift? That was getting approved. Naomi had promised.

Sasha opened a new email to Naomi.

Thanks for today. I get it now. Let me know if there’s a way I can help make the approval process smoother on my end.

She hit send.

Two Weeks Later

The forklift was fixed. The warehouse hummed along a little easier.

Sasha started submitting purchase requests earlier, with more detail. She included notes about urgency, alternatives, and whether the expense could wait. Naomi started responding faster.

At the next operations review, Tammy asked about warehouse delays again.

“We’re in better shape,” Sasha said. “We worked with Accounting to prioritize what we really needed. Some things got deferred, but the critical stuff is moving.”

Tammy smiled. “Good to hear.”

After the meeting, Cooper pulled Sasha aside. “What changed?”

Sasha thought about it. “I stopped assuming I knew what Accounting did all day.”

The Lesson: See the Work Before You Judge It

Cross-department complaints usually start with a simple assumption: they don’t care, they don’t understand, they’re making my job harder.

But assumptions aren’t facts.

The real issue isn’t usually the other department. It’s the gap between what you see and what they’re actually dealing with. From your desk, a rejected request feels arbitrary. From theirs, it’s one piece of a complicated puzzle they’re trying to solve without breaking the whole picture.

The solution isn’t louder complaints. It’s empathy built on understanding.

If you’re frustrated with another team, consider spending time learning what they actually do. Shadow someone for a morning. Ask questions. Watch how they make decisions.

You might discover that the problem isn’t with them. You might realize your own department is part of a larger system, and what feels like resistance is actually someone trying to keep that system from collapsing.

Once you see their challenges, your perspective shifts. So does your respect. And often, so does the quality of your working relationship.

Lesson Insights

Why Cross-Department Friction Happens

Most workplace conflict between departments stems from information asymmetry—each side sees only part of the picture. You know your pressures, deadlines, and constraints intimately. You know theirs only by reputation or rumor.

When a request gets denied or delayed, it’s easy to interpret it as obstruction. But in most cases, the other team is navigating their own set of conflicting priorities, budget limits, compliance rules, or resource shortages.

The Cost of Blaming Without Understanding

When you publicly criticize another department without investigating their situation, you create several problems:

• Damaged relationships: Trust erodes. Future collaboration becomes harder.
• Misallocated effort: You waste energy fighting the wrong battle.
• Missed solutions: The real fix might require changes within your own team, but you’ll never find it if you’re focused on blaming others.

What “Shadowing” Actually Teaches You

Shadowing isn’t about finding ammunition for your complaints. It’s about expanding your operational literacy.

When you watch someone else work, you learn:

• Their constraints: What rules, limits, or systems they operate within.
• Their trade-offs: What they have to sacrifice when they say yes to one thing.
• Their volume: How many requests they’re balancing at once.
• Their incentives: What they’re measured on, and how your request fits (or doesn’t) into those metrics.

This knowledge doesn’t just reduce conflict. It makes you better at getting what you need, because you learn how to frame requests in ways that align with their goals.

Best Practices for Reducing Cross-Department Conflict

1. Ask Before You Assume

Before concluding that another department is incompetent or obstructive, ask a clarifying question:

• “Can you help me understand why this was rejected?”
• “What would make this request easier to approve?”
• “Is there anything I should include next time?”

Even a simple question signals good faith and often reveals information you were missing.

2. Shadow or Observe When Possible

If friction is ongoing, request time to shadow someone in the other department. Even a few hours can shift your entire understanding.

If shadowing isn’t possible, ask for a brief walkthrough of their process. Most people appreciate being asked.

3. Document What You Learn

After shadowing or asking questions, write down what you discovered. Share it with your team. It reduces the chances that others will make the same assumptions you did.

4. Frame Requests with Their Context in Mind

Once you understand their constraints, adjust how you submit requests:

• Include timelines and flexibility: “Needed by X date, but can wait until Y if that helps.”
• Explain impact clearly: “This fixes a bottleneck that’s delaying three client deliveries.”
• Offer alternatives: “If budget is tight, we can defer Z.”

5. Build Relationships Before You Need Them

Don’t wait until you’re frustrated to reach out. Introduce yourself to key people in other departments early. A five-minute coffee chat can prevent a five-week standoff later.

When This Lesson Might Not Apply

This approach assumes the other department is acting in good faith and is constrained by legitimate limits—budget, policy, capacity, or competing priorities.

However, there are situations where deeper issues are at play:

• Systemic dysfunction: If the approval process is genuinely broken (e.g., no clear criteria, arbitrary rejections, excessive bureaucracy), shadowing won’t fix it. Escalate to leadership.
• Personality conflicts: If the friction is rooted in interpersonal issues rather than process misunderstanding, shadowing alone won’t resolve it. Mediation or direct conversation may be needed.
• Misaligned incentives: If departments are rewarded for opposing goals (e.g., Sales for revenue growth, Finance for cost control), structural realignment may be necessary.

In these cases, understanding the other department is still valuable—but it’s the first step, not the only one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What if I don’t have time to shadow another department?

You don’t need a full day. Even an hour can help. Alternatively, ask for a fifteen-minute phone call to walk through their process. Or request documentation that explains their workflow and decision criteria.

Q: What if the other department refuses to let me shadow them?

This is rare, but if it happens, escalate to your manager or a neutral party. Explain that you’re trying to reduce friction and improve collaboration. If they still refuse, focus on asking clarifying questions in writing whenever requests are denied.

Q: Isn’t it their job to communicate their constraints to me?

Ideally, yes. But in practice, they may not have time, or they may assume you already understand. Taking the initiative to learn shows professionalism and often accelerates solutions.

Q: What if shadowing confirms that they really are the problem?

Then you have specific, firsthand evidence to bring to leadership. But you’ll also have credibility, because you took the time to understand before complaining.

Q: How do I convince my team to stop blaming other departments?

Model the behavior yourself. Share what you learned from shadowing. Encourage your team to ask questions before assuming bad intent. Over time, the culture shifts.

Quick Reference Checklist

Use this checklist when you’re frustrated with another department:

• [ ] Have I asked clarifying questions about why my request was denied or delayed?
• [ ] Do I understand the constraints (budget, policy, capacity) the other team is working within?
• [ ] Have I considered shadowing or observing their work to see their daily reality?
• [ ] Am I framing my requests with their context in mind (timelines, alternatives, impact)?
• [ ] Have I shared what I’ve learned with my own team to prevent future friction?
• [ ] If the issue persists, have I escalated with specific, firsthand information rather than assumptions?

If/Then Triggers: When to Use This Approach

If you find yourself repeatedly frustrated with another department’s decisions, then request time to shadow someone on that team.

If a request gets rejected and you don’t understand why, then ask a clarifying question before assuming bad intent.

If your team is blaming another department in meetings, then pause and ask, “Do we know what constraints they’re working within?”

A Question to Consider

Think about the last time you complained about another department.

What would you have learned if you’d spent an hour watching them work?