Turns out, increased face time has come with a side of finger-pointing, credit-stealing, and calculated sabotage. And while Gen Z and millennials are most guilty of these toxic tactics, even bosses are at it.

In fact, 2025 research from Resume Now found 61% of employees have been thrown under the bus at work, with nearly one-third saying they see it happen weekly.

As for who’s doing the dirty work? While no generation is blameless, Gen Z and millennials are twice as likely to be perceived as the ones pulling these moves, compared to boomers and Gen X.

Most of the 1,000-plus American workers surveyed said their peers are to blame for sabotaging their success. 

But even those put in charge of helping their young hires thrive are guilty of playing dirty to stay ahead. One in four workers say their manager has set them up to fail. 

It’s no wonder, then, that the youngest generation of workers is taking note, seeing this as the playbook for success in the corporate world. The survey revealed career ambitions and self-preservation are the primary drivers behind this toxic behavior. A staggering 40% surveyed admitted they’ve sabotaged a colleague to get ahead.

Watch out for these toxic tactics

Whether they’re coming from your boss or your coworker, the most prevalent workplace sabotage tactics highlighted by the report currently are:

• Blaming others for one’s own mistakes 
• Sharing negative information with leadership about a coworker 
• Withholding critical information that could help a colleague succeed
• Deliberately setting up a person to fail

“Rather than focusing on generational differences, employees should prioritize fostering a culture of accountability and support,” the report warns. “Open discussions about workplace expectations, values, professional ethics, and conflict resolution can help reduce these toxic dynamics.

“Blame culture isn’t just an occasional workplace annoyance,” the report continues. “It can damage professional relationships, lower morale, and create a toxic environment where employees feel they must watch their backs instead of working together.”

The report’s author, career coach Keith Spencer, says employees should document their contributions and be transparent with their wider team about what they’re doing at work, to avoid getting stung.  

RTO has turned sour, and now conflict resolution is a top skill to have

Bad behavior isn’t just back—it’s thriving.

Another 2025 study revealed “workplace incivility” has surged 21.5%, draining companies of $2.1 billion every single day in lost productivity. 

During the first quarter of 2025 alone, American workplaces saw more than 208 million instances of office hostility daily, including shaming, micromanaging, and gaslighting—and the researchers pointed directly to return-to-office mandates as the fuel for this toxic fire.

As workers are pushed back into physical spaces together, they’re simply being “exposed to more in-person interactions that will bring more encounters with and opportunities to act uncivil than virtual settings often offer,” Derrick Scheetz, a researcher at the Society for Human Resource Management, said in the report. 

It’s gotten so bad conflict resolution was one of the hottest skills to have in 2025, according to LinkedIn.

“Office politics can be unavoidable, but employees can navigate them effectively by building positive relationships with colleagues and supervisors and building strong conflict-resolution skills to address problems directly rather than letting them escalate,” Resume Now’s report echoes. 

Sabotaging probably won’t actually help Gen Z climb the ladder

The top reasons workers and managers alike are turning to dirty tactics are to get ahead, protect their reputation, and curry favor with senior leaders.

But sabotaging the competition isn’t actually the shortcut to success that people think it is. 

As Pano Christou, CEO of Pret A Manger, previously warned, backstabbing and office politics rarely pay off in the long run. Christou, who started his career flipping burgers at McDonald’s for $3 an hour, said that by focusing on being the best—without “shortcutting” his peers or “stabbing them in the back”—the promotions swiftly followed.

“I won’t stitch people up on my way up the ladder. And I think that has, over time, really reaped rewards,” he told Fortune. Having been promoted into positions where he was often managing people far more experienced and older than himself, it meant they “celebrated” his success—rather than feeling robbed and getting their own back.

Likewise, Kurt Geiger’s CEO went from cleaning toilets to running the Steve Madden–owned multimillion-dollar accessories brand by befriending his bosses—and making them look good.

“You don’t want to be there chipping away at your boss negatively,” Neil Clifford told Fortune. “You want them to be fabulous—you want them to love you and want to help you.

“I didn’t want to get them fired. I want them to get promoted,” he adds. “I’d rather step into their shoes than push them over the cliff.”

To that end, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy believes being someone others want to support is a major career accelerator. 

“I think people would be surprised how infrequently people have great attitudes,” he said. “I think it makes a big difference.

“You pick up advocates and mentors much more quickly,” he added. “People want those people to succeed—and it’s very controllable.”

A version of this story originally published on Fortune.com on April 8, 2025.

Read more on careers from Fortune’s Orianna Rosa Royle:

• Cisco’s top exec spent 25 years climbing the ladder at one firm—she tells Gen Z and middle managers ‘you just need to be patient’
• Steve Jobs used a ‘beer test’ for interviews at Apple—if he didn’t want to drink with you, you didn’t get the job
• This millennial quit her corporate 9-to-5 to pet sit for $70 per day. She ended up richer because she lives rent-free and gets to travel the world
• This ‘boring’ job that millennials and boomers abandoned is the hottest seasonal job on the market—and it’s Gen Z’s path to a six-figure career
• Gen Z watched millennials burn out at their desk—now 1 in 4 are ditching office jobs for trade jobs