"Sure", he says. He'll fix the contact page on the website that's still showing the company's old address. "It's no problem, I'll take care of it", he reassures me one last time.

All happy I continue to work on other stuff. Delegating is awesome.

2 weeks later…

"Would you mind stepping into my office in 5?", big boss asks me. "Sure," I answer. "That contact page", he begins, "why is it still showing the old address? I thought you were gonna take care of that…"

Okay, my colleague obviously screwed me over…

"Boss, I asked [colleague] to take care of it for me," I try.

"Why didn't I know about this," he asks.

It's a valid question. I guess I should have notified him of me handing over the task to my colleague. Anyway, I call my colleague up to the boss' office to clear everything up.

"Yo, what's up?!" He says as he enters the office.

Hmm, that's already a little too relaxed for my taste.

"You were gonna take care of the contact page, right?" I ask him.

"…"

"Was I?"

Yup, he screwed me over.

I don't even bother with continuing the discussion. It's my mistake. There's two things I should have done:

1. Confirm via email
   Whenever you ask someone to do something, and that person agrees, send an email to confirm the deal. Be thorough and concise, and if possible, let him or her confirm that he or she read it. It's a simple two-minute task, but having digital timestamped proof, will save your life. It doesn't completely remove your responsibility, but your position will become stronger.
2. CC everyone involved
   Before sending it out, make sure to also include any person that is or might be involved in the situation. Whether it's your boss, your assistant, or a colleague who could potentially also be part of the process. Always CC. Whenever you let people know about changes in a situation, you involve them. And once they are involved, they carry responsibility and are able to help whenever necessary.

Oh, the things you learn in retrospect. I'm happy to have learned my lessons and even more glad that I get to share them here.

Hopefully, this article helped you out. You're very welcome to send me a tweet or comment on the article. I'm happy to hear about your experiences.