September 09, 2004

CYA?

Donald Sensing says no one would put CYA in the subject line of a memo, so he doubts the authenticity of the Bush memo presented on 60 Minutes.

I used to work in the defense industry, but it's true everywhere: you can speak it, but don't ever put it in writing: The three little letters CYA (I'm assuming all adult readers know what they mean) indicate a failure to do one's job, and an effort to whitewash that fact. They would never be written in a memo which could be seen as evidence of incompetence or wrongdoing.

Posted by Joel Fuhrmann at September 9, 2004 09:51 PM
Comments

Sorry, I don't know what CYA means.

Posted by: Nigel B at September 12, 2004 05:54 AM

It means "Cover Your A--", and refers to the practice of covering up or hiding a mistake, or failure to do something properly. Certainly not something you would want to put as the Subject line of something which could be dragged out for public view.

Posted by: Joel Fuhrmann at September 13, 2004 03:11 PM