This study examined employees’ perceptions of backstabbing in the workplace and an initial typology was developed for backstabbing incidents, perceived motives, and communicative responses. We employed thematic inductive analysis and unitizing to develop the typology and approached this study from the decoder's perspective (the target), whereas previous research on other negative behaviors in the workplace focused on the encoder's perspective (the perpetrator). Results indicated that active incidents (e.g., talked behind back) were more prevalent than passive incidents (e.g., withheld information), perceived motives were primarily self-interest (e.g., self-advancement), and communicative responses included interaction (e.g., confronted backstabber), action (e.g., left job), and inaction (e.g., ignored). Other responses were emotion and cognition. Demographics indicated that this phenomenon cuts across numerous organizations, industries, and hierarchical positions.