(FORTUNE Magazine) – Dear Annie: I'm one of two people working in technical support at a software startup, and I'm tired of being used as a scapegoat. In the three months I've been here, I have been plagued by customer complaints about things I have no control over. One client wrote a scathing letter to the CEO about documents that were late, and it turned out that she had been promised that the documents would arrive a month before I was even assigned the task. Another client was expecting me on-site for a week, but management informed me otherwise, so now this customer is questioning my competence and doesn't want to work with me at all. Unfortunately, I have no one to turn to, since this is such a small company. My supervisor is a programmer who can't seem to defend his staff, there's no human resources department, and I'm wary of complaining to the CEO/owner, because the problems reflect badly on him as a manager. I'm looking for another job, but meanwhile how do I cope here? --Weary in Washington

Dear Weary: Management mistakes at a tech startup? Gosh. First we've heard of such a thing. Marie McIntyre (mmcintyre@mindspring.com), an author and executive coach in Monroe, Ga., who often helps fix dysfunctional teams, says that your first step should be to define these debacles as a business issue, not a personal one. "Focus on how all this negative feedback from customers is hurting the business, not on how it's affecting you personally," she suggests. "You're less likely to be seen as a whiner and much more likely to be listened to." Then attempt to enlist some allies. Is the other tech-support person running into the same difficulties? And what about discussing the situation in a nongriping, nonadversarial way with your supervisor and perhaps a sales manager? "It's safer and more effective if you can go to the CEO as part of a group and say, 'We'd like to talk with you about trying to cut down on customer complaints,'" McIntyre says. "Besides, your supervisor has probably been at the company longer than three months and may have more insight than you do into how best to approach the CEO."

This is one of those situations where how you say it is as important as what you say: "Describe the problem--'Customers are upset because we're not meeting their expectations'--without assuming you know the cause of it or are blaming anyone. Then describe what you see as the likely consequences--e.g., 'I'm afraid this will hurt our sales.' And finally, have a proposed solution ready, or at least a suggestion for the next step--perhaps something like 'I think it might be helpful for three or four of us to get together and look at how we deal with customers, and then get back to you with some ideas on how we could do it better.'" McIntyre adds, "CEOs do want to hear what's going on with customers. There are few people any CEO cares more about! But they often react badly if you just dump problems in their laps without any ideas about solutions."

McIntyre often asks her clients to clarify what their goals are. "Here you really have two goals," she says. "You want to fix the business problem, and you want to come across to the CEO as a constructive member of the team, not a chronic complainer." By the way, McIntyre gathers from your mentioning the lack of an HR department that you're used to working for larger outfits with clearly defined roles and processes. "After three months you may be just beginning to realize how different startups are from big companies," she notes. "But one advantage of a startup is that there are more opportunities to become a big fish in a small pond. If you approach this in a positive way, you may end up taking a leadership role." At least try it before you change jobs (assuming you can even find another one in this lousy job market). "Quitting is so often not a real solution," says McIntyre. "How do you know you won't run into the same problems or worse ones somewhere else?"

Dear Annie: Can a company enforce a noncompete agreement if it lays you off after just four months? Late last year I was recruited to move from one major consulting firm to another, uprooted my family to move to Boston, and then was laid off when my new employer lost several big clients. My old firm would take me back, but the trouble is, I signed a two-year noncompete agreement. Must I honor it? Should I get a lawyer? --Stranded in Beantown

Dear Stranded: Well, there are a couple of possible ways to handle this. One is to hire a lawyer to file something called a declaratory judgment action, requesting a court ruling on whether your noncompete is valid after such a short span of employment. "But why force the issue, especially when it could cost you $50,000 in attorney's fees and court costs?" asks Carl Khalil, a labor lawyer in Virginia Beach who specializes in noncompetes. (He has a website, www.breakyournoncompete.com, that you might find illuminating.) "The best course of action is to quietly go back to your old firm. Very likely your employer will not challenge you if you do." Of course, first talk to your own lawyer, but your erstwhile employer's attorneys would probably choose to look the other way, since the courts generally have sided with employees and struck down noncompetes on many different grounds, including getting laid off without cause after a brief stint with a company. In one Massachusetts case, Ikon Office Solutions Inc. v. Belanger, the judge wrote: "The court does not believe that [a two-year noncompete agreement] is categorically appropriate here when the time of employ ... was only slightly greater than one year." We can only imagine what he'd have said about four months.

Send questions to askannie@fortunemail.com. Annie offers advice weekly at www.askannie.com.