Problems with colleagues and manager's handling of situation

[notsogoodhousekeeping]

Bit of backstory: I have two colleagues who do the bare minimum of work, and not even that sometimes. One has a mental health issue and the other is just lazy. They do enough when our supervisor is there, but as soon as his back is turned or he's on holiday, they start slacking off and taking time off at short notice, leaving the rest of the team to get the work done.

The rest of the team has repeatedly reported this but our supervisor seems reluctant to deal with it. The one with mental health issues is volatile at best and does not take well to criticism or perceived slights.

The atmosphere is appalling and it is having a huge effect on team morale. HR are not yet involved - I do not want to go over my supervisor's head but I cannot cope with the situation for much longer; it is making me depressed and I now dread going into work. I am actively looking for another job but this is a difficult time of year to be looking.

The situation has been going on for nearly a year now with no resolution.

Any advice as to how to proceed would be welcome.

[daisychain01]

Head down, get on with meeting your own objectives to the best of your ability and stay out of any of this noise that is a distraction. Just don't get involved.

Not your circus, not your monkeys.

Definitely stay well away from HR. That's a hiding to nothing.

[TrainAway]

What Daisy very eloquently said. Head down and avoid being involved.

Go in do your work, get out. That said, if you have email proof the the slacking off I would save that in my email filing. At my work we do 360 reviews, and we are encouraged to save emails like that, it's different in other places so make sure you are staying in the right side of your IT policy.

[notsogoodhousekeeping]

It's rather harder than 'get your head down and ignore' as we literally work as a team - without giving too much away we need to physically work together to get things done; we're not in an office. My supervisor is frequently absent and one of us will deputise. These two willfully ignore this and whoever's deputising will cop a load of attitude if they try to get them to do anything. We have escalated this upwards but to little effect.

Best crack on with the job hunt then!

[ButteredToastAndStrawberryJam]

You say one of you deputise when supervisor is sick. Why do this if you aren't getting paid for it. Who is telling you to do this.

[notsogoodhousekeeping]

Because someone needs to be point of contact when supervisor is away. We take it in turns. I requested it because it meant there was some formality if one of these two started pissing about, and someone has the authority to tell them that they have to do what the rest of the team is doing.

[ButteredToastAndStrawberryJam]

Sounds like a joke, same as the place where I work.
Where is the person that owns the company, or is it very large.
They take advantages of the people where I work too, leaving them in charge for no extra pay, the thing is though, if they didn't have the mugs doing the work for nothing, they'd have to get someone more reliable wouldn't they. I wouldn't worry about those two idiots, you get on with your job (for what you're getting paid for, not the supervisor role), production will drop, then who ever owes the business will soon notice the profits dropping, then maybe they'll do something about thing. If you all keep carrying the no mark supervisor, it'll never end.

[ButteredToastAndStrawberryJam]

Ps, those two idiots still aren't doing what you're telling them either way.

[notsogoodhousekeeping]

Ha! I know, it's utterly pointless. It's a big company but they are not renowned for paying fairly. I'm in an area where jobs are thin on the ground so it will take a while to find something new, but it's about time I moved up as well as on.

[ButteredToastAndStrawberryJam]

Good luck to you. I'll be moving on too, as soon as I can. They don't deserve good workers like us.