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Lazy work colleague and her 'PA' attitude

11 replies

Leakinglikeacolander · 19/01/2020 14:19

Recently got a part time job in a small café, there are 6 staff members but we generally only work 2 at any shift and mix up the rota so that everyone works with everyone over the month.
One of the people I work with is particularly lazy when we work together.
Any excuse to sit down she will, she makes a meal of silly jobs in order to get out of doing other stuff, if she can avoid serving people she will.
She has a habit of passing me an order while she chats, or asks me to do something while she pretends she's busy or she's 'having a quick break' On my first day I made an error on the till (it was no big deal) but she made a huge scene.
She points out anything she sees me do, I left a knife in the wrong place yesterday and she did a patronising 'Oops tut tut you left that out, don't worry I'll sort it, Tinkly laugh.
I'd be more efficient if I wasn't doing her job as well. I calculated the other week she'd spent 2 1/2 hours of a 5 hour shift sitting on her arse.
Everyone in the team is really nice, no one else has commented on her laziness so either they don't care or she only does it with me.
I would like to handle it in a dignified manner but she's driving me mad and I am irrationally irked by it all.
It sounds so bloody ridiculous, but

OP posts:
Leakinglikeacolander · 19/01/2020 14:30

I know it's boring but I'd appreciate some advice.

OP posts:
8by8 · 19/01/2020 14:37

You could ask your boss for a chat, then say you just wanted to understand the system - is X in charge when you work together? Or are you colleagues working together? Then you explain that X has been passing orders to you or asking you to do things for her - you’re happy to help out and you’re working well with everybody else, but you’re finding it difficult with X as you’re doing a lot of her tasks as well as your own and you’re not sure if that’s expected?

KingaRoo · 19/01/2020 14:41

I have the same problem but it's my boss that does it. No idea what I can do. She says she's busy so gives me her job to do as well as mine and then sits on the computer looking at fashion/sport/facebook. It's so irritating and right in my face!

So sorry no advice from me but sympathy in buckets!

Aridane · 19/01/2020 15:21

That sucks.

I wouldn't go the faux naive route suggested above but hold fire for a bit until you get the lie of the land

Graphista · 19/01/2020 15:32

“so either they don't care or she only does it with me.” Don’t assume that’s true. It rarely is

Take it to the boss. I’d actually be surprised if the boss doesn’t already know - they don’t need to be there physically to notice certain things.

I’ve been the boss in similar situations and I DID notice. Problem is it’s hard to fire someone for something so subtle and hard to prove so it takes time to build up that proof - but other employees formally noting their observations DOES help!

I would notice things like:

They were processing fewer orders than others (most modern tills staff have to be id’d on receipts/logged in to till)

This may seem weird and counter intuitive but if someone is very rarely complained about by customers - EVERYONE gets complaints sometimes because they’re not always down to poor performance you also get customers that love complaining so if they get hardy any at all that’s actually a red flag.

If responsibility for things like setting up till/cashing up is shared again who does it should be recorded and if they’re hardly ever doing that in comparison to others that’s a flag.

Seems overly simple but if they don’t know where items for the least popular jobs are kept! Eg the mop or how certain tasks should be carried out or how often (eg one job I had there was a piece of equipment needed a deep clean with specialised tools and cleaning fluids once a week - I noticed one employee was clueless even after 6 months of working there of how this task was done) - shows they hardly do them!

You get a feel for it if you’re a good boss in my opinion, and yes I know sadly not all bosses are good bosses! I hope I was.

Funnily enough a friend just shared a meme on Facebook the phrase is apt for this

Something like

“What puts off a good employee is seeing a bad employee tolerated”

Unfortunately true.

Graphista · 19/01/2020 15:34

@KingaRoo could you over boss' head? With evidence?

Most places monitor & record IT use now and frivolous use is usually picked up.

Leakinglikeacolander · 19/01/2020 16:10

Unfortunately we have no boss. Manager left.
We are all responsible for cashing up, shopping etc.
The longest serving member of staff has only been there since June. I think she may be aware of things but doesn't want the aggro.
I can appreciate that she and everyone else just want to do our crappy little hours in a crappy little café without any hassle.
I hate piss taking though.
I need to take direct action Grin

OP posts:
Leakinglikeacolander · 19/01/2020 20:10

Evening bump

OP posts:
Fizzypoo · 19/01/2020 20:24

Can you just not hand the job back to her in a faux nice way, ie sorry my lovely I'm a bit busy at the moment so can't help right now with a big smile and repeat each time. If she continues to make a fuss about a knife being put back in the wrong place just again put a big smile on your face and say oo gosh I'm sorry that annoys you so much...

wowfudge · 19/01/2020 20:29

Who owns the business? The fact the staff turnover is like this is likely to be because the owner is not taking an interest. If you've no manager there must be someone you can turn to if there's a problem?

Lllot5 · 19/01/2020 20:33

There must be someone in charge surely? Who deals with any issues that arise?
Wonder how much you are all being paid if you are all expected to cash up etc.

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