How do I avoid becoming resentful?

[GoChasingWaterfalls]

I job share with another person, let's call her Sally. We each do 18.5 hours a week. Sally does the first half, I do the second half.

We work in Local Government. Sally has been there for years. We are mostly working from home. Sally is working entirely from home, having got Occupation Health to sign her off needing to go into the office.

Sally doesn't do a lot of work. She tends to pick stuff up on a Wednesday morning, make a half hearted attempt at it, then hand it over for me to finish.

Anything she does do, tends to be riddled with mistakes, which I then have to sort out.

Also, part of our role involves picking up cases and arranging meetings to discuss them. If she can, Sally will arrange the meetings on my days, regardless of availability of other attendees.

Every year, at this time of year, Sally goes off on long term sick. She stays off sick until her sick pay goes to statutory (we get several months full sick pay). She returns for a couple of weeks before taking all her annual leave. Then she returns properly and we're back to her half hearted efforts once more.

My manager is well aware of all the issues and I'm obviously not privy to all the details so I don't know why this situation is allowed to continue. It does seem laughable to me that we can predict with considerable accuracy what week in February she will go off sick but I am not in any position to do anything about it.

I'm so used to covering her work now, and picking up the bits she hasn't done properly when she is in, that the workload isn't really an issue for me.

However, I'm becoming increasingly resentful that someone is being paid the same as me, yet doing around 10% of what I do, if that.

I really love my job, and the rest of my team, so I don't really want to move on. But, wise Mumsnetters, how can I get out of this mindset that is making me more and more bitter the longer it continues?

She’s probably not a happy or fulfilled person if she has the ethic you describe. If the workload isn’t an issue, maybe focus on the fact that you deliver to the expected standard and still get paid whatever she does or doesn’t do.

It was trying during lockdown to hear furloughed colleagues moaning about how hard life was while being paid not to work - I’d have loved it! As it was, not being on furlough, we were paying for them to end up coming off bonus hols with money in the bank. Same with this woman and her sick pay, but what can you do?!

I'm sorry to hear that you're going through this.

Unfortunately you will need to decide whether to take some action or leave it be.

If it were me, I would be arranging a meeting with your manager to have a frank conversation about the situation and if your manager refuses to deal with it then I would talk to your union rep.
You shouldn't have to be re-doing someone else's work or picking up their slack as you have your own job to do. The scheduling of meetings into your time slot is unacceptable.

You may or may not know if Occ Health have been involved but they really should be .

The trouble is , people like your colleague tend to get away with it because no one wants to cause a fuss or offence.

I can really relate to what you have said ... it's soul destroying.

Thank you.

I hadn't thought about contacting the union about it. There is certainly an expectation now that I'll just get on with it. There's no money for temporary staff etc.

My manager is well aware of the issue. Unfortunately, being local government, it's not really her decision as to what happens as there's reams of procedure, HR etc.

I certainly don't think she is happy. She never joins any team meetings, engages in any team chat etc. One colleague has suggested to me that Sally would like to retire on the grounds of ill health but has been unable to do so for whatever reason. She obviously does not want to be doing the job.

I need to find some way of making peace with it all and that's what I'm struggling with.

A. Look for a new job and leave
B. Continue as you are but get more and more pissed off
C. Refuse to work anymore than your 18.5 hours and do exactly half the job. Cancel half of the meetings and rearrange them for when she is in. Go on sick leave when she does and tell your management team it's because you have been doing a full time job in part time hours with part time salary.

“Every year, at this time of year, Sally goes off on long term sick. She stays off sick until her sick pay goes to statutory (we get several months full sick pay). She returns for a couple of weeks before taking all her annual leave. Then she returns properly and we're back to her half hearted efforts once more.”

^What an utter piss taker she is.

I don't have any advice but I am in a related situation ( not as bad). I wish you well, the union is a good call.

Thanks! It's all so frustrating!