..to be fuming with a new colleague?

[cupcaker]

I work in a relatively small, close knit team and about 6 weeks ago, a new team member started. He's not my type of person but he's pleasant enough.

He sits diagonal to me so he's directly in my vision from behind my monitors so I see that he basically spends all day on his phone - not just checking the odd message or whatever, but constantly on his phone and it's pissing me off no end.

I had cause to use his machine remotely the other day to test something and I left his screen up (this is allowed in our work before anyone starts having a go about privacy) - basically I saw that from 12pm to when he left at 4:30pm, he didn't do one bit of work, he was just on his phone and looking at newspaper websites - I'm not exaggerating, he didn't do anything, work-related, for the whole afternoon.

His work doesn't affect me, in that, if he's not doing what he should be doing then it doesn't directly affect me but at the same time, he's in our team and I feel he's taking the piss out of the rest of us and our manager. He's still in his 3 month probationary period.

I've moved my monitors to try and take him out of my direct line of vision but I can still see him and it's annoying as hell. Should I just mind my own business or should I do something about it?

Speak to your manager so they can observe him and maybe give him help if he's finding stuff tricky or have a word if he's just bone idle?

If you're not his line manager, and you say it isn't having an impact on your work, I would leave it to the line manager to deal with.

Six weeks is halfway through probation, and I would think long enough for the colleague to be reasonably well-oriented and have been given a decent amount of work to do. If they don't get it done, questions will presumably be asked as to why not, and why they didn't ask for help if they had a problem. Would your line manager usually take the team's views into account when conducting a probation review? If so, you'll get an opportunity to comment then.

You could try be-friending them a bit, and seeing if they need any help understanding any of your systems or processes?

Sure his productivity is so low his line manager must has noticed something is up?

I understand that it does grate to see someone taking the mick whilst the rest of the team are working hard, however as it doesn't impact your work I don't know how you can bring it up without seeming like thou are concentrating more on his work than your own (although I understand you cannot help this due t sitting arrangements).

He's supposed to be implementing a new system, setting it up etc, so he doesn't have set things he needs to do each day - as none of us have used this system before (including our manager), he can basically say its taking him weeks/months and we couldn't really say otherwise - this is why it's not really getting noticed by our manager that he's doing nothing all day.

I get what you're saying about leaving it to the manager, but if he can't see him..?

Definitely mention it to the manager, I have been in the same situation, and complained and it was dealt with. Everytime you notice them doing it go around to their desk to speak to them so they know you've clocked them too. Pissed me off no end when I was working hard seeing someone across fro me casually flicking through Facebook.

I would mention it if it is the amount of time you're suggesting (not that I'm saying your wrong), if it was just occasionly doing something non work related then I would say it's a bit hive and take and as long as he is doing what he is paid to do and isn't affecting anything than say nothing, but if he is spending hours doing nothing work related then that's stealing company time and excessively. If you mention it and your wrong then it will just mean your boss will have paid more attention but if your right then it's better then ifs better the company hire someone who can carry though on what they said at interview.

Can you ask the line manager to swap desks with you. Then either lazy chap will work harder or it'll get noticed?

That's the thing, our manager is really good, he doesn't mind if you check your personal email or step out to make a phone call or whatever, as long as you're doing your work - we all appreciate this and everyone really does pull their weight on the team, but this guy is shitting all over his good will and I'm resenting it on my managers behalf. I spoke to DP and he said that basically it's none of my business and that I have to just try and get over it/not let it affect me... but if I was manager, I'd want to know wouldn't you?

Leeloo i'd love to do that because then I wouldn't be able to see him either but manager likes where he sits at the top of the room, he wouldn't swap and it would look weird for me to ask him to

You posted on mumsnet at 11:56 on a Tuesday.....

I agree -it's none of your business. If it doesn't affect your work then butt out. Worry about your own work, not other people's.

I'm a few months into a new job and my workload is only just starting to pick up. I set up a new system but it took 2 months to go live and in the intervening time I had hardly any work to keep me going so just did lots of background reading on the Internet. I think till you know all the facts about his workload and what responsibilities his manager has actually given him you should back off

None of your business, and it's up to your manager to manage his/her team. Frankly, they don't sound like they're very good at their job.

pickly I was on my lunch (granted not at 1:45pm but that's what this person is driving me to) - thanks for your valuable input tho...

So opinion here is divided, much like myself I know it's irrational and really none of my business but it's just so annoying. Thanks for the replies anyway and letting me get it off my chest