To ask your suggestion on how to deal with this colleague?

[SandraW3]

Recently a member of our team has left our company, leaving another colleague and myself in a branch sharing the work between the 2 of us.

I was quite excited about this as I got a small promotion and pay rise since my job has changed.

The colleague who is still here has been working for the company for several years.

She is lovely and senior to me, but pretty scatty and always ‘very busy’.

I have a very strong work ethic. I turn up, do what needs to be done, follow up, check and arrange what ever is needed to be done.

When our we found out that it’s just going to be the 2 of us we agreed that we will share the work between the 2 of us, however the majority will be done to me as she has a more important role in the company.

It’s been pretty crap the last week or so…
She has a laptop at home and constantly starts work before our working hours start, so by the time I turn up at work she had flagged up emails, answered emails I should have answered to and leaves things half done.

It leaves me feeling pretty stressed out to be fair. She makes me feel like I’m incompetent and feeling shit as she keeps banning on about how busy she is and that there are other projects she hasn’t had time to look at…

It’s only been a month or so since our team went to 2 from 3… and just to be clear I’m more than capable to do the job or ask for help if I needed.

I tried to talk to her about it, but I’m a rather direct person and I just feel like I can’t get my point though without offending her.

How do I go from here… ?

What is it you want her to do? Start later so you don’t feel bad?

@Bluntness100

What is it you want her to do? Start later so you don’t feel bad?

How about gets on with her own job rather than half-arsing OP's tasks and then complaining that she hasn't had chance to do her own "very important" job?

I don't have any advice OP, however I have worked with someone like this before and it's infuriating (thankfully she wasn't interfering with my work but I saw the effects on my team mates) so I feel your pain! In my case, it was because she wasn't particularly good at her job and would rather do anything else so that she had an excuse not to be doing what she should have been.

That makes no sense, they said they would share the work.

Giving her the benefit of the doubt, it might be just a matter of giving it time until you both settle into the new routine without the old colleague there.

I know this sounds a bit radical, but could you have a chat (or call a meeting) with your current colleague and tell her there's no need for her to answer all the emails and start tasks, you'll do it? She might just be worried things aren't going to get done with just 2 of you now.

Yes I think you need to sit down together and work out who does what.

@Bluntness100

What is it you want her to do? Start later so you don’t feel bad?

Aren’t you just a treat… 😂 I thought I might get some comments like this, literally just picking out of details instead of reading it as whole…

I don’t give a flying fuck if she starts earlier, but it would be great if she didn’t interfere with my work or if she does than see it to the end, not leaving it half done for me to sort out when I get to work.

If you really want to pick on things than may I point out where I said:

‘however the majority will be done to me as she has a more important role in the company’

My understanding was that I will delegate things. Send anything that’s relevant to her or new leads that would be under her job and I just get on with the rest. Again, very happy to do it, not an issue.

I’ve tried to talk to her 3 times now, but she is all nicey -nicey and ‘we’ll see how it goes’
She is a lovely person really is so I don’t want to be to ‘raw’ with her but flipping hell can she not just get on with her stuff instead of interfering with mine so I don’t have to listen to how busy she is and didn’t get a chance to to X Y Z

Spell it out in an email
Copy your line manager in, state
Please don't do x y z as a b c

@MickeyMouseEars

Thanks, I weirdly see some comfort in knowing that I’m not the only who has been in this situation. It’s a tough one. I don’t know why she does it… I may have to give it some time but seriously we are wasting time and it’s just making me feel super uncomfortable and stressed out. And I’m not going to turn up early to work just because she does it… makes no sense, I can do my job in the time I have…

@Ashitaka

Spell it out in an email Copy your line manager in, state Please don't do x y z as a b c

I don’t have a line manager… she is above me in pay grade and role (hers in a bit more complex and a should be a with a different clientele), after her it’s the director of the company.

If she chooses to start work early in unpaid time it’s her prerogative.

I wouldn’t advise anyone does this. If the work can’t be done during the working day then you need more staff.

You could have a word with her about how you see she’s starting work early and you can’t (don’t elaborate why not and don’t volunteer to do so also) so for fairness would it not be better to start work at the same time in order to share the work equally between you in the way previously discussed, rather than she feels she has too much?

Just be polite but every time she says "I don't have time to do x y and z".

Answer with.

"You didn't need to half do a b and c this morning as they are my tasks. If you leave them to me you'd have more time to do your role".

She'll either stop doing it or stop moaning because you just don't pity her and give her a solution.

IME people who whinge just like to whinge - they don't actually want absolution because they then have nothing to whinge about

I’ve worked with someone like this, it drove me mad. It used to take me longer to unpick and sort out the half-arsed job she’d done that it would have taken me to do the whole thing myself from the start.

She was definitely avoiding doing her own job by interfering in bits of mine and other people’s work that she need have no involvement in.

I think you have to learn to switch off when she starts banging on about how busy she is, empty vessels make the most noise, just completely glaze over and don’t even make any “uh huh” type comments.

That would totally make sense @Elieza however the problem with this is that she doesn’t always start early and when she does it’s sometime at 5/6/7am… I’m not going to start working at 5 am 😂 I also see her sending emails around midnight too sometimes.

The thing is, if she didn’t leave stuff half done and concentrated on one things, we wouldn’t feel like we need more time.

It’s busy, but I like it to be busy. The day goes faster and I just go through my list. Tick tick tick… great it’s time to go home. But with stuff left half done or just started and then she moves onto something else. It’s just 🤯

I'd drop her an email (so it's in writing) and say, "hi x, when we took on our new roles we agreed you would do a, b and c and I would pick up d, e and f.

I noticed on a couple of occasions you've tried to assist with my workload but haven't been able to fully complete the tasks.

Please don't feel like you need to do additional work to help me out, I am able to complete the agreed work within my working hours and I don't want you to have to complete more than your fair share of work"

@girlmom21

It’s been discussed a couple of times and I sent her an email last week but she didn’t reply she just came to talk to me. You know with the whole hee hee hee ha ha ha… and stupid excuses.

I appreciate that I’m being annoying now as whatever you suggest within the standard way of resolving, trust me I tried it. I don’t know what I can do. I guess at least I let some steam off here on Mumsnet…

@SandraW3 it's not you that's annoying - it's her!

I know this is a shitty thing to do but can you just tell her you won't pick up anything she's started so as not to tread on her toes - then let her trip herself up on things she's starting and not finishing?

Do you both report in to the director?

Start looking for another job.
You have been promoted, so you are capable but if the job is going to be unnecessarily stressful, start looking around.

In the meantime keep sendin the emails pointing it out, which she doesn't respond to.

That would surely be a HR red flag.

@girlmom21 yes we both report to the director, although my colleague needs to contact her more frequently due to her role…

I don’t want to go down that route but I think that will be my last option. I’ll give her some time until the end of the month and see what happens. I appreciate this was a change for her as well…

@billy1966… I love my job though. I don’t want to look for another one 🙁

Can she not do her own work from dawn until 9am or whatever, then you can dish out/do joint stuff between you?

The issue seems to be she starts early and complains she’s then no time to do her other stuff.

So if she started her own first, even in alternate days, job done?

If it’s actual things that are yours like you do a b and c and ages supposed to do d e and f but does them all , then she has to stop doing your stuff.