To report my lazy colleague to the manager

[Fedupoflazyones]

To give a bit of background, team of 9, one person been there years, ‘old school’ so of a time when there was no urgency to tasks, no thought about customer service etc.

Things move on over the years, I joined the team 5 years ago from another part of the company, myself and others have slowly turned the team ethic around to get ‘tasks’ done in a good timeframe. This ‘old school’ person rose to the challenge but as they’d been there the longest liked to hand out tasks for others to do whilst looking busy themselves.

This was reported to manager at the time and the role of giving out tasks was taken from her - she was told she, like the rest of us needed to contribute equally.

She didnt like this and has continued to quietly do as little as possible, it’s been brought up to manager on occasions, usually by me as I appear to be the unofficial spokesperson for the team. Manager tries give said person a gentle kick up the bum but they improve for a couple of days and it’s back to square one.

This week has been particularly busy - the ‘tasks’ we have to do, we are all goaled on getting about 25-30 of these done a day. It can vary as some tasks are more complex than others. The tasks build quickly if we have people off so it’s important to keep at them.

I clocked on the system that one day this week the person in question had done just one task all day and it was something that would have taken two minutes to do. We were already two staff down so the tasks were building quickly. The person has attended one meeting (same as us all) and the rest of the time, although tapping away on their keyboard must have simply taken an easy day with headphones listening to music whilst the rest of us battled to keep the mounting tasks under control.

Manager does not look at these numbers daily but we have to enter our numbers into a spreadsheet - it’s become apparent that this person always adds a few extra to their number. I’m waiting to see what number gets added for the day they did one.

I suspect Manager is already a bit sick of me / the team complaining about this person and would rather us all just get on with it (they aren’t around much) but it bugs me to the point I feel I need to leave. Then I think why should I leave? I love my job but it’s a bad egg that annoys the rest of us.

WWYD? Continue to bring it up each time it happens? I have evidence of a screenshot of the task completed, or just say nothing and worry about my own work.

If it’s not reported the manager won’t even know as they don’t delve into the system to check that the spreadsheet figure matches the system figure.

Another one taking offence at "old school" and that there was no urgency to tasks back in the day. I think despite all the "goals" that generally the standard of service has gone down not up.

How about starting to colour code or initial each task as they’re done? Get a few allies on board to do the same. Then present to manager, and say ‘look, you can see there’s an unequal level of work being done.’

We had this. I slowed down to match the other people
That resulted in tasks are now allocated, same amount per person but allocated by name
Easy to see who does and doesn't do them

Manager is way too busy with bigger fish to fry so as long as these tasks get done, they appear to not really care who does them

So let work mount up and leave it unfinished. Stop busting a gut to cover the workload of the lazy colleague, and let it become a problem for the manager so that they do need to give a shit about it.

Your colleague is right, they seem to be appreciated the same as you if they do 1 and you do 31. So stop doing 31.

Be careful op, the manager does know, just doesn't want to deal with it.

Are you supervisor/assistant manager OP? If not I would tread carefully. You have reported this to manager, it’s the manager responsibility now. I don’t know the culture at your workplace, if you go over your line managers head, how would this be viewed. Without being rude, I would either get on with my job, and mind my own business or look for another post. You aren’t being paid to worry about a colleague not pulling their weight, this is not your issue to solve.

This. If your coworker doesn't pull her weight it's up to your manager, not you, to sort it out.

Get the work divvied up so if she doesn't do hers it's obvious.

I did once have someone complain about me when i was only working on "one thing" and they had lots. mine was a contract worth over 50 million dollars. Their 5 added together were worth under 500k. Mine was hugely complicated involving legal stuff in 3 languages and a lot of negotiation. There's was literally booking warehouse movements and checking invoices.

Our boss just used to tell them to get on with their work and let me get on with mine. Which i did. And also theirs when they went on vacation. My work wasn't covered when i wasn't there. Such is life.

This is what I was thinking.

If everyone had their own tasks allotted to them it would be a lot fairer.

Actually yes this is something you could agree with your other colleagues that will be put forward as a joint proposal; that it will be motivating and help everyone take ownership and so on. I’m sure a manager would be hard-pressed to ignore it!

On a side note, as a manager I had to deal with what I think was a similar situation. On the surface it may have looked as though I was brushing aside concerns (I did try to make it clear I was listening and understood though) and not acting - but I had to go through a whole performance management process which of course was confidential. The point at which the “whistle blower” realised I had taken it on board was when the lazy colleague announced their departure. I’d have loved to have given them an inkling of what was going on before that stage but I simply couldn’t

Well that'll be your relationship with the manager down the toilet then

Surely, you all do your own tasks that you are able to do in a day. Falsifying the data won't work as it will be obvious what hasn't been done.

Then manager sees what hasn't been done and deals with it

Looks like yet another ageist thread - “old school”, “been there years”. God they are getting boring.

Agree if the op goes above her managers head to complain it’s a serious escalation and will put the managers back right up; if I was either manager I’d now be considering her a bully , be concerned, and also be asking her why the fuck she was sitting monitoring this woman’s work out put, that that was not her remit, nor what she’s paid to do, nor is it something they have asked her to do.

but also not bothered about ever getting a clear view as to the productivity of his/her’s line reports team

Actually, this is a fair point. If you are expected to complete a set amount of tasks and that’s all you are doing then you are not doing anything extra.

It is only your issue if you and coworkers are having to do extra on top of your own tasks.

Keep in mind that legally workplaces have to make reasonable adjustments for disabilities. There are hidden disabilities and due to privacy and confidentiality, management do not have to inform you of a coworker’s private personal information. It is possible that your coworker has an arrangement at work that has no impact on you nor is any of your business.

It's. A manager issue

Unofficial leaders in teams are just annoying, others nod along to their complaints but just want a conflict free life. Do what tasks you can comfortably do in a day, it's not your job to police others. If tasks dont get done then it’s your manager's responsibility. Your slow team member is right in a way, there's no point burning yourself out for a job, your company doesn't care

Agree with this. I think it would be a huge mistake to flag it to boss’s boss

The OP will though, through pure vindictiveness.

This is what I would do. I'd also accidently delete the spreadsheet and say to the manager oh what a shame let's just use the main system - it's more accurate anyway. But I'm devious.

I always found that work shy colleagues seem to get away with it, while others are just expected to pick up what they didn't do.

Haven't read all 4 pages (but all of OPs) so sorry if this point has been made already.
Seems to me there's 2 issues here.

1. Colleague's underperformance.
2. Colleague is committing outright fraud by falsifying her spreadsheets.

Complaining about the first issue us fraught with all the problems already pointed out. Alerting management to the second is a different matter altogether- and I agree should best be directed to OPs manager's boss.

Agreed. Op comes across as a smug bully.
She has no idea why this person isn't working at the same rate as her. She make actually have adjustments in place that allow this that are none of the op's business and the manager cannot comment on.
The manager knows what's going on, so either get on with your own work or find a new job. Preferably somewhere where you cannot bully other people

I agree should best be directed to OP’s manager’s boss

I do not think this would reflect very well on the OP at all. If I were the managers manager I would see more red flags with a team member tittle tattling over perceived shortcomings in their peers productivity level.