How to tell boss that you think they need to pull their weight?

[manchestermadness]

Myself F33 and boss F39 work together and are employed to do the same job. I was employed to help her, basically. Company is small, 7 employees. Others in different department.

I only work 3 (sometimes 4) days a week part time and the days that I do not work she leaves a lot of admin and emails for me to sort on my return rather than dealing with herself, so some days I am catching up the first hour spent doing what she should of entered on our systems the previous day.

I am fed up of her constantly telling me to do this or that, when I know she is just scrolling Facebook or online shopping.

Here’s the thing… she is MD’s daughter. So I know this is why she feels she can get away with it.

We get on well, but deep down it does peeve me about her laziness at times. I feel like I cannot complain about her or too her, due to her being close relative to my MD.

WWYD?

If you’ve been employed to help her then surely there’s going to be an element of her delegating to you?

You don't. You just do the job you've been employed to do (which I assume doesn't include managing your boss).
If you're concerned about your workload, raise that issue. If you don't like the job or the atmosphere in the workplace, quit.

Well, she’s your boss and the MD’s daughter, so if you get on with her, I think you’ll have to put up with it.

With the whole dynamic of her being the MD's daughter, you are unlikely to get anywhere complaining about this. You probably have to suck it up or leave.

If it wasn't for that, I would say you just need to have a straightforward and frank word with her about it (as it sounds like she is above you but doesn't actually pay your salary/ hasn't employed you?) - but in her position - it's not likely to make a difference.

It's often a bit of a poisonous dynamic with family run businesses like this.

I think you need to deal with it or go elsewhere.

You are onto a loser complaining about her.

You can either accept this as one of the downsides of working for a small business or get another job.

Well yes, this is what a boss / manager does. However I am under it and stressed whilst she prances about like nothings going on. She just keeps piling her workload onto me.

Just to clarify, MD thinks we do 50-50

You cant tell her to pull her weight- it's not your job to manage her performance.

What you can do however, is talk about your workload. If you have too much work to complete in your working hours then that is the issue you raise. It might be useful to write down everything you do and the length of time it takes to complete to illustrate.

Thank you. This sounds like a good idea. I’ve been feeling this way for ages to be honest! But not known how to mention as I feel like I don’t know how to say it. But I think talking about my workload, rather than what she’s not doing is better. Thank you

Best thing to do is find a new job, it’s never good working for a family business if you’re not one of the family.

Have you a defined list set of projects each? Is this feasible? If you are looking after project A and she is looking after B, then you each have end to end responsibility for your respective areas, including admin.

If you’re able to agree to a task list for the week, with priorities, then maybe this will help. If you can’t do any of the above, you have little room for manoeuvre, given that you can't really complain about her and it’s such a small company. It’s not like you can go to HR…

How many days does she do?

Nothing good will come of you pulling her up. On the contrary...