As the title suggests, I’m constantly being asked to cover for a colleague who is always falling behind or claiming they’re “too busy” to complete their own work. They only raise it with our manager at the last minute, and because I’m the only person familiar with that area, the responsibility always ends up falling on me.
Originally, we worked in separate areas of the department doing the same type of work but for different clients. Even back then, this colleague regularly needed other people to step in and help. I’ve since moved away from client-facing work altogether and now mainly work behind the scenes handling finance, while she has effectively taken over my old role yet I’m still being pulled back in to cover the work whenever she falls behind.
When I worked in that role myself, I managed my workload independently and only ever asked for help when it was absolutely necessary. This colleague has a long history of relying on others to pick up the slack, even when we were on different teams, I was still stepping in to help despite it not being part of my role.
I have briefly mentioned before that this has been an ongoing pattern, but if I’m repeatedly being asked to step in and help, my own work ends up taking a back seat, despite the fact I’ve moved into a completely different role. I understand teams need to support each other at times, but this now feels like a recurring expectation rather than occasional support.
Even our manager has admitted they don’t understand why this colleague consistently leaves everything until the last minute. It’s becoming exhausting and incredibly frustrating to deal with.
If I get asked to cover again, do I just be honest and say this is a repeating issue and this happened before she joined the new client account? I'm very close to my manager.