Problems with colleague

[adv1ceplease]

I have namechanged for this, as suspect that the situation may be identifying (so I will also be a bit vague).

This person (I will call them A) is very senior at work (same grade as I am, but more experienced).

I have been concerned about this situation for a while. A generally seems disinterested, and is really not effective, but as I said before, has been in position fo a long time. Their performance has deteriorated over recent years. There is a bit of a 'sniggering' attitude to A. The attitude generally from others is to say nothing due to the likliehood of A retiring (as they are in a financial position to retire in 2 years, but will not reach normal retirement age for a while)

The problem also is that A tends to fall asleep in meetings at work. This has been noted now by not only people within my department, but also people in other departments within the company, and also people from external organisations.

I was approached last week in confidence by someone from another department, who advised me that A is 'a laughing stock'.

Our managment structure is one where our line manager is very remote within the organisation, and approaching them about this would be viewed very negatively.

I have discussed with a couple of trusted colleagues whether A should be spoken to about the sleeping by one of us (the competancy issues are there also, but it would be very hard to bring that up). My reasoning is firstly that A might not really be aware that this behaviour is as noticable as it is, and also that there could be a health reason for this. If I was being discussed in this way by people I would want someone to tell me what I was doing wrong.
My colleagues think that nothing should be said, on the grounds that they hope the person will retire soon anyway.

What should I do?

It's probably difficult to comment or take any sort of action in relation to what I'm guessing is a collection of minor issues that result in the view that A is "a laughing stock" and unless a single significant thing happened I'd probably just want to let it go as part of the general winding down toward retirement. If there were significant issues that had to be dealt with, I'd think they'd have to be dealt with singly and there'd need to be a big effort to make sure it didnt come across as something personal/ character assasinating, as these things can do when the general problem is someone's attitude. If you think about it really, this is probably the sort of situation that's been allowed to slide for ages but noone has ever documented any problems in any way so the first time someone does it'll need to seem proportionate to what's on paper, not what everyone seems to know IYSWIM.

I think I'd treat the sleeping as a separate issue -a health concern. Again, I think it's worth wiping the slate clean from the point that you want to bring it up and only do so close to an event, maybe, "A, I noticed you fell asleep in today's meeting, are you feeling ok?" rather than making a non-contemporaneous statement about this frequently happening. A'd then have the chance to realise it was noticeable and change this, or at least then if you did have to mention it later as a more frequent problem, you've given a warning shot?

Not clear why you can't take this to the manager? As a peer, would suggest not appropriate for you to tackle. Managers paid to manage...

glimmerberry Thanks. Your advice is good, I think. I suppose part of my concern is that this person has been talking about imminent retirement for some time, which makes me less inclined to dismiss it as winding down to retirement.

The suggestion to tackle it by mentioning immediately after an incident is a good one. Hopefully less threatening than immediately referring to a string of incidents.

HomeEco Thanks. The line manager is so remote, and managing so many people, that speaking to them would be most likely ineffective, and perceived by A (and everyone else) as a declaration of war from me. From my perspective I'm trying to think of a way to supportively bring up something which is harming the way a colleague is viewed, rather than trying to manage them, if that makes sense.

Thanks for the advice

Fair enough if you're raising it to help them (vs trying to resolve something bothering you) they may not thank you for it though!
Wouldn't rely on retirement...with removal of retirement age, this is by no means certain

You are right, I wouldnt be thanked for it! Just feel that there is something not quite fair about not giving someone a chance to change something that is being so widely (and detrimentally) discussed.
I am bothered by the other stuff, but as you say I'm not the line manager, so I'm trying to keep the things separate in my mind.

I would say can you tackle it as a friend? You aren't their boss, but if it was BO for example would you feel you could mention it?

Ignore the other stuff (competence etc) as thats not your business and people get picked on randomly all the time (might be you next...!) for a few weeks before the group moves on again but the sleeping I think you could mention. Id suggest over a coffee or something outside the office and probably as a joke something like "Good night last night?" or "Heavens that meeting was boring I nearly fell asleep....did you feel the same?" Or something better....