Hello all - I started a new job a year ago, alongside a bloke doing the same role as me in a small team. Let’s call him Harold. Harold and I have the same line manager. Working with Harold was fine at first, and he seemed alright, but as time has gone on I’ve developed some concerns about Harold’s work; he seems to be dropping the ball quite a lot.
Some examples: sending confirmation to customers before being verified by senior management, not using agreed wording on correspondence (sounds small but in our industry it matters!), not managing his share of shared mailbox (even when marked for him), overcomplicating simple tasks, sending incorrect information to suppliers... the list goes on.
I have made mistakes myself and this is of course expected in a new job, but his attitude is weird - there was an incident where he uploaded a document incorrectly and breached data regs (basically shared an internal document externally). I noticed this and removed the doc quickly, then informed relevant staff as we’re supposed to when data breaches happen. He was sulky when our manager spoke to us afterwards about it and didn’t apologise or say thanks for fixing it. I realise he maybe was embarrassed, and I hate the feeling of making a mistake at work too, but I own up to it when I do and figure out how to avoid making the mistake in future. His response just seemed really childish.
I’m tired and frustrated at having to pick up the slack for him; at first I found myself trying to correct things and I really worried about this, but as time has gone on and motivation has sunk I just don’t care anymore. Our line manager has put effort into helping him, which makes sense because I think he has been struggling with the job, but I haven’t had much support myself and am feeling really demotivated.
It is made worse by the fact that our work is very stressful/high paced, especially at the moment. I wanted to talk to my line manager about how I’m feeling but even scheduling time to do this is difficult. And I don’t want to complain specifically about him because I worry it would be unprofessional and realise he might not be coping very well with everything at the moment (don’t know his personal circs) - but it is also negatively affecting me.
It is now getting to a point where I am thinking of leaving. I have another year on my contract and while I like certain parts of my job the bad stuff is much bigger at the moment. Things are only going to get busier and I’m not sure the situation will improve. Should I wait and see if it improves or try my luck elsewhere? Any advice would be gratefully received!