Lazy colleague - seriously getting me down

[RedSpatula]

I have a colleague who is seriously lazy and doing barely any work, and it's really getting to me.

We have the same job, and we are at the same senior level. We work from a central workplan, each being assigned tasks from it. She was assigned a complex task a year ago, and is basically doing the bare minimum and not progressing it. Because her task is important - our manager has told her not to take on any new work, and to drop everything else to just focus on it. But it's not working - she's still making no progress with it.

Meanwhile, I have been working on my tasks, and anything new that comes in is being assigned to me as I get things done. I'm getting busier and busier, while lazy colleague continues to do pretty much fuck all.

I think my manager is aware, and there appears to be some sort of performance management in place as they have weekly meetings to discuss her progress on the task. But it doesn't seem to be working.

I enjoy my work, and to be honest I am enjoying being the 'go to' in our team, as the new work that comes in is interesting and i'm getting lots of experience from it. But jeez it's pissing me off that she's doing almost nothing. It's not directly impacting on me as we have separate tasks, so her lack of progress on her thing doesn't affect me. But I think I'm getting a knock on effect as my work list gets bigger and bigger, with no sign of her sharing the load.

Can anyone recommend any coping strategies?

I honestly wouldn’t give it a moments thought, you say it doesn’t impact you and you think performance management could be in place so I wouldn’t let it get to me. If anything, I would take it as an opportunity to forge ahead with less competition.

Well the main thing to keep in mind is not to get your manager's job and end up having to manage her yourself, as that sounds like a nightmare.

I would flag up to your manager that you're concerned that the workload is increasing without referencing why. It sounds like you find the workload manageable for now, so it's not really impacting on you, other than just being super annoying, which I can appreciate. It sounds as if there's not actually enough work for two people? Also that her task isn't actually important given she's been at it for a year and made no progress?

I'd focus on making sure your contribution is known about and then forge ahead to get out of the department before your manager moves on.

Where I work the norm is to look for ways to skive work, what your colleague does is replicated many times by many people.

It is annoying, but I choose to focus on my own contribution rather than theirs. It's nice to be seen as the person who will actually do work and sort things out!

I would push back heavily on the fact you're getting busier and busier. Resist taking on the whole workload but don't make it about your colleague, talk only about your own well-being and capacity for taking on tasks. I've done this to great effect recently where I did a piece of work for a senior manager that revealed an enormous problem, that was my contribution but there was someone whose responsibility it should be to actually sort the problem out.

Once I'd finished my bit I insisted on handing it over, even though everyone would have loved me to continue doing all the work on it. You have that option - there is someone else they can give the work to. Don't let them make it your fault if things aren't done.

It may be that they are performance managing the other person. However in my experience they often aren't because someone else (you) is there to cover up the issue inadvertently. You might have to push them on that one by insisting about your own capacity to pick up work.

I simply can't imagine getting worked up about someone else's performance if it's not really having any impact on you. ("It's not directly impacting on me as we have separate tasks, so her lack of progress on her thing doesn't affect me."). Just push back if you are getting too much work to do yourself.

"Coping strategies"? Calm down. Not everything is to do with you.

I have the same issue but their lack of work does impact on my workload. It also means that the product we produce is not as good as it could be and concerns me that it could single us out for redundancy in the future.

I raised it with my manager who basically said it was none of my business and I'm not her manager. But my manager isn't managing her and it means I have more work to do.

I find it infuriating but the only way I've found to cope is to continue to do my work to a high standard as that gives me job satisfaction. And to work strictly to my contracted hours as otherwise I could be tempted to do way too much work to make up for her laziness and incompetence.

The real issue is with my manager who isn't managing my lazy colleague at all. Probably because she's lazy herself 🙄

Thanks everyone, you've helped me gain some perspective. I think it bothers me because it's unfair - her lack of performance impacts on others more directly than it does on me, and it also impacts on our team's reputation. But you're right - that's her and my line manager's problem not mine. Also it's the injustice of it that bothers me I guess - it's so unfair that she should get away with this.

Her failings do actually put me in a good light, and I'm happy that she's no competition to me. I have become the 'go-to' person in our team, despite her being in the job much longer than me.

The impact that it does have on me though is that I'm picking up more and more work because she's not picking up anything. So I do need to protect myself there, and speak out if my workload gets too much.

Focus on yourself & performance. Don’t complain. Quietly kick her arse with your productivity.

And it sounds like she’ll be dismissed if she’s on a performance plan and making no progress.

Yeah I don't know if she's on an official performance plan or whether it's unofficial 'catch ups' that she's having with our manager on a weekly basis. I can't really ask about it, so I don't know. Our company is notoriously bad at dealing with poor performance, I've never heard of anyone being sacked in the 20 years Ive been there.