Work situation incompetent colleague

[Neodymium]

Need advice on work situation.

I was hired a few years ago part time for a technical type role. It was job sharing with another lady, and there was an older man who was also in the role - but he had 2 roles in the company. He is meant to work in our department 50% of the time and the other department the other 50%. Small department only the 3 of us there.

He is however using his 2.5 days of work in our department to do his 2.5 days work in the other department at a leisurely pace over the week. So his workload compared to others there is half.

My boss has told him that he is expected to be present in our department 2 days a week, plus extra half day as needed. I now also have a 2.5 day workload in the other department he is in, so we are employed the exact same.

He has to be reminded by the boss he is meant to be there. He comes over for a few hours and then leaves and no one says anything. Or he comes over and just sits somewhere and does his other work. The other day he came over and hid and had a nap. I left something in that room and went to get it and he had the light off and napping in the corner in a chair.

it’s now pissing me off as I work all my hours and then some plus manage my other workload which I often do at home cause I’m so stretched. It just seems like it is grossly unfair that he just gets away with it. the flip side is that he is completely incompetent and so even when he does work there he messes everything up. He also is pretty incompetent at the other job too, and could in no way handle if he was 100% in that department instead.

He just gets away with it cause he’s an older man and he’s pretty useless at both jobs. My boss also quite likes him so he doesn’t really come down too hard on him and defends him all the time. To be honest everyone feels abit sorry for him cause he’s kind of awkward and has a bit of a speech impediment.

i feel like if I take it further it will just cause my boss problems (who I do generally get along well with). Plus it just feels like I’m being mean to him. So I just don’t know what to do. equally I’m sick and tired of working myself to death to pick up the slack. (Leaving isnt an option for various reasons I won’t go into.)

and working loads of overtime to pick up for X.

I’m guessing you might work a manual job as one half of your role?
Do you get paid for overtime OP?

If you do, I’d be inclined to work at a steady pace throughout the day and do the remainder of the work (and colleague’s) at overtime rates. When your manager is permanently signing off overtime, he will be answerable to the next level/finance at some part. Meanwhile you are getting paid more?

@thirdfiddle no he’s doing the higher paid job over the week and doing nothing for the lower paid job.

my office is in the lower paid department building and his is in the other department building. So I’m there all the time and he is never there.

2 years ago another lady I shared with (who now has left) went to HR about it. HR send her to bosses boss. Bosses boss said would follow up with boss. Then incompetent colleague was told he needed to do his hours. And then he just never did. Boss tells him again and he says ok. And then just doesn’t. He knows that there is no consequences for doing nothing.

one option I’m considering is this new program where if you have an issue there is a group of staff who are trained that you can take the issue to them confidentially and they can then pass it on to the appropriate person to follow up. but im not really sure if that will achieve anything.

or just doing like him. Going on strike and letting it all go to shit. Problem is I’m on a contract for the higher role which is up for renewal soon 😬

Yes the lower job is technical work.

nope no overtime. I can accrue time in lieu (but only for the lower job - other one is salary) which I do sometimes but I tend to do the salary work more at home. The salary job there is some level of expectation that some of the work will be done at home, but I would do more than most and he would do none as he had plenty of time to complete everything

You have to stop worrying about the other lady. If you keep doing all the work then you will always be doing all the work. If you only do you work and it piles up your boss is going force the issue with the person not getting his work done. If the nice person you work with tries to do everything that’s on her, hopefully she will soon stop. You can solve this easily.

So he doesn’t do the in-house manual/technical work at all and instead does the more office based/higher paid work during this time?

Why can’t you accrue so much time in lieu that when you take it as leave eg three days at a time, he will be left go do all the lower paid work?

If you are worried that your other female colleague will be left to do it all, then hatch a plan for her to call in sick for a day or two. She might agree if she’s going to leave anyway? It doesn’t sound like she needs the job so may not depend on references?

Re the higher paid/salary job, it isn’t his fault that you are doing more than most other people either at home or in the office. It sounds like this role, although paying more on paper, may not be when you calculate the actual hours it takes to meet the requirements v the hours you are being paid for. This sept is giving both of you too much work to complete in the expected timeframe. I realise that you being on a fixed contract for this role means you want to meet if not exceed expectations but the company will know this is the case too.

*sept = dept.

@Wakintoblueskies no she doesn’t really need the job and could easily get another job elsewhere. It’s difficult to explain but I have to do both roles on all days. The higher paying job has set things that have to be present for at set times in the day, it’s not all just doing work whenever you feel like it. But yes I have done that previously. Just had enough and taken a few sickies before the end of year holidays and left him to do everything. He didn’t do anything and we returned after the break to a huge mess.

He's a Post Turtle. There's one in every office.

He didn’t get up there by himself, and nobody knows what dumb idiot put him up there.
Now he's up there he can't get down.
He doesn’t belong up there, he's been promoted above his level of competence.
To get him down, it's going to cause a world of pain for everyone unfortunate enough to have to deal with him.

So you keep following up with management. Don't just let it drop and say it doesn't work. If you go quiet, management think they've fixed the issue. Ask management specifically how they are going to check X is doing what he should, as you are not comfortable trying to manage a colleague.

Still think you should try for more exact subdivision of work, or some kind of logging of who's done what. As a last resort, could you and helpful colleague keep logs?

I think that’s the problem. Because I don’t keep complaining they think the problem is fixed.

I do like the idea of logging what we have done. Problem is for (me and her) that’s more work for us to do. I feel like it’s something that he should be made to do.

@daisychain01 that sounds like him.

he is also unbelievably forgetful. Hence why I don’t trust anything he does in the technical role. He is really only capable of the most basic tasks but he has a very inflated sense of himself and thinks he can do complex things.

the technical role is scientific. There are critical tasks that I don’t let him do, as he has a history of messing them up. Boss will even say sometimes did postturtle do this or you? Because he knows too.

boss says that everyone has different things they are good at different strengths and weaknesses, and that postturtle isn’t like other people who are average and some stuff and good at other stuff. He says that he is really bad at some stuff and really good at other stuff. The scope of things he is allegedly ‘really good at’ is a very subjective in my option.

Then if you're going to stay in this job, start batting it all back to him. Email back saying you don't have time to do both your own 50% of tasks and find your colleague to pass on messages, so can he please confirm which he wants you to prioritise.