Colleague not performing - How to complain so boss takes notice

[HeartBurnt]

I work in a large team, and have one colleague who has the same work area as me within the team. The rest of the team do other stuff, so she's my direct counterpart. She has been there a lot longer than I have, but we have the same role.

It quickly became clear after I started the job that she is totally out of her depth and is doing virtually no work. We have a shared workload and she has been working on one project for over a year. I have taken on more and more projects, and people have started to request to work with me and don't even include her any more in their emails. As such, I'm quite in demand and very busy.

We have weekly team briefing meetings where we update our Manager on our progress, and her updates are always full of waffle, she blames others for holding her back on tasks, or pretends she's done something which I know she hasn't. I honestly don't know what she does all week. (We all work from home)

I have raised it with my Manager on several occasions. At the beginning of this year, I raised it formally, and my Manager said she was aware that my colleague was struggling to deliver, and she had told her to focus on her one project and to reject any involvement in anything else to prevent her getting distracted so she could just get her project delivered. Manager promised me it would be finished within 6 weeks. That was in January, and she still shows no sign of finishing it. The latest was she had a deadline next week to submit part of the project, and she announced there was no way she could meet it, and it wouldn't be done until December.

It is driving me nuts. I'm horribly busy, and Manager is trying to protect me by fully supporting me in turning down any extra work. But it still really pisses me off that I'm so busy while my colleague goes from week to week delivering nothing, and lying during meetings about how busy she is.

I tried to raise it again with my Manager last week, but she just brushed it off. I have a constant turmoil of wanting to complain, but not wanting to seem petty or vindictive. It's not really impacting directly on me, as I have my own projects to do and I won't take on any more - but it's just so galling that she's getting away with doing nothing.

I realise that my Manager is not at liberty to share any information with me on what is being done about it. She has told me in the past 'We are aware, and it is being dealt with'... but.... I'm not seeing any evidence of anything changing.

What rights do I have to complain about this? And if I do complain - how do I word it without it sounding like i'm just being bitchy?

My husband was the manager in this situation. I’m his case he was managing the person out of the business, but it took a good 6 months to evidence lack of performance. Demonstrating that what was being asked wasn’t being done, and proving that additional training hadn’t made a difference.
He found it very frustrating as he couldn’t tell others he was working on it so as not to prejudice the final decision.

I’ve been where you are and it’s frustrating but things were happening that I wasn’t aware of, rightly so. I came back from 2 weeks holiday to find my colleague had been dismissed. All yo can do is trust it’s being managed.

So what I’m saying is, just be because your manager brushed you off, don’t assume things aren’t happening behind the scenes.

You’ve made the manager aware now let them and HR get on with it

This. I’ve been the manager in this position and managing people out takes time!

If you are picking up their workload you can raise, but if your manager is pushing back on this work, or telling you to, then no you can’t.

You only really have the right to raise concerns about your own workload. I get how frustrating it must be to know that this other colleague isn't contributing, but ultimately, that's a problem for your line manager, not for you.

Be clear that you can't take on extra work in order to carry your colleague, but otherwise leave your manager to deal with it. Capability processes can take time, so it may well be that your manager is dealing with stuff behind the scenes.

In the meantime, focus on the impact that the situation has on you and your role, and raise those issues with your manager without complaining about the wider situation. Your manager already knows what the problem is.

You won't be party to your managers response to this.

They are aware and will be following performance management policies.
Focus on your own work and the support you need.

Just to also add, it is entirely possible that the manager knows information that you don't - poor performance may be a result of many factors, especially in long-serving staff (because if they were always poor at their job, you'd expect something to be done about it previously).

This really is a case of "you do you" - if your workload is too high, you focus on that, and you start asking for clarity on priorities and what can't be done. What other people do, or why, really isn't for you to comment on now. You have raised your concern, and there is nothing more you can or should do.

Ultimately it is none of your business. You need to tell yourself that galling as it may be that she works less hard than you, that could be the case for many people in your workplace. You can only get on with your own job. It is no longer impacting on you so you need to leave it alone.

I was in the exact same situation fully WFH with a counterpart colleague who had excuse after excuse for doing basically nothing while I was stressed to the eyeballs doing 90% of the work. Most of it time sensitive. I worked part time though and she was full time! I raised with my manager numerous times but colleague was a difficult character and they didn’t want to challenge her. Manager said if I continued complaining we’d both have to be in the office everyday so they could monitor her, as they couldn’t force her to go in and not me. The cheeky cow then got manager to say I should her a lift to the office as she didn’t drive so couldn’t get there! I resigned at that point.

IME nothing will be done unless you submit a formal grievance. You raised it in January, 9 months ago, more than enough time for an investigation to check her productivity. While someone’s doing the work they don’t care.

When I resigned I submitted a formal grievance as had nothing to lose (like you I was worried as being seen as a troublemaker) but I’d got to the point of not being able to stand colleague. She’d be ringing me on teams constantly pretending she didn’t understand what she was supposed to be doing and needed help. If I didn’t answer she’d ring 5+ times in a row. She was there before me as well.

I involved the head of the service and they did a formal investigation then which clearly showed I was right. Colleague is still there though but moved into my part time role!

Only thing I can suggest is to submit a formal grievance now before you get to the point of wanting to leave. I wish I had. I was basically forced out of a job I enjoyed (except for the workload) and I was very good at which facilitated me being around for disabled DC. It’s been impossible to find another fully WFH job and I’m still not working 6 months later!

It'd be nice to think that your manager is doing something behind the scenes but don't bet on it!
Imo people like your colleague are too hard to manage so weak management just leave them to it
I have one in my team, she does absolutely next to nothing and admits it to me, she's a one trick pony, can't do anything except one task, the management are aware, she's been complained about by other managers who she's supposed to help but let's down constantly.
She's loud and brash and I'm sure the management are frightened of her.
Sat in a meeting last week and our boss said he was giving her a new job title (pay rise will be automatic) I was actually floored.
She has no experience in our industry unlike my 30+ years, I'm slogging myself to death and she's "wfh" but doing her baking, taking the dog out, meeting friends for coffee, shopping.
Boils my piss

The thing is, you say it doesn’t impact on you, but surely in a way it does. If she wasn’t so crap, she’d be sharing more of your workload wouldn’t she?

Thank you everyone - you're absolutely right that I have to just focus on my own work and trust that it is being dealt with. Manager is aware, and Im not party to any measures they may be taking.

I know that other managers have also complained about her, and that important tasks are not being passed to our team because they know I'm overloaded but they don't want to ask my colleague to do it because it won't get done.

However, i do wonder whether my colleague pulls the wool over our manager's eyes at times. Some of the excuses she makes for still not finishing her project, are things that I know are not true. e.g. she told me that she needed to send an important email to find a piece of information, and that she'd do it sometime that day, then the following week she told manager that she was "still waiting for a response to that email, it's been weeks" and that was why she couldn't progress the project. I knew this couldn't be true. But what could I say? It would seem like petty snitching if i'd messaged Manager to tell her.

I just feel the need to know something is being done. I feel like she's totally getting away with it.

I have raised it with my Manager on several occasions. At the beginning of this year, I raised it formally, and my Manager said she was aware that my colleague was struggling to deliver,…

I tried to raise it again with my Manager last week, but she just brushed it off…

It's not really impacting directly on me

You need to drop it.

Your manager has clearly told you she’s aware of the performance issues. She’s been clear she’s not going to discuss the colleagues performance or what is being done about it with you. This is right and proper. She should not be talking to you about any performance management process as it’s confidential

You say manager is supporting you in keeping your own workload manageable.

If it’s not affecting you and work workload then you should butt out, and do as your manager asks and let her deal with this one

Yes and this is what DH keeps saying to me - the reason I'm so overloaded is because I'm doing 5 projects while she drags her one project along forever.

I can't imagine what it would be like if I had a competent colleague who I could share work with.

I have another colleague in a different team who is acting as my support, and who gives me backup and provides resilience e.g. if i'm on leave. My colleague should be doing that (and I would do it for her, if she actually had any work on)

You're right, I have to trust that she's doing what is needed.

But what about the incidents where I know colleague is lying to manager about the reasons she hasn't done something, or lying in general during out team briefings about how busy she is when she hasn't delivered a single thing? Should I just trust that Manager can see it?

When I managed someone like that it took about a year to get them out. I couldn't say anything to the team but definitely made sure we had team meetings where we discussed progress in a group so the team knew I was aware and pushing back, and so I had witnessed if it all went tits up. I'd be willing to bet that colleague will end up off sick with stress as part of the process too. It's a nightmare to deal with as a manager and honestly if your manager is protecting you she's doing about all she can.

I think you can respond to statements she's making in meetings, as long as you keep it factual.

Eg your colleague: "I can't finish this as I'm waiting for x to reply to an email".
You: "X replied to you last week".

Let the customers complain.

Worked with this girl in 2020 -zero memory, would take a call write it down and close note book in absolute utter forgetfulness of the request and worse not tell anyone - it was painful to know some one was being so destructive, the customers eventually wouldn’t stand for it or other team members being blamed when simply they were not working, took around 4 months for boss to get rid off as I suspect he started to receive more and more complaints and when they wouldn’t follow his re training he couldn’t afford to keep them at the risk of the business.