How to deal with colleague not pulling their weight

[Anasbananas]

I work in a small team of three, all working remotely, head office abroad and minimal contact.

We have tasks to complete each day and I often complete twice as many as one of the team members, yesterday it was 4 x more! Even allowing for slight variation in work rate it’s getting ridiculous and I’m exhausted. If I slow down the work just keeps building and this colleague doesn’t speed up. Our other colleague works at a more similar rate to me but is off at the moment.

I once tried to speak to them about sharing leave fairly and got a very difficult response, so I don’t feel I can speak to them directly.

What should I do? I am really starting to feel demoralised and tired. 😫

Speak to your line manager. If nothing changes, find another job.

I really don’t want to leave my job as it would be great otherwise.

I don’t know how to even start the conversation with my boss.

I know I’m a full grown adult but I’ve always struggled with what to say in these situations!!

Are there any extenuating circumstances at all? Nothing you're aware of?

If the work piles up, does it get noticed at the top? Is there any sort of tracker that flags the unequal work load?

It's a hard one to manage, if you've got any type of 1-1 or PDR I would probably bring it up. I'd be coming from the angle that you're managing your workload effectively but when colleagues are off, the same pace of work isn't happening, which impacts deliverables / work rate / output or however you want to phrase it.

Keep it about you when you speak to your line manage. Talk about the level of work you are expected to get through is leading to burn out and is too much; you can mention that you’d manage better with a similar work load to your colleague (that’s when you point out that she completes a half/a quarter of the work you do). Make it about you, the amount of work you are doing, the effect it is having with reference to the lower work load of your colleague. I know it’s not actually a power work load, it’s them working too slowly, but you don’t say that. You keep it about you. Suggest that some of your work could be spread to them as they are completing a lot less than you so it would even it up.

No extenuating circumstances I am aware of, though we were all moved to another department during a quieter period and this person didn’t cope and was removed from that department at their request. I guess it suggests they don’t find things easy for some reason!

I’m struggling personally myself after a significant bereavement so would love an easier ride myself, or at least a fairer one!

Our manager doesn’t seem to comment on our individual work rates, even though our work is counted I don’t know if they even check this. As long as the job is done they seem happy 😫

I will have a one to one in about six months, so will prepare for that.

Thanks for the helpful advice @keylimedog

Can you come at it from an overall resource perspective? So clearly you are working flat out and the team is not keeping up with the work, if everyone is working at their full capacity, what plan is there to bring more people into the team to get work done?

@Badassnameforadojo good plan!

I am one of those people who rambles on in a meeting, so will really have to prepare in advance and not fill any silences 😫😆

@Anasbananas Can the 3 of you have a daily meeting where you divide up the days taks/jobs?

Keep a written record of what each of you agreed to do and then end of week/fortnight, you can take that record to your boss under the guise of concern that X is not meeting daily targets and the extra work is passing on to you and Y so could they intervene and check if this is a training issue or a personal issue that requires help.

After that, report to manager every 2 weeks that again, X is not meeting daily targets and you are unsure how you and Y can help but that the tasks X is agreeing to complete are not being done etc.

If after 3 months there is no change, start a conversation with HR or the manager above your line manager.

Speak to your manager. Ask them to speak to your colleague to make her more accountable for her work. You shouldn’t be picking up the slack by yourself. If you don’t get anywhere with this conversation, then you slow down and work at the same speed as colleague and see how much work builds up. I would assume it would then be up to the line manager to complete the pressing tasks.

@katmarie unfortunately we are keeping on top of the workload, but only because I am working so fast!

I don’t think they would bring new colleagues in as three of us is adequate if we all pull our weight.

The problem with you seeing the pile of work and then killing yourself to get it done is that you’re hiding the issues. You need to work at a normal, acceptable level (work to your wage!). Don’t go as slow as her, but don’t go superhuman fast. Do a normal amount, make sure you’re still doing more than her and when the work starts piling up, you can go and show your manager that she isn’t doing her share and she is the reason.

The only other thing I can suggest is that you drop the rope. Dial back your work level to what is manageable for you and your health. Let your management pick up the pieces from that. If I was being petty about it I would keep my delivery level at something like 2% more than colleague was doing, if she does 10 tasks a day you do 11 or 12, so no one can accuse you of being the poorest performer on the team.

It's hard to do that, I know, I've been in jobs where the work keeps coming like an avelanche and you feel you have to go full steam to keep up. But you're risking burning yourself out, and you're doing that for a company who would in all honesty replace you like a shot if you dropped dead tomorrow. Trust me, I have literally seen this happen too. It's not worth the impact on your mental health to keep working at the level that you are at.

Is there a minimum number of tasks per person per day?

Is your line manager actively complaining the the quantity of work completed isn't enough?

If not, then, annoying though it seems to you, then it's not really a problem that needs to be solved or get worked up about. You say that the work is checked, and your rates are there to be checked by your management- but has anything been said that the team's output isn't enough?

You need to speak to your senior.

Personally if it was me, I'd just stop working as hard. You work to live, not the other way around.

Selfish attitude but being the 'hero' isn't getting you treated any more favourably.

Same here, we are a team of four and I do most of the work. Have spoken to manager who says she will take action and delegate work fairly but doesn't. One week I took 22 cases and colleague who shares my job took 2 ! Said colleague also takes twice as long as me to do visits which are part of our job and then disappears home ! Unbelievably she passed her probation a few weeks ago. It's really hard to know what to do if manager seems to accept it. i sometimes think I will just drop my level of work to match others but then so few clients would get the help they need ( charity ).

If a tasks come in when you are already working on one, can you skype/message them asking to do the next task as you are working on one?

Or each day message the person and say there are 6 tasks, which 3 do you want to do?

If they don't reply say you are working on these three so they can pick up the rest. If they ignore, email the tasks they are doing and cc your manager saying this.

No point trying to be nice, be clear on what each of you need to do and don't just pick up the work because they aren't.

Maybe you become proactive and divide the tasks yourself. Ask them what half they want to do and if they don't reply or ignore, you set them half the tasks. Email them the list and cc your manager.

While you keep doing the work then nothing will be done. Managers in general don’t care if the work is fairly split they just care that it is done. You running yourself into the ground will only impact on you and the people that care about you in the long run. I work with someone similar and I have no idea how they are getting away with it but I’ve made a promise to myself that I won’t do their work for them. It’s really hard if you’re a team player and/ or you care about your customers/ results but your health and wellbeing is more important. So sorry for your loss op

@Anasbananas can you not just divvy up the work at the start of the day and say they must all complete their dailly allocation? I certainly wouldnt be carrying her!

Does your manager know who is doing what? Or do the tasks just get done and they don’t care/cant or don’t see who does them?
If not, I’d be be signing off each task as completed by you and they’ll soon see that you are doing far more than your share.
As someone said, could you start each day with a group email or call divvying up all the days tasks?
If that doesn’t work, yes, go to the manager

Do the minimum work you need to do to pass the day. Stop killing yourself. Your employer doesn’t appreciate you and will let you burn out because it’s all about the figures and they don’t care who does the work so long as it’s done. Don’t be a fool.

So the "tasks" are all roughly comparable and for some reason you're the only one among your colleagues primarily oriented towards getting the workload as a whole done? If so, then sadly that's not a sustainable goal for you. Why don't you target doing a third (+x if you want to look good) of the daily load and make sure that's well documented. For the rest, as others have said, drop the rope. If your team falls behind you can point out you're already doing more than your fair share.

for me if each person does their role, then its upto management to provide extra workers, personally i prefer to do more but its a mix for some

What happens if all the daily tasks don’t get done? Does anyone care? Do they just roll over to the next day? Is anything time sensitive?

If there are no consequences for things not getting done then you have no problem, you just need to ease back a bit.

If there are consequences and you really are doing 4x as much as your colleague then you need to ease off, and stop caring but plan what to say to your manager when the inevitable fallout lands. Start highlighting that there is too much work, let your manager know that deadlines will be missed, ask your manager how best to prioritise what can get done in the day, escalate to your manager that other people will not be happy because things are not going to get done. Don’t actively moan about your colleague to them unless asked what you think is the problem and highlighting different work rates is an appropriate thing to do. You have to guide your manager to the conclusion that X is not doing enough.

Im a line manager and i once took over a new team with this issue. One team member did twice as much as the others, ended uo showing them hoe to do stuff and was very very frustrated. She apoke to me and I apent some time with each team member understanding their work load and pace and their skillsets. She was heada aboce the others, I made a case for her to get compensated accorrdingly and it was granted. I also uncovered that the slowest team member had a hidden disability that he had not disclosed, so got him appropriate access to work support. And a third team member just dis not know how to do certain things but had been too afraid to say. Needless to say the team was very unsettled and it took time to sort this all out. She dis end up leaving a year later but she was excellent at her job and our company couldnt match an offer she got from another, but I am glad we sorted the issues out and she left on a good note