would you raise this or does this sound petty

[Cheshireicecream]

I work as part of a 2 person team. colleague and I do identical work. over the last year, she did less and less. I am a workhorse and just cracked on with stuff that needed sorting and felt I do much more but wasn't too bothered. Anyhow, last week I decided to pull the figures from the system and I do about 4 times as much as she does (it's easily quantified, no idea why I didn't raise it before and why manager never raised it. I guess since the work gets done, nobody is checking). colleague is senior to me and earning much more which irks ms hugely given the backseat she has been taken all year
. Would you raise this and if you are a manager, what would you make of it. I worry I look anal an petty.

I'm sorry I don't believe that if it's a blue chip company they wouldn't accept your request for a raise with the evidence of the amount of work you have done. So they don't reward performance ?

mine was great. no idea about hers.

no, they really don't. I am looking for a different role at the moment but it's tough finding something that fits my needs.

I never pulled the numbers from the system before though and I doubt anyone else did.

will raise it. just wanted to canvas opinions. Looks like it isn't petty to do so.

It’s certainly not petty and if I was your manager, I would make a business case to senior management for bringing your salary into line with your colleague and also start discussion with colleague about output leading to formal proceedings if necessary. This is because the company should want to keep you as you have proven you are hardworking and doing the work of two people!

IME though, with being in a similar position, your manager may decide you are a trouble maker, will make excuses for colleague, be clear that you will get no recognition through salary for your hard work as that’s what you’re there for etc, because they don’t want to upset the status quo and have the difficult job of dealing with lazy colleague who knows full well they are taking the piss!

Hopefully your manager is half decent?

I would definitely raise but be prepared to learn:

1. She's had a massive personal life crisis which the company knows about and is helping her handle (eg DV, multiple bereavement, whatever)
2. She's actually also doing a ton of more senior work that you're unaware of which is taking up the time she's not spending doing similar tasks to you.

Who will be covering the manager's job during ML?
Is it time to (subtly) raise your superior performance with your manager's manager?

me neither
and not a lot of the detail in this op actually either

Then stop working so hard and being a martyr!

she has had no crisis. I know her well. she is just work shy. She does not perform any other role. our roles are absolutely identical. I know this 100%.

Well presumably hers was even better if she’s senior and paid better
or you think she’s literally only getting this because she’s worked there for more years than you (even though you have been there for years yourself)

how do you know paid more
So to be clear… she’s not more senior, no additional authority
just paid more

correct?

yes

You referred to the difference in the number of cases you handle - are all of your cases similar in the amount of input or could your colleague have fewer but more complex cases? Does the amount of work you are doing mean that you have to work beyond your contracted hours, miss lunch breaks, or cause you additional stress? Or is it just that you're quite understandably irked about the difference in the amount of work you're both doing? If it's the former, then I think you should raise it with your manager, but if it's the latter, and having been in a similar position in the past, I wouldn't say anything.

ok so your issue is that management thinks she’s brilliant and have reflected that in higher pay.

And you’ve been picking up the slack for ages and never raised it

but you think you have absolutely no chance of actually getting a pay rise anyway

and this is a blue chip

🤔

you don’t like this colleague do you op?im still interested how you know she’s better paid and by how much

how is she senior if you both do the same work?

What an odd question.

I would imagine not. Would you like a colleague who did one quarter of what you did but got paid much more?

i would blame the colleague

I wouldn’t like it no

but i would raise it with management

Why is it odd? It is a genuine question - do they both have the same job/job title, or is she senior because she has been there longer?

No, I wouldn't raise it simply about unfairness.
Don't focus on what other people are doing, focus on what you are doing and what you can do to be rewarded for your hard work.
If there is genuinely no options for promotion or compensation then, if the balance of work is really bothering you, you could slowly reduce your output. The other thing to do is raise it with the colleague herself first instead of going to management without trying to resolve it yourself.
I have to say, I can't help but think that your understanding of how to get a raise is somewhat naive, or your company isn't as blue chip as you think ?
Best of luck.

each case is very similar in work load. if anything, mine are slightly more complex.

I am not raising it to get a raise. I just want them to be aware of the unfair distribution of work load.

I’m sure you know how your job works better than me but I had something similar happen years ago but I was the person whose productivity was called into question.
I worked in a two person team drafting trade confirmations at an investment bank and got pulled up at the end of the month to ask why other colleague was drafting so many more confirmations than me! Other colleague was actually responsible for allocating what needed drafting to each of us and turns out he was drafting the easy ‘vanilla’ confs and giving me all the complex ‘structured’ confs. I asked that I actioned the allocating for a month and made sure I did it fairly and, lol and behold, our numbers were virtually the same!
Oh, and another month they called me
out AGAIN as Other Colleague had been more productive so I had to remind them I had been on two weeks mandatory block leave for half the month…..!