Colleague not pulling their weight

LegacyUser

I have a bit of a work situation I'm not sure how to approach...

I guess the TLDR of this would be that to me it's incredibly obvious a colleague has been taking the mickey, they are taking a very long time to do their work/tasks and doing it to a very poor standard. So much so that I am almost certain they are doing no work for most of their work week.

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We work in a team environment with a few, everything we do is towards a common end product and I rather not get into the specific of the job just in case.

Some weeks ago before a week off I sent an email to my colleague to let them know I'd setup the project for them, what their tasks entailed, how to do it as some of it was intricately setup to work in a specific way. I explained the details of why it was setup and how it works etc so there could be no doubt. - I was asked to do this by our boss as it should have been done a certain way which was explained in the email. Mostly bullet points and step by step filling him in on the intricate details of this task he would be working on in my absence.

This task was very similar to a recent project and really was just a re-hash of the same thing with some of the details changed/checked, essentially stripping it back and applying fresh makeup and joining the dots (figuratively speaking).

Fast forward 4 weeks, pressure is on to get this over the line and I have to help out with something specific. Fine, no problem, can't be to much left to do... Or so I thought, despite emails, phone calls and chat messages I only found they went and did things their own way (they may have not done anything at all and what was there was a left over from the previous task).

I've just spent a week helping out and re-doing a lot of work, probably about 2/3rds, and in addition I created another side project/task from scratch which would amount to the same volume of work my colleague was tasked to do.

On the back of this I spoke with my supervisor after being asked to help out as I was surprised to find 4 weeks was not enough to finish it out. They agreed however they were surprised to and unsure if it was a case of being unfamiliar with the project, lack of experience, doing other minor unrelated tasks or something else. Most, if not all, of what we're doing is copying previous work and we have a lot of precedents to go by.

This morning they were asked to help finish out a few lose ends, some 3-4hrs later and I can see very little difference between this morning and late in the afternoon - I checked over the work and have had to re-do and add some more work myself.

I have previously been warned by another colleague this person is incredibly slow, to the point of questioning what they are actually doing. They are young and working from may be difficult, I don't know the situation. I've tried prodding a little and asking how they are getting on, how they are doing etc etc but nothing out of the ordinary.

I can check schedules of when work is being committed (which is up to the individual to do) and there are massive gaps, hours even days between commits.

My question is, how do I deal with this before I go sending an email to my boss and wording it wrong?

It's very frustrating (and stressful) expecting them to pull their weight when it's quite apparent they are quite possibly not doing anything? I've brought it up with the other colleague and also a friend, their opinion is that they just aren't capable and also likely to be at home in bed, out with the lads or playing on the playstation and should be politely asked to seek employment else where. I can't prove any of this for obvious reasons and I'm not sure my boss is even aware of whats is happening here and the other colleagues experience.

LegacyUser

Hi OP, going anon for this one. I’ve had many new hires during past few (Covid) months, and I completely understand where you’re coming from. Some are available and willing 24/7, however others are tied to family or carer commitments. I understand your frustrations, however I’m still unsure as to what personal advice you’re looking for.

Have you communicated your issues with their productivity with them directly? If not then you need to outline where their lapses in work performance are, explain how they can perform better, and if they’re in probation period outline how they should proceed to keep their position secured. If after that they causing stress then let go. If they’re giving you major stress then definitely speak to your manager.
Im seeing people come and go each week because everybody is stressed out with covid and can’t commit to work right now even though it’s a well paid job. One left after one day in March because she said she couldn’t stay on computer with her dad sitting at home

Batgurl

Are you this persons manager? If so, you can put them on a performance improvement plan (PIP) and set daily, weekly, monthly goals and targets that they have to hit. Chat to your local HR rep if you are not sure how to set this up.

If you are not their manager then it’s not your job to do anything. It’s your managers job to ensure that staff salaries are being put to good use.

LegacyUser

We're both working on the same project and report back to the same manager who reports back to the boss person. I'm taking the lead on this aspect of the project as the most senior person, my colleague is quite young, mid 20's.

I'm not really in a position to discuss the productivity/performance with them directly, I don't think it's my responsibility. I have asked them how they are getting on at home and we do regular catchup (which they have been missing) to discuss issues and aspects of the tasks with the team.

Even just reflecting on the previous few weeks there have been times where they were asked to work on something, which they have, but they didn't take the time to check other aspects which may be effected by changes. While I do keen an eye on what they are working on (I have been asked to do this) there have been more than a few occasions where I've asked them to fix something and a few days/week later it's not resolved and I end up fixing it myself or re-doing some aspect or another relating to changes.

As its not my job to monitor their progress, I am asking about communicating their lack of work ethic to my manager/boss in such a way I don't over step any lines.

Xterminator

Are you the project manager? If not, defer to them.

If you are (either defacto, or assigned) then have you done a project plan?
made sure everyone is aware of the deadlines, and what delays would happen to the prject if not met.
been clear about tasks assigned, and made sure they agree the task assigned are possible in the timeframes being asked.
Have you asked the team to advise you at the earliest possible occasion to let you know if there is a delay, and if so why.
Are you holding regular 15 minute meetings to check on progress and ensure there are no surprises when the deadline arrives?

If you can say yes to all of this, eg the project plan is in place and it is clear, etc. You need to be blunt with this person and if no explanation is provided go to their manager.

collaboration is a skill, and a good PM will be able to deliver on time, or at least highlight where the delays are ideally before the delay becomes critical, and have the business sponsor address by adding more resources, or making the project a higher priority for the people working on it.

JustAThought

I think you’ve put it quite clearly Op - there are big gaps in their reporting and responding and the quailty and quantity and delivery of the wirk incldicates that they are not delivering at the tram level or quality required. Can you mention this to their report and clarify with their manager if they are scheduled to be working a full time 40 hour week or are only now working part time or on alternatate days as it is putting pressure on the project deliverables and timeline and the team. Wait for their reply.

You have now told them and it is up
to them to rsvp and clarify or manage their report.

As PM you are accountable for the overall project and your performance is reliant on the team meeting their achievable
goals and deadlines - unless they are bow only working part time in which case as PM you need to know so you can schedule accordingly.

( I absolutely abhor freeloaders and work cheats who take their wage and don’t pull their weight and put pressure on everyone)

LegacyUser

StickyWorkSituation wrote: »

Fast forward 4 weeks, pressure is on to get this over the line and I have to help out with something specific. Fine, no problem, can't be to much left to do... Or so I thought, despite emails, phone calls and chat messages I only found they went and did things their own way (they may have not done anything at all and what was there was a left over from the previous task).



I can check schedules of when work is being committed (which is up to the individual to do) and there are massive gaps, hours even days between commits.


It's very frustrating (and stressful) expecting them to pull their weight when it's quite apparent they are quite possibly not doing anything? I've brought it up with the other colleague and also a friend, their opinion is that they just aren't capable and also likely to be at home in bed, out with the lads or playing on the playstation and should be politely asked to seek employment else where. I can't prove any of this for obvious reasons and I'm not sure my boss is even aware of whats is happening here and the other colleagues experience.

I have just kept these pieces quoted as these are the parts I believe my response is relevant to. You are purely conjecturing/guessing here/assuming the worst. This person may infact be trying their best and not playing play station like you so assume, perhaps they are busy or ill that is making them slower at these tasks, perhaps they are uncomfrotable or not confident when it comes to your method so try it a way they fee more confident in/know that works. You assume the utter worst in your colleague, when really there are many reasons why this colleague many not be up to your standards, I myself was ill for a number of weeks with my symptoms at their worst during work hours, I was actually getting most of my work done in the early hours of the morning, but my illness was embarrassing and I tried to hide it from colleagues, if someone asked me why did I not have a task done within an hour I would have lied han rather let them know I was after spending the past hour with my head in a toilet puking stomach acid-you don't know what is happening with your colleague, they are not adhering to your schedule or not up to your standards, that dos not mean they are slacking off/doing nothing. You are just assuming the worst about this person. You also say the work they did in regards to a specific task was perhaps work previously done, do you have any evidence to support this, you assume the worst about this person, is it not more likely they did what they thought was right but ended up being wrong but assuming the worst in this person you are saying they've done even worse again and done nothing, once again, conjecture. You have a negative connotation of this person and automatically assume the worst of them in every situation. It takes special effort to ignore a direct command like the one you gave and imo it makes more sense that they just fulfilled the task incompletely-why would they risk being found out like that, it would make more sense even if they were slacking to cover some of the bases, by not following a direct message such as the one you sent they would know that it would be obvious they were slacking. I am not in a managerial position so I can give no proper business advice to this, but from a personal perspective, I think you are judging this person harshly and not making way for human error/general incompetency-not that they are deliberately slacking/getting thing wrong, they could be not as efficient for a number of reasons, it wouldn't make sense to do no work, even the stupidest person knows that if they do nothing for a long period of time they will soon be discovered.