Issues with work colleague

I think you doing the grunt work is actually the straw that breaks the back here - I wouldn’t for a second accept that! Maybe if she has to do the work she’s paid to do it might give her less time to be a menace in the office.

What line of work are you in broadly speaking?

Then ask to move to a new team

This could have been written by me a couple of years ago, I ended up leaving although to be fair it wasn’t the only reason. That person is still there causing the same problems and all management are doing is waiting for their retirement. I wish you all the best, I’m glad I’m out of that environment.

document the incidents, at the moment you are more of a problem complaining than she is causing problems. take note and tie this into direct outcomes.

x did y so I couldn't complete my work

at the same time look at how you are presenting things. just raising issues as they arise doesn't seem to be working

the atmosphere does seem toxic .sometimes the smart thing is to realise you are just banging your head against the wall and focus your energy on getting out..I did a few months ago and delighted. I've enough experience now to know when things are worth fighting for ..is this job worth it ?

Either you move on or she does. You decide who.

I am usually against direct actions but, start calling in sick and go to the doctor with Stress, raise your complaints with HR and not managers, they have proven they wont do anything. Document everything no matter how trivial.

the bitches comment in a group chat stuns me as I think any where I’ve worked she’d be heading for the door for that alone

regardless of who it was even about it’s entirely inappropriate language to use about a group of people in a work context.

OP is far too soft- taking on the more difficult work is only providing cover for her and rewarding her behaviour- stop doing that immediately- the best tonic for the likes of her is to allow her expose her incompetence particularly to outside parties like customers where she won’t have a leg to stand on. You admit yourself “it’s the norm now”- but you have partly allowed that situation to develop

I would look at this another way entirely. This is a golden opportunity to make yourself look absolutely amazing in comparison to a total steaming dud. How often does this come along, it's on a plate for you! Ching ching on those performance evals, particularly if you are in a corporate financial services environment. This is a ticket to a chunky raise.

You need to get your thinking cap onto shaping this so you shine bright in your abilities to do the complex tasks without micromanagement, and she looks like the twit she is, causing drama and strife everywhere. Drop mirroring/reacting to her oddities with management emails on aircon, and instead be breezily uber-professional while she is acting the utter trivial maggot.

Then use your annual/biannual review or performance evaluation to point it out as well, talking about how you undertook the complex challenging tasks no other team members could manage etc. Get written feedback in emails where you help people (I mean, if someone compliments your work, thank them and ask them to send an email with that in it, ccing your manager). Give written feedback to colleagues on how they supported you with such-and-such complex task, always highlighting how fabulous you are. She won't have a spec of that, and you will look magnificent.

It's been said before, but take a step back and document everything. When your words are being twisted, you need to have in writing what you're saying so they can't be taken the wrong way. Also as has been said before, ChatGpt is a great tool. Put whatever document you write into it and you will get great advice on how to word things and especially how to not word things.

If you are an experienced employee who's built up good skills, it's much easier to move to another job than to fight this. Maybe even use it as the impetus to try and move onto something better.

In reality, you"re not battling against her - you',re battling against management, which is a battle you cant win.

In the end of the day, if management want to carry unproductive and disruptive staff, that's their perogative. But it comes with consequences i.e. good employees, like yourself, will leave and ultimately they'll be left with an unproductive mess which wont be good for their own careers.