cross-posted from: https://linux.community/post/1144192
you might be an introvert, passionate about your job, or simply old enough to disregard friendships at work because you already have enough friends and a family.
The coworkers I like the most are the ones that come to work, don’t like drama, do their job and go home. That’s what I try to do.
However, there are always some established cliques who know how to play the unit / supervisor and get away doing much less, even feeling entitled to order you around, even though they are not your supervisor.
To people who experience this. How do you tolerate it? Even after changing jobs, this can happen at your new workplace, maybe it happens in every workplace?
I have a base load where I simply couldn’t do less if I tried or I’d die of boredom and simply envy anyone who can.
also any shitkicker who fancys themselves in charge will quickly get told to act their fucking wage.
It depends on what you define as lazy and popular.
I’ve had staff that were visibly not working harder than other staff, but their work was of significantly higher quality than others. Since the “lazy” worker produced more and could be counted on to do the work with less supervision, I gave them more flexibility in the office. I was playing favorites, but the favorite was more valuable as an employee.
And I’ve had other staff that would be considered more popular, but that was in part because they would help others at work doing coordination and mentoring tasks. I would also offload some of my managerial tasks to them if I was overwhelmed even though they didn’t have the title. If I offload the management of a task to someone else, I expect people to treat them with the same respect they treat me. I’ve seen that expectation not get followed and I’ve had to step in to remind staff that they need to coordinate with others, not just me.
I find that a lot of people who “do their job and go home” don’t end up doing any of the coordination or communication required for their job, even though their job is technical design. They end up being worse than they think at their job because it is so hard to work with them and won’t chime in on cases where there is shared responsibility.
If someone tells you to do their job, tell them ‘no.’
If the supervisor tells you to do it, tell the supervisor that you can’t handle more responsibilities because you’re at your limit.
You have to stand up for yourself.
I’m perfectly happy to make your life easier but not at the expense of making mine more difficult
Suffer it.
Ideally, get to where you accept it.
Sorry to shortcut the process, but if you can’t fix it and especially if you’d risk your own employment trying, it’s better to keep your own job and the reduce the amount that this person lives rent-free in your feelings.
Moreover, if you see other people around you doing less, then you’re under no obligation to do more than they do. Even if you prefer doing your job well, on those days where you’re not up for it, don’t feel bad about doing less. As long as that doesn’t affect how your immediate manager/supervisor/boss evaluates you, do what you need to.
And let them do what they do. And if they get away with it, that’s not up to you to remedy. Employment can be as simple as an agreement to do the minimun needed for them to keep paying you as little as they can get away with. And we’re not likely to fix that problem today. 😉
Best wishes and peace.
I don’t begrudge a coworker befriending a supervisor. Maybe they are genuinely friends.
As much as you like people who come in a do their job and go home. Many others like it when they come in and a friend is there and they can chat, have a good time, and still get their responsibilities done.
If they can’t get their work done, then it’s a supervisors issue. You don’t have to do their workload.
- Learn the same tech technique or
- Just be happy doing a good job
Right? Op is treating work like it’s a competition.
The title sounds like this person is jealous that someone else found out they could do less work for the same money.
Seriously this
However, there are always some established cliques who know how to play the unit / supervisor and get away doing much less, even feeling entitled to order you around, even though they are not your supervisor.
This frustrated me, until I discovered that many of those folks, who looked lazy to me, understood our business better than I did, and were focusing their efforts on what really mattered.
In as much as it pertains to me, I don’t tolerate it. Otherwise, if people want to bullshit their way through their career, I don’t really care. This happens in every company that has more than one employee (almost).
If someone else starts ordering me around when they don’t have the authority to do so, assuming it would change my course of action, I’ll tell them politely that I might be able to get to that when I have time. If they escalate it, I tell them to talk to my boss about rearranging my priorities. And if they do that and succeed, that’s fine. Once you establish that you don’t report to them, I’ve found they typically leave me alone. If not, I talk to my boss about it in private.
I used to be more sensitive to feeling like other people were getting more recognition for less work.
Over time though I’ve grown to realize that usually they are just doing something that I don’t fully understand yet, and I’ve gotten far greater rewards from trying to learn from them.
That’s a very well adjusted point of view.
Don’t be like me, that bottles up resentment that comes out in unexpected ways, which then leads to you being the first one laid off because you’re the least enjoyable to work with.
If you like doing your job and going home
You enjoy your employment and you even enjoy your commute. Then what’s the problem? Are your coworkers having an even better time at work than you are? I don’t understand.
Do less too, if anyone dares to complain, document and point out the double standard then remind your employer that discrimination is illegal. If they punish you, sue and get rich I guess.
Or
Find a new job
Or
Just ignore it if you aren’t stressed out with the amount of work you have
Or
Play the game too, humans are social creatures at the end of the day
We don’t really know your life or situation so at best, all the advice here is educated guessing or worse.
It’s not a competition, you don’t need to compare yourself to your coworkers or police their work ethic.
Now if they’re ordering you around that’s another issue.
My work stands on it’s own two legs. Their work doesn’t affect my paycheck. If their laziness impacts me, I will not stay silent about it at all. Other than that, I’m punching my clock and focusing on what I need to.
I’ve only worked with a small handful of people I’ve felt were genuinely lazy and earning unwarranted praise. I’ve more often found they had better insight into what would be most valued and earn recognition, and they didn’t spend as much energy on things that wouldn’t.
The ones who really were lazy usually eventually were “offered other opportunities elsewhere”, aka asked to leave. Or their manager was “offered other opportunities” and replaced by someone with better management skills.
It did take me a bit to learn this and it only started sinking in after I was stuck in a job watching everyone around me get promoted.