[HN Gopher] Ask HN: My coworker doesn't work. Does it make sense...
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Ask HN: My coworker doesn't work. Does it make sense for me to say
anything?
My coworker has barely worked for over a year now. No joke and no
exaggeration. Every single day they seem to find a way to not do
anything - either in some excuse or obfuscation. The worst part is
that this person is a higher title than me and probably gets paid
more than me. My manager seems to be slightly aware of this but
I'm not sure by how much exactly. It's obviously quite frustrating
on many different levels. Is there any scenario in which this makes
sense for me to mention something to my manager or should I just
keep my mouth shut?
Author : drooby
Score : 10 points
Date : 2022-01-13 22:31 UTC (30 minutes ago)
| nickphx wrote:
| Unless their inaction is directly affecting your ability to
| adequately handle your responsibilities, I would mind my own
| business.
| Bellend wrote:
| I would definitely agree. I know the difference between people
| who do nothing and don't effect me versus people who do nothing
| and I pick up the slack. It depends who you are in the chain.
| notRobot wrote:
| Say nothing. It shouldn't matter to you what they are or are not
| doing. You do work, you get paid. That's all that's relevant to
| you.
|
| I do understand why you find this frustrating, of course - most
| people would. But I can't see anything good coming out of you
| bringing this up - how would you even go about doing that?
| FormFollowsFunc wrote:
| Unless it's having a knock-on effect on your work I would keep it
| to yourself. It's not as bad as a Spanish civil servant who
| didn't turn up to work for 6 years and no-one noticed. He spent
| his time reading philosophy. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-
| europe-35557725.amp
| edmundsauto wrote:
| If you feel this impacts you directly - you have to do more work,
| or there aren't raises in the budget b/c of their comp - I
| suggest addressing it directly. Focus on the impact and work
| delivered, rather than whether they are working or not.
|
| Best to understand, however, there may be undesirable
| consequences. You might get them fired, or you might get yourself
| put in the doghouse b/c this person is the manager's sister in
| law.
|
| But if there is unfairness in compensation, and it bothers you,
| address it. You may have quite a bit of leverage if you're
| holding the productivity line up, but you may shoot yourself (or
| your colleague) in the foot. My rec would be to focus on the
| impact of your work compared to your expectations.
|
| Comp should be fair. I would not accept a situation where I feel
| I'm being treated unfairly.
|
| (Now, if this colleague is not giving you more work, is not in
| the way of a raise or promo, and is not a bad person... you
| definitely don't owe the company any "efficiency gains"
| conversations. Let that person milk the situation, if it doesn't
| impact you!)
| qazxcvbnmlp wrote:
| Focus on what you need to get done. Saying bad things about
| others is more of a negative reflection on you than others.
|
| It sounds like you're frustrated on something of the lines of
| 'fairness'. I'd take some time to figure out what you want and
| what it takes to get that. (Not just I want money), instead
| things along the lines of (I want to work on a team that is
| cohesive, I want to be valued[and maybe that is by money], etc)
| deanmoriarty wrote:
| Slackers are the number one reason I do not enjoy corporate
| America anymore. I don't care if you are not able to perform and
| need help or produce crap, as long as you put in the effort and
| try to pull your weight.
|
| In my decade of experience I have witnessed people, technical
| people, who magically manage to just not do anything at all,
| ever. They jump from initiative to initiative without producing
| anything, and somehow still manage to get some credit with
| management.
|
| Paradoxically, I find these people more among "tech lead" and
| managers roles, where their leverage is much higher and they
| could be having massive positive impact in the organization. I am
| acutely aware of how incredibly effective a tech lead or manager
| can be by providing the right context to a team in need even
| without directly contributing. Here I am not talking about this
| profile, I am talking about people who have no freaking clue,
| they are literally leeches who go from meeting to meeting
| pretending to make some insightful observation, then leave and
| repeat.
|
| The solution in my experience tends to be to go in small startups
| that are not run by mentally unstable founders: you'll get paid
| less but typically people with zero/negative productivity won't
| be found there, there's not enough bureaucracy to hide. They'll
| start coming once the headcount surpasses 200 or so.
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(page generated 2022-01-13 23:01 UTC)