Is it fair that I sit here at my desk, taking on all the work that goes though our design department, talking to clients, finding suppliers, pulling in quotes, modelling in SW, setting up renders, starting and finishing prototypes……basically everything, while my college sat next to me is tap tap tap tapping on her keyboard on MSN, flicking through e-bay and playing downloaded games? Only to switch back to pretend work as soon as the boss walks in the office and proceed to suck ass!
Is this common? I suppose what I really need is some advice, how can I deal with this?
And does anybody else work with a loafer/moron?? 
…fair it is not…but some do manage to smooze their way thru life and work…they usually excel at office politics, managing the appearence of contributing much more than they actually do…unfortunately, as long as they can keep the boss looking good to his superiors there is little to be done…you might take an extended vacation leaving the boss and her alone with the work…it might make the reality of the situation more apparent…at least it would give you a break for a while (sounds like maybe you could use it)…other wise, life is too short to waste it on loafer/morons…keep on doing and take pride in all of your hard work…
It is called an art.
Learn from it what you can and apply it, or keep on moaning.
I used to work with that kinda guy, I learnt a couple of things, and now i am more “flexible”.
When she goes on her next vacation. Work twice as hard, making it apparent she does nothing. The day before she comes back, schedule a one on one with your boss, and rat her out. The work will back you up, and it won’t look like whining if you present it as straight up facts. Go in with a list of things you typically acomplish in a work week, and the things she does.
Present it very cleanly, with no emotion. If you come at it from a business point of view. A boss might be suseptable to brown nosing, but it’s monetary value is pretty low. No one wants to pay a salary with no returns. Something will probably happen in your favor. If it doesn’t, get out.
Good idea about the vacation, if I wasn’t here and the work was landing on her desk then I think she would be pretty screwed! (Not to sound big headed)
This is all great advice, thanks, I think its something that I’m just gona have to put up with, but its so annoying having to carry her work load while she gets the cash in the bank at the end of the month.
I’ve been thinking about it a lot today, this is the job I’ve always wanted, and she’s not going to ruin it for me. If she just wants to dick around then I’m gona to leave her to it, maybe later I’ll have the opportunity to point it all out
We all have.
The best way to deal with it is to talk to your manager. One PC way of handling it is to not even mention her specifically, but allude that there are people on staff that aren’t pulling their weight and it’s affecting morale. They probably know who it is, or if they don’t they may ask you.
The second best way is to help her find another job. Convince her that she’s really not happy (obviously since she’s not engaged in the work) and that there are some great opportunities out there for someone like her. Pass her name to recruiters and let nature take it’s course.
In the meantime, ignore her! Who cares! Concentrate on your own career. If you do good work, you’ll be on the fasttrack. If it helps, move your desk or work somewhere where she’s not a constant reminder of how hard you’re working.
may i say that this was possibly very bad advice?
There is a fable in farcee:
One day, a crook went around sticking his finger up peoples a** in the street. He went around to people and did this, and when they jumped and turned around very angry, he ran away laughing as they chased him. Once he came up to a wise man and did it. The wise man, instead of getting angry and chasing him, said; “I bet the king would enjoy it if you did that to him”. The crook was delighted to hear this and quickly made his way to the palace, and later was able to do his dirty trick on the king. Late the wise man found out that the crook had been beheaded.
moral?- let it slide, things out of your control take care of themselves. yeas, it might be frustrating, but what skin off your nose is it?
you do your job well… be happy with that.
This is interesting advice but, if you do not have faith in her abilities or work ethic, DO NOT recommend her to anyone (recruiters, prospective employers, etc.). You don’t want to ruin your own credibility. And, trying to convince her that she’s unhappy could turn into a bonding experience and cause her to ask or expect that you’d serve as a reference for her (it seems like an obvious move since, at that point, you’re already talking about her finding another position). You may find yourself in an odd situation, feeling obliged to be a reference to someone you don’t actually respect (it certainly doesn’t sound like you do).
This kind of thing can be frustrating, thankfully where I work if you act like that it becomes apparent within a day. My advice, do not say anything about it to anyone. The good advice in this thread was to take a vacation, that’s innocent enough. If you’ve noticed, trust me, other’s have as well. What you can do in the meantime is make sure that you have good documentation of everything that you do. Keep this handy for your next review, she obviously will not. This will point the contrast out well enough, and you don’t need to say a word. Keep your nose to the grindstone, her career is hers and yours is yours, if she wants to toss it away, let her.
Where this can be a problem is if your workload increases because she slacks, in this case you might want to have a 1 on 1 with your boss. Another instance where you may want to say something is if she’s put in a position above you and as a result you must now answer to her, by no means should you work your ass off to make her look good. The same method applies here, document everything that you do and CC the people above her on your progress.
I’m far from advocating underhanded work politics, but honestly if it annoys you then deal with it quietly, if it seriously impacts your job/career then you need to take action.
Another more heartfelt way to deal with it is to talk to her about it. She may be dis-enchanted with the job, or depressed, or having personal problems. Those kinds of things can drain you at work. Go out to lunch with her sometime. Ask her what’s up and that you noticed that her motivation is lacking. If you guys are friends and you’re concerned that her behavior is going to get her fired then tell her so. This is what team-mates do…
There’s allways option three. If you can’t catch him yourself, show up at his house about midnight with three of your boys and make sure he doesn’t do it again.
Probably just my personal style, but doing nothing eats at me, and it can subconsiously poison the work environment for you, making everything seem worse.
I think the idea of having a one on one with your co-worker and letting her know how your perception of the situation is effecting the work place is a good idea.
I also think it is a good idea to talk to your boss about it. I find that the squeaky wheel gets the grease dude. Hopefully you have the kind of boss that will hear you out and mentor you through this.
These situations are best nipped in the bud, I think that waiting until you answer to her is much too late. Your boss then might ask why you never said anything before and think you are bitter for not getting the promotion yourself.
Early detection is the key to fighting cancer in the workplace.
I could be wrong, certainly letting it slide seems like the more enlightened route.