Idiot Coworker...

Where to start, where to start...

My coworker is pissing me off to no end. He acts like a raging pubescent 15 year old, in the sense that if he yells louder/argues more, than he will get his way. A few examples of what he does:

-He absolutely will not do the simplest of tasks required by our job, like printing out a piece of paper. Jesus f****** ch****. I told him this is required by our job, and he retorts by pinching off this wonderful jewel of a line: "where does it say that in the rules?" (...yes, I know, a beating is in order)

-I have to show him the ropes because he is new at my work site, but his warped perception sees this as "telling him what to do". No, your eyes aren't going bad, you read that right.

-He surfs the net/text messages on his cellphone while I'm working my @$$ off, and I end up doing a lot of the work for him. I'm sure many are guilty of going on the cell phone, but he just straight up doesn't give a $#!7.

How does he do all of this with complete impunity? Because my boss apathetically looks over all these problems. In fact, my boss sent me an email today making it out to sound like I am somehow a part (therefore implicitly a contributor) of this problem; because "we should both work it out together". No, he's the problem and you need to get rid of him, fast. What bull. I hope my boss trips and falls over a bridge sometime soon.:devil:

All the while I am stuck with this idiot, and aside from me (or him) quitting, he will continue to act like this unabated.:candle: I "talked" to him over the phone tonight, but in truth I really gave him my 2 cents (I pretty much told him off, lol). After that lively conversation I talked to a former colleague in the same company, and she suggested reporting him to my boss's boss or my HR department; both of which I will do. However I feel my effort will be fruitless, and the behavior will perpetuate.

What makes all of this so insulting is I'm a very hard worker. I love my job, I could maybe even call it my dream job. I would bend over backwards for my company (and I have) because I enjoy it that much. I've been with this company close to 2 years now, and I never thought I'd ever want to quit- until now. My (new) boss clearly doesn't care and is doing nothing to end my coworker's behavior. I've tried retaliating and setting my coworker straight, but he really is that stupid and stubborn. I sure as hell didn't climb a 6-year work ladder to end up in this situation.:duh2:

'Nuff said.

Any comments/similar experiences/suggestions?

the Dudemar

PS- I think it goes without saying that this guy is a complete utter loser.

Any chance this new worker is a relative of the boss? That might account for the boss's unusual tolerance of his poor work ethic.

A friend of my mom's had a similar experience at one of her jobs. Like you, she worked her behind off from sunrise to sunset. Meanwhile, her coworker came in late, then spent the next hour or more cooking herself breakfast (yes, on company time). When she finally did get around to actually working, it wasn't much. Of course, she wasted most of the day with personal phone calls. As with you, the boss couldn't or wouldn't let himself see what was going on. In retrospect, I think this woman may have had dirt of the boss, so he figured he wouldn't take a risk firing her. He also may have feared a discrimination lawsuit firing her since she was black. To be sure, he wasn't keeping her around just because she was attractive. Quite the opposite according to my mom's friend.

One of the great mysteries is why do companies keep people around who aren't producing. Even worse, why do they often blame other employees for the failings of these people. I agree wholehearted that you should report this to your boss's boss and the HR department even though this is breaking ranks. If nothing satisfactory is done in a reasonable amount of time, give them an ultimatum. If they really value you they'll fire this idiot. If it comes down to it, give them a two-week notice, and quit. My guess is things will get so out of hand once you're gone that they'll beg you to come back with a raise, and get rid of the offending idiot on top of that. In the meantime, STOP doing his work for him. Let him stay there all night if he has to to catch up on his work. You're helping to enable his behavoir. If he falls behind, the boss will surely notice, and hopefully will see he is at fault, not you. If his poor work habits cost the company orders or customers, so much the better. Often bosses won't take notice until it hits them in the pocketbook.

On another note, why do "filler" people like your coworker even exist? I can't help but think how much better the world might be without people like that to drag down the rest.

BTW, thanks for giving me yet more reasons to remain self-employed. My tolerance for nonsense like you described is absolutely zero.

Sounds like a bad situation. Can you just ignore him and not do any of his work for him? If he actually asks you to (e.g. print something for him), give a noncommittal answer and don't do it. If he asks about it later, say that you were too busy. Let him sit there surfing the web and text-messaging, sooner or later your boss is going to take notice. Especially if he fails to do any work.

Thanks jtr1962 and Valolammas,

jtr1962 said:

On another note, why do "filler" people like your coworker even exist? I can't help but think how much better the world might be without people like that to drag down the rest.

BTW, thanks for giving me yet more reasons to remain self-employed. My tolerance for nonsense like you described is absolutely zero.

Click to expand...

I agree with you on the "filler" people, the world would be so much easier without them. Argh. I should seriously consider self-employment as well.:twothumbs On the bright side I will no longer have to be responsible for his mistakes, because starting tomorrow we will each have our own separate work areas to be responsible for. I still have to work with him though...

The coworker and boss are not related, thank god. It's so bizarre because it's as if my boss is hanging onto him in desperation. I think it's more that my boss doesn't know how to handle the situation, and puts it off until it hits rock bottom (similar to addicts). I actually gave my boss an ultimatum already, because my coworker told me off on his first day of work (and I didn't do anything to **** him off).:sick2: I told my boss that if it happens again, I'm gone. Well, it happened today and I'm already on Craigslist searching for another job.:green:

It makes me sad that I have to do this.:mecry: At the same time I am incensed that I have to pay the price, and my coworker is essentially being rewarded for his persistently idiotic behavior.:scowl:

Don't make drastic moves, but you probably are better off getting out.

You've let it get to you a bit too much, but that shows you care about what you are doing. None of this is uncommon. There are a lot of bad practices in businesses today with regards to both productivity and social interaction. Here's a few things I have experienced or seen with others on the job:

- Boss pawns off slacker to be trained by others even though training is a management task and not on the other peoples' job description. Good workers get fed up and leave. Slackers are now not only slackers, but fully untrained slackers.

- Boss berates good workers for poor performance of slackers and does nothing to manage situation. Good people leave and who ends up as virtually the only "workers" for the Boss? Yep, the slackers. Boss loses job, business taken over by new company, slackers fired, company tries to hire back good workers but cannot. Business loses a ton of customers and money.

- Boss tries to pawn off slacker training on non-management employees one too many times. Employees then refuse to train any employees in any way, shape, or form. New hires (good or bad) are in a "sink or swim" environment and most sink.

- Slackers keep saying it isn't in their job description and make life miserable for good workers who start leaving in large numbers. Management finally points out job description phrase, "... and other duties as required..." to slackers. Makes no difference to most of them, but by then the company is tanking.

And those are another few reasons the economy is in such crappy shape.

However, it's not just the fault of the slackers. I don't see too many cases where either non-management or micro-management has been productive, but most management needs to look at what actually makes things generate money and not pamper the "old boy network," "you're under my thumb" management (ever have a boss who "lurks" but does no actual work and tries to monitor every conversation?), nepotism, or management by proxy.

The atmosphere that used to exist in a lot of workplaces is mostly gone -- it used to be that workers would take new hires under their wing. New hires got shown by other workers (never by management) how to do their job well, how to get along with others on the job, and how to perform well without killing themselves to keep management happy. Slackers would not be reported (a lot of workplaces had an unwritten rule that you never, ever hurt somebody's work record) but would have to put up with massive social pressure to either perform, leave the job, or put up with near torture from other workers.

That system worked well enough and mostly resulted in profitability, happy managers who were pretty much unaware of how the world really worked back then (not too different now for the most part), and workers who gave a decent days work for a decent days pay. It would never fly today to let workers just do their job and management do theirs as long as the money keeps coming in and let the slackers drown in their own crud.

I have had a lot of similar things happen at my job. The bosses don't seem to understand that when they don't allow the trainer to discipline the trainee, or do the disciplining themselves, they deprive the trainer of all authority.

I am the longest term non-managment employee at our company so typicall end up training the new guys. One time I gave specific instuctions on how to handle a certain change at the plant to a less experienced, but not cluelessly brand new, operator. He did the exact opposite of what he I told him to do, and I ended up having to work my tail off the following night shift getting the plant under control. The next morning the boss wanted to know what happenned, so I explained. The boss looked at me and said, "Well, I'm sure if you had told him what to do, he would have done it. You need to do better shift turn overs so these guys know what to do."

The most upset the boss ever got with me was when I explained how another operator told me he had messed up the plant the prior day. The response from the boss was something about me having misundersood because he KNOWS the other operator was not that dumb. So I proceeded to pull up the comments log on the computer which said the exact same thing I had just told him. As soon as he read far enough to see that I was right, he was so steamed I thought he was going to punch me. I got all the scut work for the next week or so and the operator that actually made the error got off totally free. As a matter of fact, at the next pay raise interval, he got a $0.75/hr raise while I got a $0.50/hr one. Of course, just 4 months later he finally managed to do something that affected the boss directly and was fired.

The problem isn't you or the "slacker". It's a management or as I define it a non or lack of management problem. And the worst part is there isn't much you can do if your boss doesn't care. All you can do is give them an explanation and ultimatum to leave the company or put up with it. It's a no win situation for you unfortunately. If they show this type of behavior now its better for you to leave after 2 years than stay and find out after 10 or 20 years there. Management nowadays is a strange breed IMO and little can be done about it by the non management employees. I'd say give em notice and move on if you can.

My place of employment keeps cutting staff and delaying raises, but somehow the 'dead wood' is never affected by this. The good workers leave or aren't given shifts that go to wingnuts, idiots, or the certifiably insane (seriously). I just keep looking the other way and try to have a good job despite the lack of management control. Obviously if I was running the place, things would be done differently.

One of my biggest peeves is the choice of (literally) illiterate employees to check us off a list when we get to work. Sometimes the line moves really slow because the 'checker' can't find the names on the list which is alphabetical. Even if your name starts with A they scan the whole list hoping something will match.

/rant off

Number one: Cover your ***. Put it in writing to your boss and copy HR with everything. Don't go to your bosses boss. That's occupational suicide.

Number two: Start looking for another job, but don't quit your current job. Just start opening up options.

Number three: Be flexible. You might have to loose a couple of battles to win the war.

Good luck.

Bigiron is right. Document everything. I would write out instructions to your co-worker and if they're not followed, document it, and ask him to sign it. If he refuses, note his refusal and file it or send it to human resources if they're involved. You'll likely never get anything accomplished if you don't have the relevant documentation to back up your claims. If it's in writing, he doesn't have a leg to stand on.

Let us know how it works out and good luck.

BIGIRON said:

Number one: Cover your ***. Put it in writing to your boss and copy HR with everything. Don't go to your bosses boss. That's occupational suicide.

Number two: Start looking for another job, but don't quit your current job. Just start opening up options.

Number three: Be flexible. You might have to loose a couple of battles to win the war.

Good luck.

Click to expand...

Excellent suggestion by BIGIRON here:thumbsup:

Well, I can relate.... As far as bosses go. (The idiot co-workers I used to deal with were fired months ago).

I work the Midnight shift as a Security Guard. Came into work about 3 hours ago, and find out that at the end of tomorrow's shift, I'm either going to be re-assigned or fired. Thing is, I found out from a co-worker who stayed behind to work the morning shift yesterday. He met my replacement who came in for training. Despite knowing who he was, she just came right out and told him that she'd be replacing me. (What a genius). He then told me.... about 3 hours ago.

So, both my company's supervisor, and the client's supervisor apparently lack the balls to tell me what the deal is. Had to get the info second-hand. The co-worker who told me, called our company supervisor and spoke with him less than 3 hours ago. I'm sitting next to my co-worker, boss confirms I'm being replaced, but refuses to talk to me! Says to the co-worker that he'll give me a call in the morning. Guess he either doesn't care or isn't man enough to talk to me without needing a few hours to come up with the BS story he plans on feeding me.

To top it off, I'm being replaced becuase a guard who works for the building complained I had insulted him! Actually, it was the other way around. I held my tongue when I was insulted. Even have a witness who can back that up! ...... What I don't have is a boss willing to back up a Guard with an good work record, who doesn't screw around. (Namely, me).

I've calmed down since just past Midnight. (Posting this during a break, from a comp I'm allowed to use for internet use BTW).

Just amazes me that both my bosses lack the smallest bit of integrity, to tell me straight-up what the deal is.

I apologize if this sounds sexist. Not my intent. But if they were both women, I'd at least understand their desire to avoid a possible confrontation. But they're both men! At least, they have the biological characteristics of a man..... And nowadays that's aparently all that you need to be classified as one.

Give a fool enough rope and he will hang himself.

Edit to add: That is just an old saying.
My translation: His constant goofing off will probably get him fired on his own without much intervention from his co-workers. That is unless he is related to his boss.

Just keep doing your job and when your boss ask why this or that is not finished then just say something to the effect "I have been working on it very hard but I haven't had much help"
Your boss will then ask you what is going on. Then you can either spill the beans or you can say something like "Well I haven't seen (name of lazy co-worker) much today".
Some boss' don't like their employees telling on each other. They look at as being petty or as saying that they (the boss) do not know what is going on. Boss' don't usually like being told that they made a mistake in hiring or anything else for that matter.
Let your boss figure it out on his own (or at least he will think he figured it out on his own) with a few hints from you.

UPDATE :
~~~~~~

Well, I called up my Supervisor when I got out of work. Got his voicemail. Left him a short description of my side of the story. (Complete with the name of the other Guard who witnessed the incident and is willing to tell the truth.... Namely that I did nothing wrong). Big surprise, he didn't call me back. Got home about two hours later. Left him another message. Still nothing!

This, from a Supervisor with a reputation for returning phone calls nearly the instant you leave him a message. The guy is older than me. You'd think a grown @$$ adult wouldn't play such childish games. :ironic:

Nice sigline, Monocrom. Sums up Dudemar's and your situations very well.

Having been self employed the vast majority of my working life, I have no advice, so I'll just say GOOD LUCK.

:buddies:

Diesel_Bomber said:

Nice sigline, Monocrom. Sums up Dudemar's and your situations very well.

Having been self employed the vast majority of my working life, I have no advice, so I'll just say GOOD LUCK.

:buddies:

Click to expand...

Thanks.... I think I will grab some beer Friday night.

(Okay, I feel a tiny bit better).

Will keep you guys updated as to when my Supervisor is actually able to grow a pair, and calls me back.

Monocrom, you might want to wait on whatever is going to happen to happen before you start publicly denouncing people. If then. There's absolutely no profit in it for you.

It's like, when your buddy tells you he's splitting with his lady and you say "Good, I always thought she was a _____(pick a word). And she was sleeping with Pete, John, Willy and ****y."

And then, after a couple of days, he tells you they're getting back together.

BIGIRON said:

Monocrom, you might want to wait on whatever is going to happen to happen before you start publicly denouncing people. If then. There's absolutely no profit in it for you.

It's like, when your buddy tells you he's splitting with his lady and you say "Good, I always thought she was a _____(pick a word). And she was sleeping with Pete, John, Willy and ****y."

And then, after a couple of days, he tells you they're getting back together.

Click to expand...

I will admit to being more blatantly honest than smart sometimes. :huh:

Just the way I am. I tell it like it is, and don't put up with adults who start BSing me. Thing is, I don't pull childish games on others. If someone tries to BS me, I call them on it! Right to their face! Did that with my last Supervisor who wasn't man enough to threaten to fire me to my face.... He left a message with a co-worker to give to me. Thing is, he lived at the client's site. (It was a residential building).

The look on his face, when I pounded on his door at 11pm (start of my shift) immediately after getting his message, was priceless! He honestly seemed surprised! Well.... if you ain't man enough to threaten to fire me face-to-face, or at least over the phone, you got no right to be surprised when I come talk to you.

Now how stupid can a person be to threaten someone that way? Considering the fact that that someone works at the person's building where they live, and has access to all of the Master keys. Now if I were an evil *******, just image what I could do.... But like I said, I don't play games.

Still, I get what you mean by "no profit in it for you." I honestly do.

As for the best friend part, yeah; even I have my limits to blatant honesty.

It is amazing when people start personal rants about their co-workers, or those in a position of authority over them. Generalizations become strong, and people start siding with the one giving a one-sided story. Before long, you've got members also calling them names and using derogatory comments about people they don't even know or people start seizing on the opportunity to tell their own versions of woe, complete with their estimate of their "enemies' " virility and such. Then, feeling the anger they've built up within their posts, they start confessing to the harassments and such they've directed toward their particular object of contempt, justified because the recipient is just so terrible.

Really, does this seem like the thing we want to do. The Cafe is a place for us to come and enjoy a relaxing and social gathering when our talk turns to a bit more than just lights. We should all be able to enjoy it, without listening to the anger and hatred from those shouting across the room.

It's interesting how often abusive, disrespectful, name calling, or other extremely expressive titled posts don't survive. Thread closed.