Laboratory technician refuses to continue picking up the slack of his deadweight lab partner, so he quits and leaves management with the lazy employee they favored for months: ‘No more breaking my back’

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Aug 23, 2025 7:00 AM EDT

With years of experience working in a laboratory, this lab technician was no stranger to a busy workday. However, after the new hire was brought in, her pacing and her lack of work ethic tanked the entire lab's productivity. To the surprise of the experienced hard-worker, management didn't seem to care about his comments on his new partner and instead expected him to shoulder the responsibility. 

Overachievers are always expected to cover for the lollygaggers, but not anymore.

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    via shironosov

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Was told "everyone works at different paces" when bringing up a colleagues poor work ethic. I've just been called in for a performance meeting for low productivity.
    via Anonymous0114300399
  • To cut a long story short, I work in a very small lab with one other lab member. Seeing as it's just us two, we obviously need to be able to work swiftly and together.
    via Anonymous0114300399
  • When my new co-worker started, to put it bluntly she was near useless. She openly admitted that she doesn't know how to multitask (which is essential in any lab work, let alone in a lab of two). She has never worked in a lab before, and got the job only because she was here as an
    via Anonymous0114300399
  • unpaid intern and my managers don't like hiring. She does things literally one at a time - moving a whole load of samples from one side of the lab to the other? One sample at a time, walking back and forth. It drives me mad and really slows things down. On top of this, she was making no
    via Anonymous0114300399
  • effort to remember anything I was teaching her, and feins helplessness A LOT to get other members of staff to do things for her. After a few months of this, we were in a meeting with our two managers and they
    via Anonymous0114300399
  • were berating us about why things hadn't been done (usual weekly occurrence). Me and another staff member had had enough and told them the issues. One manager, who clearly dislikes me and favours slow worker, shouted that "people work at different paces" at some point during the 4 way argument that erupted. And for some reason, it just stuck.
    via Anonymous0114300399
  • So I started to work at my own pace. No more breaking my back, doing three things at once. All of a sudden, I couldn't multitask either.
    via Anonymous0114300399
  • Inevitably this lead to a build up of samples, paperwork, everything. I stopped coming to work on time because, frankly, I didn't care anymore. The relationship with my managers has been declining since of course, and they just called me in for a meeting to ask "why things weren't being done" (bear in mind, this is 10am on my first day back after a week of being on leave).
    via Anonymous0114300399
  • My manager started visibly shaking with rage when I looked him de d in the eyes and said "because we all work at different paces". I wonder how he'll react when I hand in my notice later today, leaving the lab with only one slow worker for the foreseeable future
    via Anonymous0114300399

  • When you're a diligent hard-worker, productivity and speed in the workplace is rewarding. Call me a nerd, but one of my favorite things on the job is checking off all of the tasks on my “To-Do” list for the day; it means I've earned an equally chill evening at home. But when you're paired up with a ball and chain as your lab partner, suddenly your group projects are lagging, deadlines are missed, and that “To-Do” list is gathering dust in the corner. And that's not something I could tolerate either…

  • fightingrooster63. Love how they expect the overachiever to pick up the slack while expecting nothing from the slacker. Oops. My mistake. They are not paying her. She can get away with it.
    via fightingrooster63
  • RealUltimatePapo ⚫ "We need you to speed up" "Great. Watch me speed the f out of here" Ask him to work at his own pace in processing your resignation. See how he responds
    via RealUltimatePapo
  • Bad Boba Bod⚫ One of my coworkers at one point stated she didn't know where "enter" was on the keyboard. I feel your pain.
    via Bad Boba Bod
  • SidratFlush I was once accused of chat avoidance despite being top two consistently, I told them id go back on the phones and not sweat the extra 25 cents per hour for three times the work. The supervisor was flabbergasted that I'd make that choice. I dont need to be around such negative and poor management.
    via SidratFlush
  • HurryAcceptable9242 In a year, management will probably be wondering why they had to hire two more people to get the work done.
    via HurryAcceptable9242
  • elevenohnoes ⚫ Well done, love seeing someone get their pathetic reasoning thrown back in their face. Hope the offer comes through so you can immediately walk off and leave the useless clown with a massive reality check.
    via elevenohnoes

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