Lazy employee delegates all her tasks to coworker, manager announces he will stop assigning her work: 'I've become her unpaid assistant'

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  • A female employee takes a nap with her head resting on her closed laptop, a notebook, cellphone, and mug beside her
  • My coworker refuses to do her job and my manager’s solution is to just stop assigning her work.

    My coworker refuses to do her job and somehow I've become her unpaid assistant A new person joined our team a little while ago and at first I tried to be helpful because, well, she was new.
  • I figured she just needed some time to learn the systems and get comfortable. That was a mistake.
  • Instead of learning the job, she seems to have decided that I'm basically her personal support desk.
  • She constantly asks me if I've done tasks that are actually assigned to her, or tells me to "look into it" like I work for her.
  • She also refuses to request the access she actually needs to do the job, which conveniently means that whenever something comes up she just pushes it toward me.
  • And somehow she says it with the confidence of someone who thinks she's my manager. The phone calls are what really push it over the edge.
  • She will call me repeatedly sometimes 10+ times even when I'm out of office. And the questions are often completely ridiculous.
  • One time she called to ask how to turn off the flash on a camera. Not a work system.
  • A camera. At this point my phone lighting up with her name instantly ruins my mood.
  • Naturally I brought this up with our team lead because I assumed this is the kind of thing managers are supposed to deal with.
  • His response? "She doesn't seem very interested in work, so we'll just avoid assigning things to her." Which... what?
  • So now instead of fixing the problem, the solution is apparently that she just sits there doing nothing while occasionally trying to push things onto the rest of us.
  • Meanwhile I'm stuck in this weird situation where I helped a few times early on and now it feels like she expects me to keep doing it.
  • I'm honestly getting to the point where I want to start responding with "that's your task" and just stop engaging completely.
  • Has anyone dealt with a coworker like this before? How do you shut this down without creating office drama or making yourself look like the difficult one?
  • A female employee surrounded by office stationery runs her fingers through her hair as she looks at her laptop screen
  • 9ScoreAnd10Panties Block her number when you're out of the office. Print a bunch of copies of her job description and every time she demands something from you- highlight the task on her description and drop it on her desk. Or email it it to her- PLEASE SEE ATTACHED. Repeatedly- AS PER MY LAST EMAIL. CC or BCC your boss on it to create a paper trail. Aside from reminding her of her job-ignore her unless she's actually working or you need something of her. That's all you can do if management isn'
  • potatohead227 Original Poster's Reply I work in a lab setup, all of these demands from the coworker are verbal. I have tried escalating the issue to my boss and his boss as well. It has not worked out so far.
  • Technical-Paper427 Al the questions she has she can ask your manager. Just redirect her to him. If he has a day off, than the manager of your manager.
  • potatohead227 Original Poster's Reply I actually did that today, just straight up told her to discuss with our manager. But she has a string of excuses. Anyway I have decided to let the work get delayed, if she doesn't want to do it, so be it.
  • DazzlingPotion It's time to start looking for a new job if they expect you to do your job and her job.
  • ReasonableBee3030 "I'm honestly getting to the point where I want to start responding with "that's your task" and just stop engaging completely." Is the right answer.
  • ParkerGroove I don't know why you WOULDNT say "that's your task" and stop engaging. Let her answer to the team lead for incomplete work.
  • potatohead227 Original Poster's Reply When questioned by the team lead in the past, she told him that she wasn't trained well. This woman has a work experience of 7 years.
  • Yikesish Um, so why aren't you already responding with "thats your task" and not engaging? I really don't understand - you know exactly what to do respond. But something holds you back. You allow yourself to be used.
  • tlthtx Time to start redirecting her to your manager for help.
  • Ocotillo Wells I saw similar so much when I was in the Army. Weaponized incompetence. If they didn't have access to something, then they couldn't do it. If they "didn't know how" or screwed it up every time, they just stopped getting assigned whatever it was. If you did a good job, you got loaded down until you could only do a half assed job on things, or let some things go.

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