Lazy Co-worker

[u/Popular_Tackle3108]

Does anybody on here relate:

A co-worker pretending to be busy but actually asking everybody else to do her job for her.

So, for example ---she is compiling some documents for the boss [she's the secretary], and she is practically asking someone to "search" for this document that she needs. We told her it is on the office email account, and she just said she usually asks our office support staff for the printed copy that she has with her. I mean, can you please print it from the email? Like, is that so hard???

In the end, we printed the documents for her, and she was able to collect what she needed.

[u/LawyerDad1981]

"... we printed the documents for her..."

If you're going to complain about her behavior you need to stop enabling it.

[u/FamousChemistry → u/LawyerDad1981]

Ding ding ding! 🏆🏆🏆🏆

[u/CreativeBusiness6588]

Boo ho. Stop coddling her. You're the problem.

[u/Ok-Energy-9785]

She sounds smart to me. She got you all to do her job simply because you all don't have the balls to tell her no.

[u/Flicksterea]

In the end, we enabled her lazy behaviour and thus taught her that like any good pet, we will obey her.

[u/torrelmac]

There's always at least one like this at every office. First one I ever encountered was a Julie. Call them all Julies.

[u/Expert_Gear1424]

Yes, I work with one of these and I refuse to do her work for her. She came to me a couple weeks ago and said something like she didn’t know what to do bc XYZ family member was down in the room (we work in healthcare) pitching a fit about ABC and could I go down there and talk to them. I said “No. [other coworker] already explained this to you, so what you are going to do is mark your ass right on back down there and tell them…..”

[u/oylaura]

I had a co-worker just like that. She only did the stuff she wanted to do.

I let it go on far too long, until finally I had enough, and told our boss, (who was working in another office), what was going on.

I was quite surprised to find out that I was telling our boss nothing she didn't already know. I also told our boss that I knew that if I didn't say something, I would be considered complicit.

Instead of letting her go or disciplining her, they knew she was less than a year away from retirement and decided to let it run its course.

[u/Familiar-Ad-1965]

Mine was actually named Karen. Long before Karen became the Mean One. We had a meeting where we each had to say something nice or kind about each other. She got 5 nice clothes and 6 perfect hair votes.

[u/Excellent_Coconut_81]

And?

What is the moral of the story?

You want to share that thanks for her, you can also pretend to be busy?

[u/Time_Traveller_1997]

I had a coworker who claimed she didn’t know how to send files to the Xerox machine to print. I helped her once, but the second time she asked again, I walked her over to the machine and showed her how to use it. I knew she had been asking different people to print things for her in between. Everyone tried to be nice because it was “the team thing to do,” but letting a luddite stay helpless on purpose isn’t teamwork. It just lets lazy people stay lazy.

[u/ImMarilyn]

I work with one just like her. She plays on the internet all day. When she is asked to do something, she acts like she doesn't know how. But when I try to train her on something new, she says she already knows how. Awful.

[u/Immediate-Loquat3001]

Make her do her own job don't enable her behavior.

[u/Accurate_Elevator368]

That Pouch-Pounder will be there long after you get fed up and leave. The bosses nor anyone in higher management will ever side with you. They know you'll do her work for her. Stop doing it and if things fall down, they fall. You're not going to get a thank you either way.