I’m sure his boss would love to know that Jimmy bailed and left him holding the bag; that’s exactly the sort of thing bosses are there to defend their people against. If Jimmy is dumping his work on you, you’re not getting YOUR work done, which does affect your boss’ ability to get stuff done via their subordinates.
Read the whole thread first.
This is the best way. I am a member of the dreaded and maligned middle management. Your manager will probably have a better view on how to address the situation with Jimmy’s manager. If I was your manager, I wouldn’t want to hear about the situation from Jimmy’s manager before I heard it from you. I have dealt with similar situations quite a bit (inappropriately pushing work off to my team that we shouldn’t be doing). It’s also easier for managers to calmly talk about the situation behind closed doors without emotions clouding the situation.
This all assumes you have a reasonable boss who you trust to handle the situation with your best interests in mind.
As a former manager, I second the idea of going to your boss only. These things can come back and bite you in the butt is you do it wrong.
From your boss’ perspective, having Jimmy marching off affects your performance which should be part of their concern.
You might discudsds this from the angle that ‘Jimmy seems to be under some kind of stress that’s leading him to have breakdowns at work – there have been several incidents recently. Don’t we have an Employee Assistance Program to help people deal with personal problems? I’m afraid that his job could be in jeopardy if this continues.’ Then let HR deal withj it. (But do document your discussion with them.)
This may have the effect that he gets ‘mentoring’ & ‘counseling’ and stays on the job, without much really changing – not a good result for you if his behavior is making your working environment so bad that you would just prefer that he’s fired.
Of course, if he does get fired, it may take weeks of months before the company gets aaround to hiring a replacement – so probably you would be left doing all this work alone for that time. Is that better than having to deal with his occasional meltdowns?
I guess it’s time for an update.
I spoke with my manager. He asked if I would be willing to document the events on a form designed for such incidents. He said it would be seen by the higher-ups and would be addressed.
I filled out the form, then had not heard anything back (didn’t expect to). On Friday, Jimmy was noticeably upset and didn’t say a word to me all day.
This morning, I saw him first thing and said ‘hey’. No reply. Shortly thereafter he said he had to go to a meeting. He was gone about a half hour, came back to get his jacket, and said to a co-worker “guess I’ll see you on Monday”.
Turns out there have been at least two other similar complaints about Jimmy in the past. I later learned from the gossip mill that he has been suspended for a week, must go to some type of counseling (anger management?), and will be on probation for one year upon his return.
I have no doubt that I did the right thing, but I do feel bad about the whole situation.
Thanks for all the advice.
mmm
No need to feel bad. You did the right thing, especially if other coworkers have noticed his behavior. He gets to keep his job, gets some counseling, and hopefully this is a wake-up call and his behavior at work improves.
Don’t feel bad. What had to happen, had to happen.
Don’t feel bad. Hopefully he’ll get the help he needs and, for now at least, he gets to keep his job. Things could have gone worse.