I work in a maintenance field and quite often, my coworkers have not done their “fair share”. Meaning often I was the only one working while coworkers were off hiding and do whatever. Sometimes a manager would come around and ask me where the others were and I always told them “I dont know”. I dont rat out my coworkers.
How do I feel about it? Do I get angry at them? Well I look at it this way;
I’m being paid, they are being paid.
I do whats expected for ME and nothing more. If they decide to go take a nap or otherwise not do the job they are told to, that’s between them - and management - not me.
At the end of the day I know I did, they know what they did.
Now I wont allow others to take credit for work I did and I wont lie for people. But my work is my work and theirs is theirs.
Unless your coworkers are breaking the law during their breaks, you are under no obligation to go tattling to the boss about their company sins. That’s management’s job to catch them. There’s no worse reputation to have than office snitch.
I think that’s fair enough in a context where you have an identifiable workload of your own, and you’re getting it done. Unless you’re expected to act as supervisor or chargehand, then it would be the workplace equivalent of ‘junior modding’ to start stirring.
OTOH, if you have aspirations about moving into team leadership or management, then sometimes you have to take the lead by initiative, rather than waiting to be asked.
In a context where teamwork and collaboration is a big part of the picture, it just doesn’t work to say that you don’t know where your colleagues are - because in that case, you can’t always remain productive when they are slacking off.
There’s a lot of truth to this. I’ve run into this time and again at work, and sometimes you end up having to rat out on them if only because production levels aren’t met.
You are only one person with two hands. Contrary to what upper management might think, you’re not a machine. You cannot do the work of X people, no matter how strong your superhero tendencies.
If your work depends on somebody doing their share of something and if you cannot complete your tasks because that somebody didn’t do their part, you’d better tell management about it. There’s nothing worse than being blamed for something that isn’t your fault.
Well, of course that’s true, but the OP didn’t seem concerned that his workmates’ slacker antics were screwing up his job. He (or she) seemed only concerned about the ethics of not informing management about them. It’s my belief that Urbanredneck has no duty to tell if he or she doesn’t want to.
Another possible way without pointing fingers is to suggest at a meeting or wherever that efficiency could be improved if work logs were introduced as a procedure (or whatever). That way, you get initiative points without pissing off your coworkers.
For the first couple of decades of my career, when I was in a non-management, less responsible position, I persuaded myself that my least productive colleagues were my favorites, because they made me look so good by comparison. Sure, you have to continually stave off attempts to assign more and more work to the productive staff, but so long as you are over the average, it is easy to fly under the radar.
Admittedly tougher if work is assigned to and assessed for a group…
I remember the angriest my boss ever got was when another high producer and I suggested our office do something to get rid of the “deadwood” (our term.) She was incensed that we would suggest that there were employees not doing their fair share. :rolleyes:
Now that I’ve been in management and other “higher” positions, it is quite easy to tell who is not doing their jobs, so there is little need for co-workers to narc on each other. Whether or not anything is done about it is another matter entirely.
You eluded to one way some companies work, where everything is done as a group.
I know Harley Davidson does this. Employees are put into groups and that group gets rewarded (or penalized) by its production. That means you as a group are responsible for making sure the work gets done and if someone is not doing their share, then you either motivate them or you can ask management to remove them.
Which then can be difficult if a certain person is friends with someone else.
However that is not my situation. I was talking about projects where several of us were told to work on something but nobody is in charge so individuals can slack off if they wish with no penalty to me. Now one time a manager said “Now you make sure soandso helps you”. Yeah right, like I’m going to do that.
Did I mention how much I hated group assignments when in school?
Yeah, that is (IMO) one of the worst situations, where mgmt. essentially abdicates its responsibility, and imposes it on the workers. Depending on the rewards/penalties, I’d try to get reassigned to a better team. But if unsuccessful, I’d either content myself with the compensation I received as a member of a lousy group - or look for other work.
Depends on the team culture. Group-assigned work can be seen as a way for the team to get on with what they are good at doing, without management breathing down their necks and needlessly interfering.
They might grumble, but they won’t have it in for you like they would if you went in naming names.
There was a suggestion above that narcking on slacker workmates might be showing initiative and leadership. This does that without the narc.
Anyway, if you only want to give a simple shrug when asked at an employee meeting about improving performance, feel free. Totally your decision.
They will if you suggest it in front of them. They know they’re slackers and they know you’re a worker, and they know that logging will make them earn their crust. They will see right through it, and hate you for it.
If you’re going to suggest a thing like that, the best way to do it is to discuss it one to one with someone who has the authority to implement it, and frame it as a way to increase productivity and effectiveness, to target training plans etc, and to cook up some reason why you don’t want to take credit for it.
I disagree. This would make you as popular as the student who raises their hand in class and reminds the teacher they forgot to give a homework assignment. Less popular; the homework assignment will only last one night but what you’re suggesting will close a loophole that the other workers have been exploiting on an ongoing basis. So you’d be more like a student who introduced the idea of homework to a teacher who had never heard of it.
What’s in it for you to make your lazy co-workers more productive? Would it mean less work for you? Would it mean you get promoted? Would it keep you from seething inside when those lazy bums aren’t doing their jobs? Does it mean you could do your work because your work depends on deliverables from the lazy bums?
It isn’t like management doesn’t know that workers are slacking off. The boss comes down to the shop, and notices that Urban is the only one there. Of course he knows that the other guys are slacking off. If the boss wants this to change it’s his job to do it. One way to change it is to make Urban the foreman and make it part of Urban’s job to make sure the other slackers are working.
But if the boss regularly comes by, finds half the team gone, and then shrugs his shoulders and goes back to the office, then it’s pointless to try to try to change things. Or you could go to your boss’s boss and complain about your boss. That’s not likely to help you though.