I work in IT (software development side, I get paid to break things ie other people ‘s code :P) and I love it (usually)… everyday is different and I don’t have to deal with the general public ☺

Anyway… I work with this guy that does nothing… and by does nothing I mean does no work. On one day last week (right before my almost meltdown) this was his day…

Arrive… check email
Read book (not a software book… a novel!)
Personal phone calls
More reading of book
1st lunch (at 10 am)
More book reading
Personal phone calls (this one lasted at least an hour)
2nd lunch around noon – disappeared for about an hour
check email
Read book
Play PSP

You may be asking yourself why there is no internet surfing listed above? Well about 3 weeks ago the team that I work on was told to severely limit Personal surfing on “Agency” computers - because this guy was getting here in the a.m. and surfing all day (so where you see book reading above… that used to be surf time).

It’s not like there is no work to be done. I have been crazy busy, and in the midst of it all he was assigned to be the Primary contact for a small project. Right before the email went out announcing this he turned to me and said, “we need to tell them that you are the Primary on this” My response – “No, I am already Primary on another project”. So after he was assigned to this project he does the bare minimum (doesn’t prepare any reports or daily updates, isn’t prepared at all).

So last week, I had two documents that needed to be completed and submitted to the client for review, along with some other tasks that I needed to accomplish for the week. In the midst of all this (right after the big day of do nothing) I get an email that I am the only contact for a small project that needs to be completed this week (aka last week). While I am a queen of multi-tasking even I cannot work on two documents with a deadline of ASAP at the same time – they need to be prioritized. So in all my passive aggressive glory I said I could do one, but it would be at the delay of the other which one do you want me to work on? Needless to say – Mr. Do Nothing now found himself with some work to do.

I have been in this situation before... as I am sure some of you have. When you do a good job, you get assignments. If you do crap, people do not want to assign you work. Which is better? Obviously I say “Do a good job and stay employed!” but the people that do crap usually somehow manage to stay employed too!

What would happen if all the people that are top producers took a week and completely slacked? I think I would be bored after a day or two… there is only so much online shopping one can do!

The one plus about this situation is that I can bill extra hours and get paid for it :D.

One of my managers knows about Mr Do Nothing and that I am displeased about the situation., it remains to be seen if anything is done. I’ll keep you posted.

(I realize some may call me a hypocrite because I am posting to my blog while at work… but I think there is a difference between occasionally taking a surf break, and surfing, reading, and playing video games to the point that you are actively trying to get work that has been assigned to you reassigned to someone else.)