It had been brewing for a while. After the last post, Mr. Do Nothing was assigned to work on a project that was semi-high profile. This was around the beginning of October. Well a few days in an email comes out from the client asking why no work was being done on the project. Apparently Mr Do Nothing decided the project was pointless and he wasn't going to do it!!!! OMG! Who does that!? So there was a mad scramble to cover for him (Oh yeah... he went on vacation right after the email came out) and of course I got dragged into it. (There is nothing I hate more than doing other people's work because they just will not do it!) I asked if Mr Do Nothing was going to be assigned back to this when he got back... response - "No, because he thinks its pointless." So I said, "he thinks everything is pointless!" Meaning is he going to just not do anything because he thinks it's all pointless?


Early this week I thought the ultimate meltdown may be avoided, because I was finally able to move my seat so I wouldn't have to see him "do nothing" all day long. Let's just say I counted my chicken's before they hatched :(

So I was on a high profile, high stress project. I have been working 10 + hours for the majority of this week, add on an hour + commute each way (1 night with a MARC train that was 30 minutes late), I wasn't eating dinner because I was too tired when I arrived home, and no running (aside from Monday). Needless to say I was not in a good place.

Yesterday I was on a tight deadline and trying to do 3 things at once when Mr Do Nothing thought now would be a good time to ask a question about another project that he found himself the sole resource on. He sent an email, I dumped some previous reports on him so that he could attempt to figure it out for himself. Since that entailed thinking and actaul work... no dice. He came by my desk and asked. I said, probably rather tersely (I'm not sure it's all a blur now), "I don't have time for this right now." He kept going and asked how I did something. My response... "I don't remember". Then it got so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Looking back I know I said that because I just wanted him to go away... and it worked!

If it didn't happen yesterday, it was bound to happen someother time, so I guess at least its out of the way. Now I can look forward to "team building" dorkiness ...

And I need to figure out how to work with someone I have no respect for and basically think is an idiot :-/

In response to my post yesterday regarding what was sending me on the path to a meltdown, one of my regular commenter’s mentioned the “efficient worker phenomenon”. Basically when it’s discovered that you can do a good job quickly, people are happy to pile on the work! Which in and of it-self is fine with me, except when you are surrounded by slackers who don’t pull their weight.

This reminds me a situation I was in two jobs ago when I worked with some one I refer to as “The MOM”. I am sure you know where this is heading…

So in IT many times you have implementations that need to be done off-hours (ie late at night or on weekends). Many companies will work out something if you are putting in a bunch of extra hours (during off hours) where you get comp-time etc…

Anyway … in this job I was working on a big project where we were moving a bunch of data from a legacy system to a big new fancy web-based system. Guess who got assigned to do the majority of the weekend implementations? Yep me! “The MOM” didn’t work a weekend the entire time she was there, nor did she stay late. But she was always the first one aboard the “leave early” train! So while I was putting in all these extra hours I started asking if I could start leaving early (ie when my work for the day was all finished… because I can focus and get it done!). Denied! Then a few months later I started asking if I could start telecommuting (I had an hour commute each way by car) 1 day a week. Denied again… needless to say these were some of the main reasons I am no longer with that company!

I am all for being a team player and picking up someone’s slack when there is an emergency or last minute situation… but when it becomes a repeated behavior to the point where I feel that I am being taken advantage of it is then time to ask yourself the serious questions, such as “What can be done about this?” or “Is this the right place for me?”

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.)