Dealing with co-workers who do not carry their end of the workload can be very difficult, especially if you are the co-worker who has to pick-up the slack. There are a few things that you can do to try to remedy the situation but first you need to make sure that you are seeing the picture correctly. What I mean by this is does your co-worker slack off occasionally or is it a continual thing? Do they only do it when certain tasks are being asked of them or is it with all tasks that are assigned to them? Because many times people will, for lack of a better word “shy away” from duties that they do not feel comfortable doing or do not have the training and skill to do. I know that in my office there has been times that I thought someone knew how to do something and wondered why they were not doing it, only to find out that they had never been shown how to do the task. We are busy running our businesses and at the same time trying to train, so things can get dropped through the cracks. But if you determine that they are just a slacker, take the time to verify this, if you can, with others that you work with just to be sure that you are seeing things correctly, as you do not want to falsely accuse someone of not carrying their share of the load. If others agree with you then you need to either speak to a supervisor about it so they can approach them or you need to approach them. The objective would be to let the person know how their lack of carrying their job load affects your job load by you having to pick up the slack. It is okay to let them know that this causes frustration and even anger, but the purpose of telling them is to make them aware and be able to work together to resolve the problem. If they see the error of their way and want to change, set up goals to allow them to fix their behavior. Encourage them, ask for their input to let you know how they are going to carry their share of the load and then remember to compliment them when they do follow though. Now there are those people who, sorry to say it, but are just plain slackers and they will continue to do less if their co-worker will pick up their end and do more, they do not realize or care how they are effecting others they work with, just as long as it does not affect them. With these folks you still need to take the steps above asking them to work on carrying their end of the load and have a plan of accountability set up for them, but if they don’t want to carry their share of the load they need to be let go. No business today is doing that financially great that they can afford to pay for an employee who not only does not do their share of the work, but also causes grief for other employees and could be the reason that those good employees seek employment elsewhere. ~ “Life is too short to work two jobs and only get paid for one” Tina Del Buono
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