Different people at work have different unspoken mottos they adhere to while performing their job duties. But perhaps one of the most difficult folks to work with is those who adhere to the motto: "Rules for thee, but not for me!"
The author of our story today, the user u/Bowlpin16, works at an insurance company, interacting directly with clients, and the integrity of their colleagues is truly important to them. But, as luck would have it, one of the coworkers, a sales team member, sincerely believes that everyone in the office should work hard except her...
More info: Reddit
Any office is, in fact, a mini-universe, and some inhabitants of this universe actually want nothing but to get paid for being slacky
Image credits: Getty Images / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
The author of the post works at an insurance company, and one of their coworkers is, in fact, a really lazy and entitled lady
Image credits: Bowlpin16
Image credits: Getty Images / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
This colleague always does her best to shift any of her direct job responsibilities onto others' shoulders and gets mad in case she fails in doing this
Image credits: Bowlpin16
Image credits: wavebreak media / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The recent situation at work was actually of this kind - and the author made sure to nip in the bud one more slacky colleague's attempt to avoid work
Image credits: Bowlpin16
The woman got mad again and started badmouthing the author behind their back with her gossip buddy
The Original poster (OP) works as a customer service representative at an insurance company, and their immediate responsibility is initial customer service. Subsequently, clients interact with other employees, one of whom is a lady who is actually too slacky. At least, according to the original poster’s words.
The author describes how this woman tries in every way to avoid her own job responsibilities, shifting them onto others' shoulders and, if possible, doing nothing. And when this doesn't work, or she's forced to do what she's supposed to, she gets mad., justlike what happened recently.
This time, this woman's client contacted the OP - the slacky coworker needed to correct her own mistake, according to work protocol. The OP reported this to a colleague, who initially tried to claim there was nothing she could do. When the author literally told her exactly what to do, the colleague passive-aggressively replied that yes, she would do everything.
Furthermore, after completing her immediate work duties, this lady began badmouthing the author to another coworker, who was usually her gossip buddy. Apparently, the woman believed the author should’ve done it, and when she had to do the work herself, she lost it. "Rules for thee, but not for me. That's her unspoken motto for everything in this office," the OP sums up.
Image credits: jet-po / Freepik (not the actual photo)
In fact, people often have to interact with lazy colleagues at work, but experts do note that the motivations for such behavior vary. For example, this article at Yahoo Finance claims that employees may try to avoid their work responsibilities either due to their laziness or a lack of work skills.
In the latter case, things are much simpler - then you can offer the colleague training or suggest some professional advice, the article says. But the case we described clearly falls into the former category - the author's colleague handled the work quite easily after the OP literally forced her to do it.
In such a case, as this dedicated post at Goodwill notes, one should avoid doing the work of lazy colleagues whenever possible, keep a record of similar cases, and then - if a frank conversation with the coworker doesn't help - report them to HR or the direct manager. In fact, the author has already implemented three of the four points in these recommendations. There's just one thing left - the most important one.
Well, according to many people's comments, such colleagues can be found in literally any office, at any job. Usually, according to responders, it all ended with a report to the higher-ups - and with nothing good for the slacky employees... By the way, have you ever faced anything similar in your work experience? If so, please feel free to share your stories in the comments below as well.
Many commenters agreed that such people are nearly inevitable at work and praised the author for doing the right thing
