How to deal with people who get away without doing work ? 11

[Guest_imported]

How does one deal with a team lead who really does not do any work but gets away with it as his backup person in the team gets all the work that needs to be done ?

 

[butchrecon]

Simply put, you just deal with it. This is not ment to be crappy. I am in a similar situation. The company I work for has 4 techs in this verticle. 2 of them (one being myself) know windows NT, 98, 2000, and Unix. the other two mainly deal with UNIX. Thier lack of enthusiasm to learn Windows has put an undo amount of pressure on myself and the other tech by us picking up the slack. This has inturn lead management to assign MULTIPLE prodjects to us just because they involve Windows. This leads to time crunches and prodjects being completed late. We see this. However we just let it go and continue to drive on. Sooner or later it will be noticed and may be rewarded. You never know. If the backup lead performs well continously, he may get noticed and given the lead. James Collins
Field Service Engineer
A+, MCP

email: butchrecon@skyenet.net

Please let us (Tek-tips members) know if the solutions we provide are helpful to you. Not only do they help you but they may help others.

 

[Guest_imported]

Thanks for the reply. Looks like you are in a similar situation.

In the situation here though I am not too sure as to whether management is aware that the team lead is not the person who is doing the work.

 

[BeckahC]

I used to have a manager like that, before I went into IM. He would distribute his tasks and projects amongst us, or more usually, he would give us the leg work and then he would copy our results and put only his name on it. People were aware of this since he was not very gramatically inclined and we were more - uh... <?>schooled<?> in the fine art of everything from letter writing to spreadsheet creation, maintenance and entry.... His boss would come to me, say &quot;Did you do this?&quot; I, of course, would say yes, &quot;great job!&quot; Then I'd hear her go to his cube and show him everything she wanted changed or added Chances are, if your bosses don't know yet, they will eventually... you just never know how they'll deal with it. BeckahC

 

[MasterRacker]

Take them out back and kick them in the face with a flaming, electrified, spiked iron boot.

Seriously though, there's not a whole lot you can do. Document everything you personally are handling though. By presenting this at you next performance review, you may be able to demonstrate indirectly how much of the load you are pulling (do not come right out and say this or name slackers - you would then just sound like a whiner: Keep it positive and focus on your own performance) you may be able to at least get a decent raise out of the deal.
Jeff
Working in IT is like trying to commit suicide with a very small hammer ....

 

[Ngolem]

I used to have a boss like that...he was forever taking my ideas and putting his stamp on them and I would hear from others about these great ideas that came from his lips.

I then stopped being &quot;creative&quot; and just did my job.

I had my moment of glory when upper management wanted to run with one of these ideas and called him into a meeting to discuss specifics....which of course he couldn't do.

I got called into the meeting to &quot;back him up&quot;...but I had made up my mind that I was leaving that department already....so I let him &quot;twist in the wind&quot; for a long time and watched him agonizingly try to explain a concept that he didn't understand...while he silently implored me to help him out. After 10 minutes of this, I took over slowly at first and then with enthusiasm as it was my idea.

Management looked favourably at me...but I had already accepted a new post within the company in another department. SO I couldn't persue the idea anymore...

So mister team leader got his come-uppence and I didn't have to deal with him after that....IT WAS SWEET!

Did I mind losing that idea?....nopes, I have lots of good ideas Jim
JimBroadbent@Hotmail.com

 

[Guest_imported]

Thanks for all the replies. Seems like many people go through such situations. The other thing &quot;this person&quot; does is that if anything goes wrong, he passes the blame on. However, when it comes to praise, he will behave as if he had done things. Also, whenever his immediate boss is on leave or travelling, he conveniently decides to work from home!! How can one really cover oneself when dealing with a person like this?

 

[butchrecon]

Keep a LOG of the events! Send emails out. That way when &quot;you know what&quot; hits the fan you have a record to cover yourself.

James Collins
Field Service Engineer
A+, MCP

email: butchrecon@skyenet.net

Please let us (Tek-tips members) know if the solutions we provide are helpful to you. Not only do they help you but they may help others.

 

[Ngolem]

I would look for a new boss frankly... Jim Broadbent

 

[Kjonnnn]

Been there too.

Do written correspondence in case you're blame for anything.

Start making him the &quot;joke&quot; that he doesnt do any &quot;real&quot; work. It'll either shame him and open other peoples eyes, or you'll get fired.

 

[ukjane]

If any of you are sad enough to watch &quot;Home Improvement&quot; like me you will remember Wilson saying, There are two types of poeple, those that take the credit and those that do the work, the trick is to be in the last catergory, there is a lot less competition.

 

[Bullshot]

I once had the same manager as yourself, chap by the name of Alan(his nickname was actually a really clever anagram of his name, and rather apt too). For two years he claimed all the &quot;glory&quot; and praise for his teams hard work, and just dissed us whenever anything went wrong. He is no used as an example of lousy leadership in Training courses within the company, and he got busted down to the bottom rung and moved to another site some eighty miles from home.

The &quot;powers that be&quot; will have their suspicions already, unfortunately it's really hard to fire someone for being a sycophantic liar. They will need to wait until he really screws up and hammer him for that.

EG. In the UK the act of using a mobile phone while driving is illegal. It's almost impossible to bust a driver for driving like an arse, because it's so hard to prove. They can, however, prove that you were on the phone. So they'll take you down for that. Not the real reason, but good enough.
Kevin Adkins, MCP(Paper)

This is my opinion. There is no right or wrong. Any information I give is correct to the best of my knowledge. No cute furry mammals were harmed in the posting of this forum.

 

[Skittle]

I found myself in a small I.S. department doing all the real work. Another guy at the same level as me used every trick in the book to avoid doing anything. The chief tactic was being less that co-operative with users and making them use up so much energy explaining a request that after a while they gave up!

This went on for about 5 years. Over those years I worked long hours, gained a great reputation and doubled my salary. The other guy stayed static.

Overall I would say don't worry about how little the other guy is doing but how much you are achieving. If you're overloaded point it out in writing at the start of each additional project piled on top of you. Give regular status updates to your boss indicating what acn and cannot be achieved in the timescales you have. Again in writing. That covers you.

 

[Chopstik]

I worked for a small systems group supporting about 700 users, but was one of only two programmers. I had originally gotten the job because I had demonstrated an aptitude for programming in my previous life elsewhere in the organisation and was hired when there became an opening due to the previous two programmers leaving within a short time of each other (I had worked with both of them as a liaison of sorts between them and users when they were there). The other (senior) programmer was hired from the outside with Access, VB and other great knowledge and experience. However, whenever a project came up, it invariably ended up being assigned to me - at least if management wanted it completed. At first, I thought it was because everyone knew me as I had been there (at the company) for several years and felt more comfortable with me. I found out later it was because every time mgmt went to my counterpart with a project, he would act as though he didn't understand the requirements or would constantly hem and haw about it until the users gave up and seek an alternative that did not involve him.

Eventually, I was handling everything while he spent his days downloading music from the web and creating musical discs which he then gave to other team members and management (a bribe!). After 6 months of this, I informed our manager (who was offsite) of what was happening and asking for some resolution - at that point, I was working from 7 am to 7 pm or later to make sure that my projects were getting completed! Additionally, I informed mgmt that our lead VB programmer (my counterpart) could barely even read existing VB code, let alone write any. His VB experience was reading the VBA code from his Access programs!

My reward - we were shipped around to 6 different groups (because for some reason I was never able to divine, we were seen as a package deal!) before I finally quit. During that time, however, I taught myself VB, some SQL and Crystal reporting (in addition to my regular duties) and now am much happier with my current job! My counterpart - he was finally relegated to the lowest position in a help desk team taking user calls for network password problems before he was finally released because he could not even handle that position (almost 3 years after he had been hired for his vaunted programming expertise!).

The moral of this story - when mgmt won't deal with the problem and you've burned yourself out, then QUIT! Everything is absolute. Everything else is relative.

 

[isibee]

Oh my do I have a story for you guys!

My previous boss(female)was everything you hated in a boss, she didn t know sh.., made me do all of her work, talked on the phone with her life partner(3-4hours a day)(they lived together), worked at the same place(!), visited her friends during worktime(in the same buiding)..etc

We were 3 technicians. I myself had a contract to get courses in anything I thought was fit for the company (as long we already had the software for it).

For many reasons none of which were correct, my boss never let me have one single course in the 3 long years I gave them! And on top of it I became very ill! Was brought to the hospital for 10 days at a time in which time she called me for information!
Now that s heartless!!!
So after my health was good again, I moved away and found myself another job and greatly appreciated and having courses by the ton! Finally I'm happy!

That s my sad story...have a good day.

 

[NiteLink]

Luckily for me, until now, since I started my work at this current company, my colleague and I work quite well as a team. Even after the transfer, I haven't have what you have went through.

However, I heard from the grapevine that my GM is someone who likes to walk around a lot. Wonder where he goes too anyway...

 

[Stevehewitt]

Hey People,

Just a point you maybe interested in: I always thought that my (now-ex) boss did nothing at all - ever! And always took the credit from senior management for the work that I got done.
Guess what happened the other day... Thats right - Chop Chop!