Consider manager’s reaction before "turning in" co-workers

Dear Joan:
I work in a department of approximately 15 professionals. Our department supplies support to various projects and activities throughout the company. The department manager is quite busy and leaves the day-to-day decision making to each of us. He does not keep tabs on each of our specific activities.

Two of my co-workers take advantage of this lack of supervision by spending a great deal of each day working on personal business. These activities are not related in any way to the work that we do, but often consume 20 hours or more of their time per week. This has been going on for several months. The result has been poorer performance from our department. These two have also been able to convince our Manager that their workload is too great, resulting in the reassignment of their tasks to others in the department.

I find this situation to be extremely aggravating and I would like to do something about it. The problem is that I'm not sure how to go about it. I'm very uncomfortable with the thought of "squealing" on my co-workers, and I'm not sure how receptive my manager would be hearing about it. Do you have any suggestions for me on what I can do to improve this situation?

Answer:
How frustrating! I can understand how annoyed you must be. Not only are they taking advantage of your manager's trust, they're doing it at your expense and the expense of those they serve. And that's the key point. Because their behavior has some tangible affect on you and your customers, you have a credible, reasonable concern.

Before you do anything, consider some questions:

·        Do you have proof that these two are doing personal business on company time? If you don't have first hand proof about this, you may look petty and foolish if you're proven wrong.

·        Do other co-workers evaluate their behavior the same way you do? If you're the only one who thinks they're out of line, perhaps you're misinformed. On the other hand, if other co-workers have been affected --getting extra worked dumped on them--they probably are just as upset as you are.

·        Do you trust your manager's interpersonal and managerial skills? If your manager tends to shoot first and ask questions later, you might be wise to stay quiet and wait until these two trip themselves up.

Would your manager handle this information sensitively; would he get some first hand information rather than use you as the "squealer?" If you suspect that you would be vulnerable, think twice.

·        Is your manager so busy he would rather wave away your concern as petty jealousy than deal with it? If he has a history of ignoring people problems he won't be happy with this one and he may shoot the messenger.

·        Is there a direct link between the drop in the department's productivity and the antics of these two? Have there been complaints? What has been the specific impact? This is the key reason for wanting to become involved.

If you decide to approach your manager, you will have better results if you open the discussion with your concern about the drop in department productivity and how your internal customers are affected.

You may only want to tell him that you have a good idea what the problem is but you don't think it's your place to get directly involved. Explain that it's well known by everyone that "several" people in the department are taking advantage of his absence from the department to do their personal business. Tell him that it's creating a big morale problem in the department and it's taking a toll on the productivity. If he presses you for more details, only tell him what you're comfortable revealing. Explain that you think it would be best if he based his actions on first-hand observations. Also, ask him to leave your name out of it and explain that you (and others) thought he'd want to be alerted to the problem.

If this approach makes you feel uncomfortable, your best bet may be to take no action at all. Continue to do a great job on your work and take every opportunity to get ready for your next promotion. Who knows, someday you may be their boss.

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