Some colleagues get away with doing less but still receive the rewards and recognition of those who do their fair share or more.
Colleagues who don’t pull their weight miss deadlines, make mistakes, and stay out of sight when the hard work is getting done. Yet, they often get the same credit as everyone who put their shoulder into it. This can be both infuriating and demotivating.
Complaining to the team or project leader is a surefire way of looking like a crybaby and a whiner. The leader immediately believes you are incapable of managing relationships and creating a supportive climate. Asking the team leader to solve or address the issue commonly results in an icy glare toward the tattletale that doesn’t thaw for days or weeks.
Confronting the colleague and laying it on the line is equally dangerous as it commonly produces a protracted conflict where all communication comes to a screeching halt.
The better strategy is actually to do more of their work, not less.
You read that right. The key is to keep taking tasks and responsibilities away from them until they have nothing to do. At first, they happily sit on the sidelines and watch you and the team work for them.
It quickly becomes painfully obvious they are completely uninvolved and unimportant. Everyone around them sees them not only as a slacker, but as irrelevant. Leaders who check in and inquire about how things are going soon realize the lazy colleague is without tasks or work.
Now fully exposed, most colleagues who don’t do their fair share of the work begin to clamor for assignments. With luck, they will lose their slothful ways and pick up a shovel. Those who don’t will sometimes find themselves without a job.
In the words of a comic, the worst part of doing nothing is you never know when you’re finished.
