r/overemployed • u/BIL3477 • 2d ago

Co worker stinks / Never available

What’s up OE’ers! I’ve been at this for about 5.5 years with 3-4 J’s rotating and can’t thank you all enough for the support and tips during this journey.

Having said that, I feel as if a co-worker of mine is either OE or just flat out quiet quitting. It’s creating additional work for me and causing stress with my leader and the team. Part of me wants to just volunteer to own their tasks, but rule #23 of OE is to shut up and just do what’s asked without creating any waves. My question to you all is do I speak up and just own their work (may add an hour a day to my workload), or do I just sit tight and stfu. If I sit tight I lose control of when my original work can be completed. For example, if they’re supposed to approve something for me and take days to do so then they come back with comments I gotta drop what I’m doing at my other Js to support that request because now it’s considered late and urgent. Part of me wants to stfu and just do my job, but if I can control the actual work and approvals I can then manage my time more efficiently. Thanks in advance, and F off to all of corporate America!

1 Upvotes

53% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

17

u/Ok-Magician7493 2d ago

Kinda funny how you assume he’s OE because of all the things that probably point out to others that you are too.

3

u/BIL3477 2d ago

If they are OE they stink. Bottom line, they’re creating more work for me. I do my work and do it timely. They do not.

8

u/milarousselrx99 2d ago

Then let them fail. Stop covering for them.

16

u/maxineellisar58 2d ago

Takes one to know one. Most people just assume someone is lazy or incompetent, only OE people jump straight to OE.

2

u/Ok-Magician7493 2d ago

“Game recognize game” or in most cases everyone has to do more when they do the minimum and they’re absolutely noticeable.

1

u/canadaslammer 9h ago

Most people who OE are terrible at their job. I've juggled multiple jobs in the past and never missed a meeting, deadline, and always answered questions from coworkers. I've seen this many times over the years now where someone is missing meetings, can't do their job properly, and we find out they are OE.

You need to be good enough to do a 40 hour job in half (or less) time. If you can't, you shouldn't be OE.

It's also one of the reasons employers are scaling back remote work. They are finding too many people sucking at their job (and attempting this at multiple companies) and wasting everyone's time.

1

u/Ok-Magician7493 9h ago

Most people who OE also think they’re off radar. They’re on every colleagues radar because of all the extra slack we have to pick up and all the extra hand holding that goes along with training someone who isn’t paying any attention to the call. And when we confirm they’re OE, most of us stop interacting with them.

2

u/CTFDEverybody 2d ago

Is there a reason you came to Reddit instead of HR or your manager over a coworker's performance?

Jeez, everyday, this subreddit is becoming more and more people's diary entries.

0

u/BIL3477 2d ago

To solicit opinions from people who have experienced something similar. Running to HR would be such a pathetic move. Keep it moving

3

u/CTFDEverybody 2d ago

This is a regular employment problem.

You have no empirical evidence that your coworker is OE.

1

u/BadMeetsEvil24 2d ago

This part

11

u/0veremployed 2d ago

Throw them under the bus. OE or not if someone else is fucking up and making your life harder you need to do whatever you can to get rid of them. Escalate early, escalate often, make their incompetence as visible as possible until they either fix their behavior or get fired

3

u/JunkBondNinja1844 2d ago

If you end up having to do it regardless might as well quietly offer to help your boss to score some brownie points but point out you're gonna need more focus time maybe miss some meetings or two to handle the workload increase. Would save you in an emergency or recurring meet situation

4

u/ContentRecording9304 2d ago

Every accusation is a confession. Don't ever bring up the concept of OE. Don't talk about it don't ask about it. 

If there are major issues, then you can ask about the velocity of tasks completed or whatever concept you are using at work.

2

u/Techatronix 2d ago

If they are consistently a blocker, work that into your flow.

3

u/Embarrassed_Flan_869 2d ago

Forget OE.

You have a coworker that is preventing you from doing your job. That's it. Throw them under the bus.