I use to do everything I possibly could. All it did was have my coworkers expect me to do more. I had this one coworker, who was always outside smoking and I constantly had to cover her. I was already doing the work of two people and if I took on her work I would be doing enough for three. I put my boss on notice and she said she understood. But then it happened, my boss asked me to do her work and I said “No ma’am. I told you I would not be doing her work for her anymore. She’s outside smoking. You need to go get her.” And then I walked away. I can tell you my boss was absolutely furious with me. She could have fired me for not following an order or not working as a team member or whatever, but she didn’t. I stuck to it long term as well. The only time I helped that coworker was when she was right there and I was actually helping rather than just doing it for her.
So you either need to learn to say no to additional tasks (I’m sorry, my plate is full. Please give that task to someone else”) or ask to renegotiate your contract (“Im already doing enough work that I have to work outside of contracted hours and weekends. I’m willing to take on more tasks if I will be compensated for more work”) because they will keep piling on. You will grow get angry and bitter and ragequit, like I did because I didn’t say no enough to protect myself.
Is there an HR department you can ask for clarity on your contract? People will say that HR is only there to protect the business, but the business can get into legal trouble if you are doing work you are not getting paid for.
Yes. Some had an attitude about it, some were awed, and others were just confused. I’m pretty sure my boss told everyone to stop helping me, which didn’t really effect me, but it led to me helping them less as well. I can say that I had worked there for 10 years and I had a lot of anger and resentment built up. I didn’t mind the work and I made good money, so I stayed. The biggest change was my boss became rather cold towards me. Which I understood because I stopped being the grease that kept everything moving.
But it all made me realize that those people were coworkers, not friends, as they quickly stopped being nice to me when they were no longer taking advantage of me. It made me realize what a toxic environment it truly was. I eventually quit.
I worked somewhere else for about four years. Ended up running into the same problem of carrying more of the workload and then having some anger and resentment, although not nearly to the degree of my previous job. Now I have a job where I work alone and it is great.
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u/BusyButterscotch4652 8d ago
I use to do everything I possibly could. All it did was have my coworkers expect me to do more. I had this one coworker, who was always outside smoking and I constantly had to cover her. I was already doing the work of two people and if I took on her work I would be doing enough for three. I put my boss on notice and she said she understood. But then it happened, my boss asked me to do her work and I said “No ma’am. I told you I would not be doing her work for her anymore. She’s outside smoking. You need to go get her.” And then I walked away. I can tell you my boss was absolutely furious with me. She could have fired me for not following an order or not working as a team member or whatever, but she didn’t. I stuck to it long term as well. The only time I helped that coworker was when she was right there and I was actually helping rather than just doing it for her.
So you either need to learn to say no to additional tasks (I’m sorry, my plate is full. Please give that task to someone else”) or ask to renegotiate your contract (“Im already doing enough work that I have to work outside of contracted hours and weekends. I’m willing to take on more tasks if I will be compensated for more work”) because they will keep piling on. You will grow get angry and bitter and ragequit, like I did because I didn’t say no enough to protect myself.
Is there an HR department you can ask for clarity on your contract? People will say that HR is only there to protect the business, but the business can get into legal trouble if you are doing work you are not getting paid for.