A SECOND OPINION: Making use of a ‘useless’ co-worker

Every group has a slacker, and I think it’s obvious in a small congressional office who is or isn’t pulling their weight. The majority of our office works hard and works well together, but we have a senior co-worker who claims he’s always “busy,” yet he’s never busy taking care of his responsibilities in our office. How do employees not get noticed, or reprimanded, by their bosses when their uselessness is obvious to everyone else?
— Doing My Part

DMP,

Because their bosses don’t care. 

I just took a walk around the block to think about this question, and my logic led me to two scenarios, both ending with the above conclusion.

{mosads}Scenario No. 1: Your boss isn’t around the office enough to witness your co-worker’s non-work. To me, it’s a basic life truth that your presence somewhere shows you care. It stands to reason, then, that your absence somewhere shows you don’t care. So, in this case, not only does your boss not care about a do-nothing employee, she also doesn’t care about her do-everything employees — including you — because she’s not around to recognize their work. I’ll call this the Passive I Don’t Care.

Scenario No. 2: Your boss is around and sees the employee in full lethargy. This employee, however, rose to a senior level somehow, so he either added value to the office at one point or has had the unfailing loyalty of the office’s head honcho from the get-go. He can do as much or as little as he wants, and the boss won’t be fazed either way. I’ll call this the Active I Don’t Care.

Your role in this situation depends on how vested you are in your job and how astute you are in parsing your office’s politics.

If you don’t care much about your future with Boss I Don’t Care or about getting a reference from her, you can go straight to her with your complaint (with a healthy body of evidence, of course). But don’t expect much to happen. I would venture to guess her allegiance is going to be with her senior staff member, not you. It might make you feel better, though, just to get the complaint off your chest. But beware that this strategy could endanger your job.

If you want to stick around and move up, you might just have to look at this case as an “opportunity.” I recognize that advice sounds like something the Little Orphan Annie might say, but your choices here are slim. Pick up his extra work when you can. Then, when your boss gives you an opening, say.

(You: “I’ve started organizing constituents’ requests.” Her: “Why?” You: “I was looking for one of the requests one day and couldn’t find it.”) Even if it doesn’t pay off in this workplace, you can brag about it to prospective employers (i.e., “In addition to my staff-assistant duties, I started organizing constituent requests because I saw a need for it in the office.”)

Don’t let your co-worker drag you into his sloth pit. Do your work, look out for yourself and seize the chance to get some new experience.

Got a question? E-mail A Second Opinion at secondopinion@digital-staging.thehill.com .