Do I report my lazy co-worker to my superior? or, do I just mind my own business.?

Question

I am his assistant. Several times now I caught him watching TV instead of doing his work. I am losing respect on this guy. Do I just mind my own business? Nobody checks up on him. He is abusing the system. He thinks he is on holiday whenever he comes to work. He is a physiotherapist. A slacker of a man. Serious anwers only. Will not hesitate to report. Hopefully, he gets what he deserves.

It might be hard for this guy to get caught. He is sneaky. He brings the residents to the TV lounge with him. He pretends he exercises them but not. I have seen it several times with my own eyes. He goes to the second floor lounge where there is no management in sight. He hides there to watched TV. It's a total turn off to work with this unprofessional physiotherapist.

Answer 1

Document, document, document! You cannot blow the whistle on him unless you can prove your assertion. Only you know your exact situation and only you can determine the best way to document his abuses. Know your state laws and your organization's regs. Where I am, secretly audio-taping a conversation is not illegal, but is a violation of the organizations rules. So, they have grounds to fire me if I record covertly, but in a criminal or civil court, my recordings are submisible. So, they could still fire me, but I could sue their butts off for protecting "him" and firing me without original cause.

Answer 2

First consider if his poor work is reflecting on you. If it is, you may have to tell. If there are sneaky ways to make sure you are getting credit for the amount of work you do, do it. Like putting your initials on everything you do, as appropriate, do not get yourself into trouble!.
Document, document, you get the idea. Do not let him or anyone else see you, keep it locked up so nobody can find it.
Consider only telling his boss if the boss asks.
Eventually, all goofoffs get caught, without any effort from assistants. It takes time for administration to follow labor laws to get rid of someone. It takes x amount of verbal warnings, written warnings, and time given to the employee to reform. And then some administrations are more generous, and try to cut people some slack.
Beware, this guy might have conections in administration, he might be the brother -in -law of the chief administrator, or he might have some blackmail type information that would sink someone, if they tried to get rid of him. And there is always the case of the office pet, who gets away with murder because he is so well liked.
Have faith, I just saw this, the pet got in serious trouble, someone else[not me] lost there job over it, because the administrator stuck up for her little pet. Her pet did another big mistake, and this time, the pet and the administrator got fired!
And, another story. Administration hired an incompetant fool. We the coworkers all knew it, but she lied her way out of everything she did wrong, with a big smile. She treated customers and coworkers like dirt, refused to do her job, thought she knew everything. Administration believed her, and she kept her job, right up until the day she mistreated a customer, the customer told on her, and she dropped the smiling facade, and talked to the administrator like she talked to us[badly]. Fired!.
Only one lazy butt ever kept her job that I knew, she was the division tattletale, very useful. Her administrator she snitched to got fired, so we are all waiting to see if the new boss finds her ueful, or finds that her usefulness as a snitch gets outweighed by her lazyness. She also undermines administration's rules, and talks bad about them. Of course, that is just a ploy to get someone to also critisize administration, and then she goes and tattles that.
Good luck.

Answer 3

It is frustrating to work with someone who does not carry their own weight, but no one likes or trusts a hall monitor. You don't want to wind up with the reputation of a snitch, no matter how pure your motives actually are, so unless his negligence is putting the company's interests or an individual's well-being in danger, then I would advise to leave it alone.

If your boss asks you for feedback, then don't hesitate to concisely and fairly state your concerns. But be cautious about voicing criticism of your coworkers unasked.

Answer 4

Trust me, mind your own business. This guy is going to eventually hang himself. I've worked with people like this before and sooner or later they get caught. If you report it, you're going to look like a snitch. Do your job and leave this slacker alone. Try not to give him the time of day. Talk to him only when you have to and if he starts asking you questions about his work ethic or lack of, feign stupidity. It worked for me and the guy was eventually fired. Ha !

Answer 5

He is your boss. If you resent him so much, you may want to look for another job. His superiors probably are aware of what is going on and choose not to act. If you go to his superiors, you will put your job and creditbility on the line. Noone will want you to work for them because you are a tattletale. You cannot be trusted. Even tho this guy may be way off base, you want to be careful what light you are seen in. CYA and do your job.

Answer 6

I also have experienced this where I work. I think as long as the supervisors don't care enough to monitor what's going on that it is really useless to complain. They will get theirs in the end or so I believe in "what goes around comes around." Now if you are actually doing his work for him then you might want to to complain but good luck getting anything done about it.

Answer 7

I would not say anything directly.

However, you should ask if you can pick up some of his work...This will go something like this...

"Hey [superior], I noticed [lazy co-worker] has some extra work on his hands, and I thought I would offer some extra help, it has to get done anyway."

This will look great to your boss. And you don't look like a jerk, just a very eagar worker-bee.

Answer 8

I would find somewhere to work.

Seriously, there is no point because once a lazy employee, always lazy employee. The only way the situation got better is if that person got sacked, and what's the chances of that?

Answer 9

On most jobs eventually people like this guy are caught.

You don't want to get mixed up in it because some of it may rub off on you.

I would only say something if it reflected on my work.

It's not your job to police anybody else....unless that's the practice where you work.

Answer 10

If this person's behavior is affecting your ability to do your job, then report it because it directly affects you. Otherwise, keep out of it.