“I Unplugged My Phone”: Office Worker Fed Up After Answering Calls For A Colleague For 2 Years

It’s important to maintain a good relationship with your colleagues. After all, most of us spend the bigger part of our day at work. Things run much more smoothly when you and your teammate have mutual respect and understanding.

But not all coworkers can get along so well. What do you do if your colleague is irritatingly incompetent or straight-up lazy? The bigger part of the workload then falls onto your shoulders. Redditor GetOffMyUnicorn70 shared her strategy to deal with a coworker who isn’t pulling their weight. She believes that colleagues should be responsible for the same tasks equally.

To get an expert’s opinion on the matter, Bored Panda asked organization development consultant and author of Work Jerks: How to Cope with Difficult Bosses and Colleagues Louise Carnachan for some comments. She sympathizes with the hero of the story but also offers some other ways one can react in this situation.

The author of the post GetOffMyUnicorn70 also responded to our interview query. You can find her update below!

More info: Louise Carnachan | LinkedIn | Facebook

People should know their work responsibilities and not expect their colleagues to do their job for them

Image credits: stokkete (not the actual photo)

This woman turned the tables on her coworker with some petty and low-effort revenge

Image credits: wirestock (not the actual photo)

Image credits: GetOffMyUnicorn70

We also got an update from the author of the post

The Redditor that posted this story, GetOffMyUnicorn70, was kind enough to share an update with Bored Panda. “Unplugging my phone has worked like a charm,” she gushes. “People are still getting the support they need, and I have one less irritation in the workplace.”

The woman also took the advice of fellow Redditors. “I popped off the plastic tab to validate it was all just an unfortunate accident. Who says the internet is a waste of time?!”

However, the author also reflects in more detail on what drove her to behave this way. “A lot of comments address my not communicating with my coworker about a problem,” the Redditor adds. “Lola has a long history of stressing the importance of teamwork but is the last person to actually act like a strong teammate.”

“The decision to unplug my phone stemmed from not seeing any fruit from communicating concerns with Lola in the past,” the OP explains. “So, if a coworker refuses to do anything, my advice is to take things into your own hands in a way that won’t get you fired,” the Redditor concludes.

The first step should be to try to talk to your colleague first, and if that does nothing, then go to your supervisor

Work relationship coach Louise Carnachan says she sympathizes with the author. “It’s understandable that the clueless response drove them to disconnect the phone in defiance,” she says.

“The thing is, the retaliation was aimed at the company with the potential of harming the business. Not a great solution if you want them to thrive enough to keep you employed. A passive-aggressive response is unlikely to result in any change,” Louise explains.

The first step in addressing such an issue should be a conversation with your coworker. Louise suggests saying something like: “When we’re both at our desks, we need to trade off who answers calls starting now.” Another option could be to trade off answering the phone for another duty that the coworker could do for both of them.

She says the person might also decide it isn’t worth being miserable and truly let it go, not stew about it. “In similar situations, I’ve often thought, ‘Well, at least I’m not that person’s supervisor.’ Which is a lot easier to think about if you aren’t doing the work for both of you.”

If talking to the colleague doesn’t help, Louise then suggests taking it up to the supervisor. In fairness, it was their job to monitor that coworker’s performance, so where were they? “No one’s paying attention other than the worker who was picking up the pieces (and phone),” Louise notes.

“Ownership for performance improvement is between the supervisor and the employee. A disgruntled colleague might have to bite the bullet and go have a chat about feeling overburdened.”

How does one tell their supervisor about a colleague who isn’t pulling their weight?

Image credits: Sora Shimazaki (not the actual photo)

Approaching that conversation might need some preparation. “Know specifically what it is exactly that your colleague is or isn’t doing,” Louise advises. “Not answering the phone is obvious, but other situations might require paying close attention to what you see and hear.”

Some examples may be excessive socializing, most likely being on social media instead of working. Also ignoring the parts of the job they don’t like for the parts they do like or not becoming skilled enough to do the full job and assuming you’ll pick it up. Louise suggests thinking about questions such as “Did this problem just start or has it always been an issue? Did they get oriented and trained properly to do the work?”

However, it’s also important to be crucially honest with yourself. “It’s easy to assume we’re the ones doing everything and no one else is,” Louise says. “Leaving aside an obvious phone avoidance situation, unless you have a production line where the finished pieces can be counted, you might never know whether the other person is pulling their weight.”

“They can be contributing in ways you aren’t aware of such as quality, other duties assigned by the boss, etc. Maybe you work at different paces; fast work may be your superpower. If there are no production goals, it’s really hard to know who is accomplishing what during a shift – and that’s true of many jobs. Again, aren’t you glad you aren’t supervising your colleagues!”

A workplace culture where team members support each other and share responsibilities can help avoid such misunderstandings

Image credits: Alexander Suhorucov (not the actual photo)

Louise Carnachan says that the culture of teamwork starts at the top and should be an example for all employees. “Managers need to be clear about their expectations for teamwork and what that means in practice. What the duties are, what you do together, whether you pick up additional work if you’ve finished yours, whether you help others by taking on some of their load and vice versa when needed.”

“Then they need to look for examples of teamwork and call them out for praise and acknowledgment. When opportunities for teamwork aren’t taken, that should be pointed out as well. Most managers don’t pay close enough attention; they make assumptions that it’s all running the way it should until there’s a blowup. They have to get out of their office and observe.”

It’s crucial to inform every new hire about how the team divides the workload among themselves. “Job training should include specifics about how team members communicate with each other and when to elevate concerns to the supervisor and when to try to work them out on their own,” the trainer says.

When hiring, it’s important to remember people are different. Some are much better at working alone and don’t want to be in a team. Louise stresses the importance of asking people how they like to work. “Some people are better off as individual contributors,” she observes.

“Ask how they handle situations when there’s a disagreement with a coworker or the workload seems unevenly distributed. Ask what they most enjoy about being in a team,” Louise gives some examples. “It’s a lot easier to play well with others when that’s actually your strength.”

Two other redditors shared similar stories and useful methods for sneaky revenge in the comments

The reactions in the comments varied: some believed the OP was too passive-aggressive, others offered praise

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