Need to have a rant about a colleague. We get on fine most of the time, she’s easy to talk to and can be quite funny but at the same time she has absolutely no respect for me and sometimes she makes me really, really hate being there. I’m not her boss or supervisor but I am senior to her, kind of in a ‘mentor’ type of way. It’s my responsibility to make sure she has all the knowledge she needs to be able to do her job correctly and minimise errors and to pretty much keep the department running (I’m NHS).
She’s not new, she’s actually been with us for almost 2 years now but yet every single week I still have to point the same things out to her that I did in her very first week. For example I’ll ask her not to do something because it goes against our department policy (being on her phone, leaving the reception unmanned for extended periods etc), I’ll remind her to do things that she hasn’t done from days before, I have to remind her of her daily duties and so on. She lies constantly. Sometimes white lies and sometimes big lies. Anytime I or someone else questions her about something she’ll pretend it’s the first time she’s ever heard it or say ‘I wasn’t told/didn’t know that’ even if it was something you told her yourself. Thursday last week I asked her yet again to not be on her phone while at work outside of break time, she said ‘oh yeah no problem it won’t happen again’. Today I walk into her office and there she is on her phone not even trying to hide it. She saw that I caught her and still stayed on it, almost like a big ‘
duck you, what are you gonna do’. I ignored it and walked back out again.
It sounds so minor but this is a daily occurrence and it’s with multiple things. There are things in our department that must be done every single day and she doesn’t do them - she’s either busy on her phone, she’s browsing the internet or has just chosen not to do them. Our department used to be so organised, everything was up to date and you knew exactly what was going on. These days it’s a total
tit show. Stuff left lying everywhere, jobs half done, basic housekeeping being ignored. I used to be so proud of our department when I was solely responsible for it but now it’s an embarrassment. Her main priority at work is socialising be it on her phone speaking to god knows who or leaving her reception unmanned to go elsewhere and gossip with other staff. She doesn’t give a
tit if I say anything because she’s gonna ignore it anyway as my role holds no authority.
She has no respect for my position and the fact that ITS MY JOB to keep her right. I’m not saying it for the sake of it, it is literally what I am paid to do. But she seemed to clock on very early on that if she doesn’t follow through with what I ask, there isn’t anything I can do so she knows she’ll get away with it. I don’t really understand why she’s like this though, she’s been pretty vocal about wanting to progress and move upwards and even move into my role if I were to leave but yet she’s doing absolutely nothing to show this. In fact, she’s doing the complete opposite and is showing all the reasons why she shouldn’t progress and is highlighting that she isn’t even fulfilling her current role.
I’ve tried flagging it with my management but they’re not interested because it’s a small blip on their radar of things they have to deal with in the NHS. I understand this to an extent, but with my colleague not doing her job properly it makes me look like I’m not doing mine properly because I’m the one responsible for her. How am I supposed to progress and get better at my job if this one person is stopping me from doing so? Everything she does incorrectly falls back on me.
Ugh I’m just fed up with it all. It feels almost passive aggressive because we’re so friendly with each other and do actually get on but all of this disrespect and ignorance is intertwined. It’s such a confusing environment for me to be in.
It also doesn’t help that I’m still stuck in two minds about whether I want to go to university later this year or not. Part of me is like ‘
duck it, go for it!’ and the other part is like ‘am I just considering it because I’m unhappy in my current situation’. I just can’t seem to get my head straight and actually figure out what I want and that doesn’t even include narrowing down which uni course to apply for. I’m stuck between Accounting and Finance or Business Analytics - I already have the qualifications for entry to both courses which is great, but as previously mentioned I just can’t seem to figure out if I want to do it or if it’s just a means to get out of my current situation
) and then leave for good.
