Friendliness and approachability at work are two major assets for anybody – employee or employer. It helps you get along with your colleagues better, it makes you the go-to person, those subordinate to you or higher up in the command chain usually seek you out for any work-related issue and clients prefer dealing with you. However, for every nice person at work, there is someone, or a group of someones, waiting to take advantage of this amiability.
It is not always just the nice people being taken advantage of: the gullible, shy and the new employees are also frequent victims. If you have a colleague repeatedly taking advantage of you by having you do his or her work, or covering for them in front of the boss, it may be time to take a stand.
Are you covering for your colleague?
Identify ways in which you are covering for your colleague. There is a difference between being supportive and enabling laziness. Are you finishing projects that are not your responsibility so the team does not look bad? Are you doing additional work because someone else’s performance impacts your job in the long run? Are you making excuses for others? Are you lying to your supervisor or boss on someone else’s behalf?
Is it interfering with your work?
It is good to be good. However, constantly covering for someone else eventually takes its toll. You may be spending less time with family than you should, constantly feeling anxious given the extra stress, your own work may be suffering and even worse – your boss might notice your quality deteriorating.
Talk to your colleague
Next time your colleague brings in half-finished work and expects you to take it from there, or bails on an important meeting and expects you to take notes for them, take them away from the floor to have a frank and private talk. Mention how their tardiness is affecting your work, and how you want to find common ground and avoid such problems in the future.
Do not be afraid to hurt feelings
You are having a professional talk, so despite your close relationship, do not be afraid to get right to the point. Explain how you feel personally and professionally impacted, and how you want to help them deal with their issues whatever they may be, but that you will not do their work for them. Be sure to state you are no longer going to cover for anybody’s inefficiency or ineptitude.
Stick to the decision
Having the talk is easier than following through, for those who are too nice for their own good. The cycle will not stop till you actually make it stop. A lot of people will continue to slack of even after your talk. Do not entertain such behaviours. If they come to you for help, make sure you remain steadfast with your original decision.
Accept failure
There may be some general failures involved, which you will have to learn to accept. Allow your colleague to fail; you do not have to take the additional stress. Even if it is impacting your overall work, the higher ups will notice who is doing their job and who is not as long as you are not making excuses for others. The only way your bosses will find the weak link in the chain is by seeing it themselves.
Your job is not to make everyone happy
If you find yourself in a situation where you are reverting to your old ways, remind yourself of where the road leads. If you are helping someone write their emails today, you will end up making their PowerPoint presentations and progress reports tomorrow. The next time another colleague comes to you for help because of his or her own laziness, remind yourself where this kind of relationship will eventually head and make sure you tactfully refuse. This is not to say that you should become a difficult person to help with, become rude and refuse everyone’s request for help, but remember that you were not hired to make everyone happy.
