I have a colleague X on my team. I find that she is either not really competent, or chooses the higher visibility projects and looking competent instead of actually doing the work. I asked another colleague and she had similar views. My boss has not asked me for feedback on her. I can’t tell if my boss is impressed with her or finds the quality of her work lacking. My boss is not too involved in the day to day of what we do.
I put myself in my boss’ shoes. If I were the boss, I would want to hear this feedback about X because it is a blind spot instead of letting it fester. But I am not my boss and I don’t know if it would look unprofessional to be seen complaining about another colleague.
What would you do?
19 comments
Does her work (or lack of it) directly impact you?
If the college takes credit for your work or the lack of work directly affects you then yes!
Otherwise what I would do is ask for a pay rise and put the point forward that your college doesn’t do much work and you feel you deserve more then a college who doesn’t work.
Or you could just tell your boss, expressing your concerns in pulling down the team.
Your boss should be aware and it’s not your call.
Grassing them up (which is only in your opinion) could backfire terribly.
Don’t grass. It’s none of your business.
Overwritten
No, and people like you piss me off so fucking much it hurts.
You’re all there, ultimately, for one thing. That’s to earn your money to survive. You aren’t a shareholder in the company. You’re not a founder. Who do you think you are in ratting to bosses about someone not doing their work to your standards?
Let them be and mind your own f*cking business
Clear no. You can show she is incompetent by making public requests. Best during the meetings. Never point someone.
Yes, it’s fine to give feedback. I would recommend preparing feedback. Write it down so you don’t go off on a tangent or make it emotional. If you google “feedback model” there are lots of good ways to do it.
Lots of people do well by just looking competent. I have many examples. Some people probably think the same about me.
Unless it’s directly affecting you, ignore it. Not your circus, not your monkeys.
Maybe you should start taking a page out of her book? Work smarter, not harder.
I would say yes. If the feedback you have to give would help your team, they speak with your boss. It’s possible that your colleague needs more training or needs to be moved to a different team, and your boss needs to be able to provide these things.
Forget about it unless it affects you directly. If her actions are so incompetent that the company may lose contracts/ funding/ reputation damage then that’s different. You need to do something then as people may lose their jobs. I’ve seen someone lose a 3.5 million pound funding contract because of their incompetence. They kept their job, others weren’t as lucky.
No, don’t be a snitch, even the boss won’t like it.
If it doesn’t directly impact you or your work, then stay out of it. This is your colleague, and you are not her boss, so don’t take on the responsibility of creating tension in the team.
If it doesn’t impact my output directly then I wouldn’t.
I have been asked for feedback recently by a colleague that I believe is truly useless at their job.
I chose to ignore the request and let it expire.
I hate the feedback process and I refuse to leave negative feedback.
What you are signalling to your boss is you like to tell tales about people when not asked. Your boss will start to wonder what you say about them to others.
If it was a case of honesty or integrity, gross misconduct, it directly affects you at work, or anything else serious (like putting lives at risk, etc) then yeah, it’s worth asking if you can discuss your concerns with the boss.
If it’s anything else, and it sounds like it’s more a concern about the quality of this person’s work, then it’s not your business and you run the risk of coming across as a bit of a know-it-all or that you know better than your boss. As you’ve said, you’re not the boss – they’re more than likely privy to additional information they’re not sharing and you can’t really know the full circumstances. It’s one thing to have an opinion on a colleague, particularly if you work to different standards, but it’s another to cross the line into meddling – which is how it could be viewed.
If it doesn’t effect you then why mention it? If she choose looks competent then isn’t she competent?
The easy answer is if it is positive this is a great idea!
If it’s negative feedback – don’t be a grass