My old team was dissolved and two of us were transferred to a new group.

Sam P'h

July 15,2022 at 7:03PM UTC

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My old team was dissolved and two of us were transferred to a new group. My colleague was already handling two of the three biggest work groups. I thought that I would take on the third but she insisted on it. Of course now she's the corporate martyr who's always griping about how busy she is.

I do see that at time her projects do outnumber mine by half to double so yes, she is quite busy.

My feeling is to wait for her to bring it up and then have our manager get involved in evaluating our workloads.

Am I right to take this attitude? I would love to hear thoughts from the community.

Thanks!

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AnonymousJuly 15,2022 at 9:01PM UTC
Actually that is quite wise because if you volunteer to "help" she will insist you be moved under her to assist her instead of remaining a peer.
AnonymousJuly 15,2022 at 9:58PM UTC
I would suggest you take on one of the extra projects after talking it over with the manager. Approach it like "I have observed the co-worker having a large workload. I want the team to succeed so I am willing to take on some of the workload". Going through the manager allows the manger to make the decision of work re-allocation. If the martyr pushes back, it will be against the manager. If the work gets reallocated, the manager will be aware you stepped up and hopefully remember it during reviews etc.
Crystal HowellJuly 16,2022 at 12:38PM UTC
I would wait and see, you never know what is behind the scenes. they are testing to see how much she can handle without help, I would start looking and keeping my options open. You didn't say what kind of work you do?
AnonymousJuly 16,2022 at 6:55PM UTC
Talk with your boss if you want more responsibility, demonstrating why/how this would be a win for the company.
Let your boss know that you are eager to step up.
This is not an area in which to defer to your (pushy? grasping?) colleague.