There must be a term for being expected to do my coworkers work, me having to run it by her before I send it out and her getting credit for it

31 Comments

1. AnonymousOctober 31,2022 at 12:30PM UTC

   You cannot and should not tell your boss how to manage her team. She is managing this workload and distribution of responsibility exactly as she wants.

   What you can do is make a list of everything in the queue and request that your name be assigned to each new contract assigned to you. The existing contracts should remain with the original assignee.

   If your boss pushes back you could ask for an explanation. This coworker may be being groomed for another job now that you and your team have taken over the contract review. She is clearly educated and has the experience to step into a,new role.

2. AnonymousNovember 2,2022 at 12:21PM UTC

   This is an interesting response. Thinking that a person having a masters degree with no work experience in that same field and unable to meet the basic requirements for the position trumps a person with a bachelor's degree with 9 years of work experience in the same field she holds her masters PLUS 20 years of experience negotiating contracts endorces a fallacy of what adds and creates value for a team, ESPECIALLY when the person that creates problems rather than solutions - while having spent 2 more years in school for her masters but never has actually held a job - does not take the initiative to learn but instead shrugs her work off on to the backs of her coworkers - how would such a person be "groomed" for something when she cannot perform the basic requirements of her current role? If this is how management and human resources consider "valuable", no wonder people are leaving in droves. Respectfully, this is a gross misunderstanding of what is needed in a healthy team dynamic and what leadership looks like.

3. Dcre1977November 2,2022 at 1:11PM UTC

   If your boss respects her opinion, it does not matter if you don't.

   Has she really never had a job, or just not one you feel is relevant?

   Your boss is making it clear how she feels about your coworker. You do not have to agree, but realize she values something you do not. You have to take that into consideration when determining whether this is a long term stop for your career.

4. AnonymousNovember 2,2022 at 3:07PM UTC

   I think you're over estimating your role and perceived value.

5. AnonymousNovember 3,2022 at 9:40AM UTC

   ???

6. Shelly EdwardsOctober 31,2022 at 1:38PM UTC

   I would request a meeting with your boss to review it similarly to how you laid it out here. Be as respectful as possible and review your workload versus the workload of a coworker. I would also inquire if there is a logical explanation for why your coworker is suddenly reviewing your work when you have been doing it for over 20 years. See if there is a reason that they have lost confidence or if there is something else going on. You said your boss is aware of the coworkers que, but is she aware that you are doing the work and your coworker is taking credit? It's possible that the boss and the coworker are friends and one is protecting the other, but it is also possible that the boss just looks at the que, thinks there is a lot of work getting done and ignores how it is getting done. You won't know until you have the talk to review it.

7. AnonymousNovember 1,2022 at 1:59PM UTC

   Good advice

8. Julia KoncakOctober 31,2022 at 3:45PM UTC

   Schedule a meeting with your boss to discuss process improvement on master contracts. Show how the workload can be distributed better. Ask to understand why the boss thinks her current processes are working. Good luck!

9. AnonymousOctober 31,2022 at 6:16PM UTC

   1) Do not go to your boss and compare workloads.

   2) If your or your staff's workload is overwhelming, list out everything on your/their to-do list (including all of the things being dumped there without officially transferring responsibility and the "follow-up meetings") and ask your boss to prioritize.

   This approach makes it clear what everyone is being asked to do without pointing fingers/making accusations/comparing jobs, doesn't come across as whining or bitching, and places all of the information in front of the boss in a transparent manner. If the boss didn't fully understand what was happening, you might see some changes. If the boss doesn't make any changes after that, you have a different sort of answer, and you can decide if you want to stay or leave. Regardless, once the boss sets the priorities, you can work with a clear conscience of what you need to be doing during your standard work hours.

10. AnonymousNovember 1,2022 at 1:59PM UTC

    This would not solve the problem of having to run things by her coworker first

11. AnonymousNovember 1,2022 at 2:35PM UTC

    If the "follow up" with the original assigned employee is listed as a separate task/meeting (and it should be if it takes 2 hours to complete), then yes, that is making it 100% clear to the supervisor what's happening. If the supervisor agrees that it's appropriate, it's not up to the staff to refuse to do it. That's the point. Is the leadership in agreement with what's happening or do they not understand the full scope? If they are in agreement, the only decision for staff is to do what their boss tells them to do or leave unless it's blatantly illegal or unethical. Even then your options depend on the size and nature of the business.

12. AnonymousNovember 1,2022 at 3:00AM UTC

    This isn't especially helpful for a new employee. Doing shoddy work, even under someone else's tally, is not a good start to a new position. Especially when you come to the position with the kind of background and experience described here.

13. AnonymousNovember 1,2022 at 4:17AM UTC

    You are being railroaded by your colleague. Talk to your boss so that a stop can be put to it. There needs to be a bright line between your responsibilities and those of your colleague, and you should be officially recognized for the assignments for which you are responsible.

    What I’m not understanding here is why your colleague is given any input on work that has been transferred to others?

    It also strikes me that your boss might be preparing to fire or demote your colleague. Shifting assignments away from someone is a red flag. Your colleague’s demands on you might be coming from your colleague’s fear that the axe is about to descend.

14. AnonymousNovember 2,2022 at 12:10PM UTC

    I have no idea why she thinks she has a right to provide input given that she has handed it off. The boss endorses her feedback, apparently, even when she has no knowledge of what the legal language means and has no industry experience. Literally 5 times during my first month, this same employee escalated matters as crises and provided both misdirection and misinformation to the internal clients, resulting in 3 of her direct peers cleaning up her mess (me being one of them), de-escalating, diffusing, redirecting and correcting the messes she made.

    The feeling I get is that the boss knows she doesn't know how to do contracts, a fundamental part of the job, and because I have 20 yrs negotiating contracts in this industry, she is using me as a trainer...and it is impeding me from getting my own work done - instead of helping me as a new employee, I have been buried with with my colleague's work. This same colleague also apparently "owns" my predecessor's contracts drafts file on Box - not only did she not tell me about it and not provide me access to it (as my boss directed her to do), she actually hid the file on Box so I had no idea it existed until a coworker told me about it 2 months in to the position.

    As it stands now, I told my boss that with me now covering for the 2 people that quit during my first month (along with my own workload), I cannot take on more of this colleague's work. She heard me. And apparently the people that quit as well as the 3 of us that cleaned up her messes during my first month all let the boss know that she creates more work and problems than solutions and the hours that it takes to repair the damage is not acceptable. That behavior, thankfully, has stopped.

15. AnonymousNovember 2,2022 at 1:52PM UTC

    How? The work was redistributed by the manager. Not the peer.

16. AnonymousNovember 2,2022 at 11:57AM UTC

    This all happened within my first month with the company. Your advice here to a new hire is truly inappropriate given the case at hand.

17. AnonymousNovember 2,2022 at 12:26PM UTC

    I think your colleague is going to be fired very soon and you will be doing the work on the contracts you were given.

18. AnonymousNovember 2,2022 at 1:51PM UTC

    Why would the colleague be fired? She has been executing in the role for 1.5 years.

    Scenario: As a manager, I have 5 employees. The workload has become heavy and I propose HC for 3 more. Upon hiring 3 , I expect to redistribute the work.

19. Liz MilneNovember 3,2022 at 12:27PM UTC

    Sure, but you wouldn't then give the work of one of those new hires to someone with a lot more experience and time on the job yet let them keep those jobs under their timesheet?

20. Liz MilneNovember 3,2022 at 12:29PM UTC

    Ah, hang on, I thought OP was longer on the job than the problem person... Rethinking!

21. AnonymousNovember 2,2022 at 1:34PM UTC

    I think this situation is pretty simple.

    This is simple work reassignment.

    This work load is being transferred to you at the direction of your manager. If the work is transferred, you have ownership and reviewership responsibilities. The boss should have told the other person to remove the work from their list and that they would not have involvement in those contracts after the transition phase.

    This decision needs to be communicated by your boss to this other employee.

    I would refer this colleague to the boss with any questions referring to “running work by her.” Before doing that, Id speak with my boss to verify that we’re on the same page. There is an oppty to revise the “reassigning work” business process and the responsibility of the colleague who was doing the work previously. For example, are they consulted for a short period to ensure continuity in the customer experience? I don’t work in the legal space but I do work with enterprise clients and we have a period of overlap to ensure that there is continuity for the customer.

    You seem
    to think that your colleague isn’t able
    to do her job as well as you, though she has been there for 1.5 years executing. Be careful about assuming that this other person is not skilled in doing their job.

22. AnonymousNovember 4,2022 at 8:46AM UTC

    I am cleaning up her messes. I am amending all the contracts she didn't do correctly (because she has no k owledge of legal language or how to negotiate). I am seeing her work product and it isn't passable.

23. AnonymousNovember 4,2022 at 1:13PM UTC

    Is your boss aware of the quality of their work product? That performance should be addressed by their manager.

24. AnonymousNovember 2,2022 at 1:38PM UTC

    Agree with going to the boss sooner to clarify ownership / responsibilities. Where I disagree is, we don’t know that the other person is a slacker. We do know they are early in their career.

25. AnonymousNovember 2,2022 at 2:39PM UTC

    Nice to see the contracts professionals jumping in here!
    There is a term for this - it's called BS. Your boss has created an unfair situation for both you and your colleague. It's disingenuous, dangerous, and devalues the entire contracts dept. I'd walk in to the conversation with your boss with your insights (not your complaints but the patterns you've noticed that are not appropriate and also not up for discussion/opinions), and suggest to him that the better way here is that she needs to learn how to do her job, which means from here on, she's out of this entirely (no going over things, transfer the work inside the queue), or if he would like her to learn how to do it, she must begin the process by presenting you with her sincere attempt at redlines (you can tell when people are faking it) and you can correct her work. How did she get this job in the first place with no contracts experience? That's crazy and very dangerous for the company.

26. AnonymousNovember 4,2022 at 9:05AM UTC

    I appreciate your feedback; it's nice to hear from someone that gets what I am laying down and understands that negotiating contracts and understanding legal language is a skill that is developed over time. I was hired to support the research team with their contracts and am now covering IT, privacy, license, consulting and HCP contracts, along with correcting/amending the contracts my coworker failed to do correctly. I was just given several projects regarding FMV. I just wrapped up my 10th week and have 70 contracts in queue; I have not been asked once how I am doing, if I have what I need, etc., all the things one typically would ask a new hire. I asked today if she could point me in the direction of where the list of projects and programs are so that when I am talking with the researchers, I have some sense of what it is that we are talking about. It is also relevant to know which programs are biological and which are compounds because the IP language is different; it exists but she said she can't share it with me. Why? If I am supporting these teams working on the projects and programs, why can't I have some information to help me undertand what it is that we are talking about? If ut was typical to keep it a.secret that is one thng but it isnt. My boss does not have a legal background - the company was acquired some years ago so no internal counsel except at the parent company.

27. Liz MilneNovember 3,2022 at 12:26PM UTC

    Just tell your boss that it has to stop! In those words: 'I am doing master contracts for X, she is taking credit for the work as well as wasting my time when I explain my rationale to her: this has to stop. Give me the master contracts in the first place, or tell her to do her own work.'

    Based on experience alone, she should be your subordinate, but it seems like she's trying to squeeze into a place between the boss and you? (Is there any chance they're having an affair? Because the way you've laid it out sounds like something dodgy is going on!)

28. AnonymousNovember 3,2022 at 1:13PM UTC

    You mention that the other colleague is receiving credit for your work. By whom? The manager knows that you are doing the work and they are the only opinion that matters.

29. AnonymousNovember 4,2022 at 8:43AM UTC

    The internal clients that have requested the master contracts. And when I have 70 contracts in queue, she doesn't remember which ones are my colleagues that she has assigned to me.

30. AnonymousNovember 4,2022 at 1:11PM UTC

    So your colleague assigned you the contracts, not your boss?

31. AnonymousNovember 4,2022 at 1:15PM UTC

    OP, who assigned the work to your and your directs?

    It seems that to peer may have assigned you work? If so, I wouldn’t accept that. Only my boss can put work into my pipeline.

    If your boss assigned the work, they need to empower you.