What would you do in this situation?

Johnjones

So there's three of us who are basically supposed to be doing the same job. However, it has come to my attention that there isn't enough work for all three of us or there is but only one guy is doing it all. I have repeatedly tried getting involved or offering assistance, but he declines every time.

I believe they brought the two of us on because they didn't want to work the off shifts(weekends and late hours). Also, I think the guy isn't off loading the work due to fear of job security.

Manager is aware of the situation, but he's apart of the problem. I pretty much receive all the "help desk" style work and checking logs.

lsud00d

If you don't see the situation changing, I would look elsewhere. Do whatever work there is to do and if permissible use any downtime to brush up your skillset and/or study for certs.

Johnjones

I am looking elsewhere. The hardest part about my day is finding ways to look busy for 5 hours while they are here. Afterwards, I study or browse.

Nersesian

Johnjones wrote: »

So there's three of us who are basically supposed to be doing the same job.

What's the job?

If its a help desk type role, you're going to need to take it and not wait for it to be given to you unless you want to be out of a job. That may be a bit aggressive, but that may be what your manager is looking for, instead of just being the problem. It sounds like you have your big toe out of the door either way, so try and make it work. If we're talking about an engineering type position, it gets a little murky. There is the question of how duties are separated and then how job titles are worded.

So what's your objective here? Do you want to know how to deal with a difficult coworker or convince your boss how to "give" you more work to do...or neither one of those?

MeanDrunkR2D2

Johnjones wrote: »

I am looking elsewhere. The hardest part about my day is finding ways to look busy for 5 hours while they are here. Afterwards, I study or browse.

Try finding ways to make 7 hours a day and look busy and that's the part I'm in right now. I'm looking and hopefully should have a good offer come next week doing things I really want to do and will be challenged quite a bit more and learn a ton. Right now I'm doing contract work, so no bene's, vacation or holiday pay. It's not easy to find ways to look busy and honestly, over the past month I've pretty much given up trying to look busy and just do what I can and then wait for more.

I came from an environment where I'd complete 40-100 tickets a week (depending if I was working projects or if things really hit the fan) and now average maybe 7 tickets a week, and many weeks I'm less than 5. Most tickets now take no more than 20 minutes of actual work.

Armymanis1

What I did I my help desk job is go through their knowledge base and learn everything about each contract. I was eventually given more contracts at the help desk until I had incoming calls from 13 different companies. I overloaded myself and by 2 years and 4 months, I was out of there because they would not lessen my work and was being paid the same. This is your opportunity to also make contacts with others and ask them to join your linkedin network. That was my first IT job ever and I made 29 friends at that company and they all recommend me on my linkedin profile. People don't understand that you need to constantly make friends at your job and not worry about moving up. Moving up will come eventually but in my situation after 2 years and 4 months of being there with no raise and no job position improvement then its time to move on. If you have only been there 5 months or less then you are in no position to be asking for a raise or any higher job. That's my opinion.

Johnjones

Nersesian wrote: »

What's the job?

If its a help desk type role, you're going to need to take it and not wait for it to be given to you unless you want to be out of a job. That may be a bit aggressive, but that may be what your manager is looking for, instead of just being the problem. It sounds like you have your big toe out of the door either way, so try and make it work. If we're talking about an engineering type position, it gets a little murky. There is the question of how duties are separated and then how job titles are worded.

So what's your objective here? Do you want to know how to deal with a difficult coworker or convince your boss how to "give" you more work to do...or neither one of those?

The job is System Administrator. Building servers, setting permissions, etc. I've been here for 2 months and assumed I would be more involved. For example, today we had an mail server crash...while I'm sitting with the other two guys trying to figure out what the problem could be my manager pulls me away to go build a computer. Then before he leaves for the day...he tells me to vacuum the computer room tonight.

In no way, shape or form was I asked for my thoughts on the mail server issue. No, I didn't offer them either. I don't have an objective...I'm mostly venting and looking for opinions.