I don't understand protecting incompetant workers, weekend job

[Zoe Girl]

I only work this job 2 days a week however it really gets my blood boiling at times. The bottom line to me is that there are 2 people who cannot come close to doing the same job as others in their position and everyone in the store seems to know it including the managers but they are protected in some way. It is really making me nuts.

So one weekend has these 2 workers and the alternating weekend has different workers in this position. The weekends are really different. What seems so clear cut is being answered by all sorts of crap about sparing their feelings, which I don't care about (especially since both are creating issues for one of our coworkers who is struggling with cancer, minor stuff that does not need to be stressing here in the middle of radiation treatments). Here is the recap of the weekend

* 3 separate times I was called up to help cashier since we had lines and each time there were people who should be cashiering in the office working on some game to encourage different kinds of sales. I went to the head manager for the weekend and today he talked to not just the person who was in charge but the person who was off last weekend who has been telling him this is a chronic problem. He is now going to make sure he emails BOTH people so the one who made the error doesn't get her feelings hurt.

* There is a person who has been allotted 3 hours to do a specific job daily. When another person does this it easily gets done in that time. However the problem person keeps on complaining that she needs 5-6 hours on the schedule so they change the schedule and cut hours from some other area and another worker. Over and over this has come up but when push comes to shove they just give her the hours.

There are more things but those seem the most clear cut. I am really ready to try and have a conversation with teh store manager and ask what I don't understand about this. I really like him and respect what he does however with these 2 employees he seems to protect instead of manage. If he cannot or will not do anything about it then I need to transfer stores and tell him that is why. My friend and coworker is ready to do this as well (she is the one with cancer). It is way too much stress to continue to deal with them and we cannot fathom what is so special about them that they have this magic protection. It makes me upset because I worked there while losing my house and these people were above me and still asking me how to do their jobs, but if I had their job and income I would have been better off.

I am reading Crucial Conversations which is a great book for dealing with these difficult situations, i am wondering if anyone has experience or advice on how to deal with this. It has been 2 years and I cannot keep this up forever. But also the more interesting question is 'what is it in an organization that keeps supporting employees who are not capable, what is in it for the manager or organization after all'

[iris lily]

I don't know that you need to understand, but certainly you can give your manager your observations about blatant poor performance of your colleagues. If you do it in a freindly way, simply and without drama and using specific examples, that seems reasonable to me. But leave your personal resentments behind in this conversation because it will get you nowhere. And sure, transfer to another store if that's an option.

I can think of several reasons why employees who are losers are not fired and those reasons are seldom shared outside of the management circle.

[Zoe Girl]

I know one reason for one person and I won't even share it here because I am not supposed to know. It is okay if management wants to protect her or the other person but I don't have to support it which is my bottom line. Maybe then the cost-benefit balance will tip towards at least not protecting them when they do not do their job well. My personal issues will stay out of it, but I am tired of supporting the less qualified in their jobs when I struggle myself. That is all, ...

[Zigzagman]

It's pretty simple - do your best and don't worry about your co-workers unless they are your responsibility. Your energy will be much better spent if you concentrate on your efforts and less on others performance. I suspect that your type "A" personality is probably causing you to worry too much about others - it is a common problem.

Don't sweat the small stuff and it is all small stuff.

Peace

[Zoe Girl]

I do pretty much leave them alone but one is very persistant in coming over and trying to get me to do things for her. She is sneaky about it and uses flattery but after the fact you are smacking yourself in the head that you answered her question or did her task or whatever, again! I want to do my job and like a lot of others at this point we are not willing to work well above our job description simply because we can after last years reviews (very low) and promotion options (none). I did one project really above and beyond my job because I could and it was interesting. This lady had it cancelled and didn't even tell me or have anyone else tell me until I found out in a roundabout way that what I was writing was not being published at all. No one even called me, and the only reason I heard was that it hurt her feelings that someone else was recognized. To me that is an editing issue, tell me it sounds biased and offer some of your own accomplishments and I will write about those. In any case I quit that project that I created to meet a need that a upper manager expressed to me, plus I got a very low average review in a year where I created and managed several new things that worked within our overall structure. I am pretty burned on doing my best because I can't even get feedback. Honestly I ended up getting a write up since I run late all the time now, my morale is in the toilet and I only stay for my friend with cancer and health insurance until July. I can't even find out how to apply for a job that would actually pay my bills in this organization even though I have the education and work background of anyone when they started.

Okay I hear it is my problem because I am the one expressing this, that is true. If I didn't express it then maybe I would go home without any ties to work. I am more integrated in my life I think, everything is connected for me. I am learning assertiveness in big leaps and bounds right now and it is well overdue. So I want to do this, I was never able to talk to a manager about what happened with my newsletter and why I quit doing it, the front manager changed so maybe no one even noticed (but when I did it I got great compliments). So sticking to how it affects me and being assertive, I can address that.

[herbgeek]

I have found through experience, that if something isn't making sense to me, that chances are, I just don't have all the information. So I really try not to worry about others "getting away with things" because there may be more going on than is obvious to me. As a manager, I'm sure some of my staff wondered why I wasn't doing something about a situation. Often I was, but doing things behind the scenes, or sometimes letting data accumulate if I needed to take action. Sometimes these things take time.

As far as others conning you into doing their work, well only /you/ can stop that. You can smile sweetly and say something like "gee golly I'm really sorry, but I'm swamped myself right now, wish I could help" every time they ask. Eventually they'll get it.

[Reyes]

Zoe, I would focus more on the things you can change (being late for work, for example) and less on how others are performing or not performing their jobs. As to the person who asks you do to things and you later wish you had not agreed, learn to say no to her. The fault is not only with her for asking, but with you for accepting.

[Zoe Girl]

I guess my problem is that I really care about the company and the managers. They are ready to have a mutiny on their hands with these two people frankly. The entire store is baffled and frustrated and it affects all the work we do when we see this on a constant basis. I t would actually be easier for me to just shut up and keep going and not caring, and I have heard this message my entire life. I just think there has got to be some connection between keeping my mouth shut and head down and the pitiful underemployment I have had my entire career. I did go to one manager when one person first got her job out of the back offices and told her the entire cashier staff was ready to mutiny. I was able to explain clearly what the problem was and have an effect.

[iris lily]

As a manager I am not annoyed or upset when a good employee gives specific, objective information about work that is not being done or is being done poorly. This would, of course, not in any way be tied to your own performance appraisal as in "sure I am late but Suzie is incompetant."

But with me, you'd better not try to represent anyone besides yourself because you instantly lose credibility. I am interested in YOUR information, I'm not interested in your opinons about what everyone else is thinking because I can't trust it. See the difference? Objective, verifiable, measured--that feedback is invaluable and frankly is rare coming from employees.

[Zoe Girl]

Thank you Iris, when I did this before with a manager who has now quit I did it like that but with some information from others. Basically I told her that X number of people had approached me privately to say what was going on that upset them. I was able to honestly say these employees were hard workers and not prone to gossip in the workplace. What I was able to do from my own observations and the information from others was break it down to what made sense in a couple key areas so that it was usable to the HR person in talking to the person in question. So I heard many stories about who a cashier would call over this shift manager to answer a question for a customer and expected to be backed up in what they were saying and instead the shift manager gave out completely incorrect information. That was one thing that could be clearly addressed, asking experienced people about how things worked instead of telling the customer with authority an incorrect answer. There were 3 general points I was able to bring to our HR manager based on all the stories I was hearing, honestly most employees wanted to just tell the latest dramatic event and get sympathy for working with her which wouldn't have worked if they went straight to the HR person that way. I am not even sure the HR person could have filtered these stories into usable information to do corrective action. So then there is my personal aspect (which I do not bring up in these meetings) that I think I have a unique skill in getting to something effective from a whole lot of drama, I am just not in a position to do this in my job description and I frankly don't want to step on people's toes in the process.