I think my new coworker is functionally illiterate? Help!

[Anonymous]

Is this co-worker a member of a protected class?

[Anonymous]

if so just be careful your boss won't hang you out to dry if push comes to shove

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is this co-worker a member of a protected class?

Doesn't matter. If she's within her 1 year THIS IS THE TIME TO FIRE! Please listen to everyone else on this thread OP. I'm a fed and can't stand under performing coworkers that no one does anything about.

[Anonymous]

Is she hot?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this co-worker a member of a protected class?

Doesn't matter. If she's within her 1 year THIS IS THE TIME TO FIRE! Please listen to everyone else on this thread OP. I'm a fed and can't stand under performing coworkers that no one does anything about.

Of course it is easier to fire if she is probationary. On the other hand, if she is protected class, that surely would make it harder for OP's management to fire her, nej?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't end up like me, OP. I've been working on a team with someone like this for 6 years. This person cannot even complete simple tasks on her own. My team leader prefers to avoid confrontation so makes us cover for her. It adds so much work to our own plates, but team leader believes it will reflect poorly on our team if we don't cover for this person.

What makes it worse is that team leader will be retiring in a few years and I will be expected to fill her shoes. That puts me in a bad position because I won't stand for enabling co-worker but it will become clear that I've helped cover it up for years but I haven't been in a position to "out" her. It will appear like we didn't do a good job of training her, even though she actually has more years in the field than I do so it will reflect worse on me than it does on her.

You need to start documenting and stop covering it up.

Why don't you take your own advice and stop covering up for her. Today.

Well, I refuse to do the extra work that useless co-worker can't/won't do, but team leader will do it in order to avoid discomfort. Or it becomes a situation like: everyone is expected to arrive to our team meeting with their individual work done so we can compile it. Co-worker shows up either with nothing at all (claiming she didn't understand or she tried but something didn't work). I tell co-worker that she needed to have dealt with that before our meeting when it was due. Team leader senses discord and says we'll just do it it right then and it "will only take 5 minutes". Of course it ends up taking longer than that and we end up needing to meet much longer than scheduled or schedule a separate meeting to accomplish what the original meeting was supposed to have accomplished.

I have asked team leader to speak up to big boss about the issue but she refuses. I have thought about going behind team leader's back to our boss, but at this point it would reflect poorly on me. And the culture of the workplace is that we would end up being responsible for "building capacity" in useless co-worker so either way it won't matter. Co-worker says she tries but "it doesn't work". This could mean anything from scanning and emailing a document or finding and printing a report. Never mind actually analyzing the data. And this is just the administrative part of our job. It's not the "meat" of our work. She's useless with that too. Co-worker's claim is always that it just doesn't work for her, although it works fine for everyone else. She is a protected class and also has a language barrier which big boss does not want to touch with a 10 foot pole. Since it doesn't impact big boss at all because the work ends up getting done, big boss just pretends not to notice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a lot of very severe learning disabilities. Some of this sounds familiar to me. I actually can't read. I have all the words I know memorized. I'm 40 now and have been doing the same job for 20 years so pretty okay at it, but there's still a LOT I hide from work people and a LOT of times I'm working around my brain. So it's possible.

But it's also possible she simply doesn't give a crap about doing a good job. Does she SEEM like she's trying? Does she seem stressed to not understand?

Plus 1

[Anonymous]

You write everything down and then you do not do her work. You do not CC your supervisor= or co-worker supervisor, but you forward your email to the co-worker to them with a note saying "FYI- here are my instructions to XYZ for task ABC. "

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't end up like me, OP. I've been working on a team with someone like this for 6 years. This person cannot even complete simple tasks on her own. My team leader prefers to avoid confrontation so makes us cover for her. It adds so much work to our own plates, but team leader believes it will reflect poorly on our team if we don't cover for this person.

What makes it worse is that team leader will be retiring in a few years and I will be expected to fill her shoes. That puts me in a bad position because I won't stand for enabling co-worker but it will become clear that I've helped cover it up for years but I haven't been in a position to "out" her. It will appear like we didn't do a good job of training her, even though she actually has more years in the field than I do so it will reflect worse on me than it does on her.

You need to start documenting and stop covering it up.

Why don't you take your own advice and stop covering up for her. Today.

Well, I refuse to do the extra work that useless co-worker can't/won't do, but team leader will do it in order to avoid discomfort. Or it becomes a situation like: everyone is expected to arrive to our team meeting with their individual work done so we can compile it. Co-worker shows up either with nothing at all (claiming she didn't understand or she tried but something didn't work). I tell co-worker that she needed to have dealt with that before our meeting when it was due. Team leader senses discord and says we'll just do it it right then and it "will only take 5 minutes". Of course it ends up taking longer than that and we end up needing to meet much longer than scheduled or schedule a separate meeting to accomplish what the original meeting was supposed to have accomplished.

I have asked team leader to speak up to big boss about the issue but she refuses. I have thought about going behind team leader's back to our boss, but at this point it would reflect poorly on me. And the culture of the workplace is that we would end up being responsible for "building capacity" in useless co-worker so either way it won't matter. Co-worker says she tries but "it doesn't work". This could mean anything from scanning and emailing a document or finding and printing a report. Never mind actually analyzing the data. And this is just the administrative part of our job. It's not the "meat" of our work. She's useless with that too. Co-worker's claim is always that it just doesn't work for her, although it works fine for everyone else. She is a protected class and also has a language barrier which big boss does not want to touch with a 10 foot pole. Since it doesn't impact big boss at all because the work ends up getting done, big boss just pretends not to notice.

Is she deaf?

[Anonymous]

I'd document it and bring it up to my supervisor. Include an example of something you had to redo so he/she can see exactly what working with this person means for your productivity. You could also stop re-doing the person's work and let her turn it in as is.

You never know, your supervisor may already have an idea of what's going on. I'm a federal government supervisor. I've had a few staff people complain to me about a certain employee. I'm working on it, but it's not that easy even in the first year. Especially if the person came from another Federal job and if your agency has a strong union. In the mean time, I'm still obligated to treat her normally and continue with training.

[Anonymous]

I have no advice OP other than to say I'm sorry.

[Anonymous]

Document everything and then ask your sup for additional help and training for coworker. Say "I am spending x number of hours each week going over tasks and x number of hours correcting work and it doesn't seem to be making a difference. Maybe she would benefit from training with another team member who may be able to explain it differently. "

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't end up like me, OP. I've been working on a team with someone like this for 6 years. This person cannot even complete simple tasks on her own. My team leader prefers to avoid confrontation so makes us cover for her. It adds so much work to our own plates, but team leader believes it will reflect poorly on our team if we don't cover for this person.

What makes it worse is that team leader will be retiring in a few years and I will be expected to fill her shoes. That puts me in a bad position because I won't stand for enabling co-worker but it will become clear that I've helped cover it up for years but I haven't been in a position to "out" her. It will appear like we didn't do a good job of training her, even though she actually has more years in the field than I do so it will reflect worse on me than it does on her.

You need to start documenting and stop covering it up.

Why don't you take your own advice and stop covering up for her. Today.

Well, I refuse to do the extra work that useless co-worker can't/won't do, but team leader will do it in order to avoid discomfort. Or it becomes a situation like: everyone is expected to arrive to our team meeting with their individual work done so we can compile it. Co-worker shows up either with nothing at all (claiming she didn't understand or she tried but something didn't work). I tell co-worker that she needed to have dealt with that before our meeting when it was due. Team leader senses discord and says we'll just do it it right then and it "will only take 5 minutes". Of course it ends up taking longer than that and we end up needing to meet much longer than scheduled or schedule a separate meeting to accomplish what the original meeting was supposed to have accomplished.

I have asked team leader to speak up to big boss about the issue but she refuses. I have thought about going behind team leader's back to our boss, but at this point it would reflect poorly on me. And the culture of the workplace is that we would end up being responsible for "building capacity" in useless co-worker so either way it won't matter. Co-worker says she tries but "it doesn't work". This could mean anything from scanning and emailing a document or finding and printing a report. Never mind actually analyzing the data. And this is just the administrative part of our job. It's not the "meat" of our work. She's useless with that too. Co-worker's claim is always that it just doesn't work for her, although it works fine for everyone else. She is a protected class and also has a language barrier which big boss does not want to touch with a 10 foot pole. Since it doesn't impact big boss at all because the work ends up getting done, big boss just pretends not to notice.

Is she deaf?

No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't end up like me, OP. I've been working on a team with someone like this for 6 years. This person cannot even complete simple tasks on her own. My team leader prefers to avoid confrontation so makes us cover for her. It adds so much work to our own plates, but team leader believes it will reflect poorly on our team if we don't cover for this person.

What makes it worse is that team leader will be retiring in a few years and I will be expected to fill her shoes. That puts me in a bad position because I won't stand for enabling co-worker but it will become clear that I've helped cover it up for years but I haven't been in a position to "out" her. It will appear like we didn't do a good job of training her, even though she actually has more years in the field than I do so it will reflect worse on me than it does on her.

You need to start documenting and stop covering it up.

Why don't you take your own advice and stop covering up for her. Today.

Well, I refuse to do the extra work that useless co-worker can't/won't do, but team leader will do it in order to avoid discomfort. Or it becomes a situation like: everyone is expected to arrive to our team meeting with their individual work done so we can compile it. Co-worker shows up either with nothing at all (claiming she didn't understand or she tried but something didn't work). I tell co-worker that she needed to have dealt with that before our meeting when it was due. Team leader senses discord and says we'll just do it it right then and it "will only take 5 minutes". Of course it ends up taking longer than that and we end up needing to meet much longer than scheduled or schedule a separate meeting to accomplish what the original meeting was supposed to have accomplished.

I have asked team leader to speak up to big boss about the issue but she refuses. I have thought about going behind team leader's back to our boss, but at this point it would reflect poorly on me. And the culture of the workplace is that we would end up being responsible for "building capacity" in useless co-worker so either way it won't matter. Co-worker says she tries but "it doesn't work". This could mean anything from scanning and emailing a document or finding and printing a report. Never mind actually analyzing the data. And this is just the administrative part of our job. It's not the "meat" of our work. She's useless with that too. Co-worker's claim is always that it just doesn't work for her, although it works fine for everyone else. She is a protected class and also has a language barrier which big boss does not want to touch with a 10 foot pole. Since it doesn't impact big boss at all because the work ends up getting done, big boss just pretends not to notice.

Then call out team leader in the middle of the meeting. Be direct and calm. People like him are going to give you no trouble because as you said he doesn't like discord so he isn't going to speak up or do anything and will likely be simply relieved that someone else did the part of the job he didn't want to.
"No, team leader, we are not going to do it right now. It's not appropriate to do this now and wastes valuable time." Turn to coworker and tell her to go back to her office and complete the work and you are expecting it by the time the meeting has ended.

[Anonymous]

OP, you've described an unfortunately huge number of my coworkers. They're not illiterate or dumb - just lazy, and used to people doing what you're doing and covering for them when they don't want to do their jobs. Play dumb long enough, and someone else will just do it because it's easier than explaining again.