Ask HN: How to handle less-than-committed colleagues?

[webmaven]

I am working day and night and send emails 24/7 whenever I have a question or have completed a task, but my colleagues never reply unless it is during business hours.

I am putting an incredible amount of effort to help the company succeed in it's mission, but to the rest of my team it seems like this is just a job, and that is really bugging me.

Career growth in the company (raises, bonuses, stock options, promotions) depend on being evaluated according to "relative performance", and I don't want to make the rest of my team look bad (they aren't lazy, just have interests and commitments outside of work, and they are very good at what they do), but they aren't really stepping up to the plate either, and in some ways I feel they are holding me back when I have to wait until the next day for a response.

I am getting the feeling that I have to choose between working as hard as I feel I need to in order to succeed and make the company a success, and maintaining good working relationships with my co-workers.

Note: synthetic post written in response to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12719089

[Timucin]

"I am working day and night and send emails 24/7 whenever I have a question or have completed a task, but my colleagues never reply unless it is during business hours."

Because they are living like normal human beings instead slaves? Being a workaholic is not healthy and definitely not productive. So I don't think you're in a position to judge people for it.

I would agree with you if you'd say something like "my colleagues don't do their work properly while they can" but that's not what I am reading.

[collyw]

I wonder if he works with this guy:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12719089

[rforte]

I think you'd have a easier time asking yourself why it's important for you to work day and night and send emails 24/7. Is it to get rich, make the investors and founders rich, validation, recognition, etc.? I'm not judging you but you might want to understand your personal motivation for why the company needs to be successful.

Like you mentioned, your colleagues are probably not lazy -- it's more likely they have different values, time commitments, and other responsibilities. For most of your colleagues I'm sure IT IS just a job. If your top priority in your life is that you help make the company a success, then more power to you. Making the company a success is probably not your colleagues top priority. Trying to make your colleagues top priority "to make the company a success", likely, won't go over too well either. Hate to break it to you but controlling what people prioritize in their lives isn't easy.

Try and focus on the things you can control. Otherwise, spending time and energy focusing on what other people are doing is going to eat you up. Don't worry about making the rest of your team look bad (side note: you're probably not going to no matter how good you are). You're not responsible for what they're doing or how they're perceived. If it really bothers you, you have the freedom to leave the company and try and find another place where your co-workers work just as much you do. My guess is you'll find that those places where you feel people work just as hard as you do are few and far between.

Really quick story: I have a former coworker (call him R) that used to work nonstop. He was transferred to a new group where he didn't know his new manager so well. This new manager would leave sporadically during the day or not respond to emails as quickly as R would like him to. R would go to other higher ups and complain and try to get his new manager reprimanded, or preferably, fired. R didn't like when other engineers didn't work as many hours as he did (especially his manager). One day during lunch, R started telling people how lazy his manager was and that they should be fired. After lunch, someone pulled R aside and told him that the reason his manager would leave work or that they weren't responding to emails was because she was taking her son to chemotherapy treatments and doctor appointments because her son was battling leukemia. The point is that you never know what's going on with other people.

Good luck in your endeavour!

[winteriscoming]

If the reason why you feel this way is solely because your colleagues don't respond on official day offs, then I don't really think they deserve to be called lazy.

Sometimes I work on official day offs, but I completely shut myself off from emails and other things and some of those times I work on things that aren't even related to my paid work. That really helps me stay refreshed for the rest of the week to concentrate on office work.

[webmaven]

> I don't really think they deserve to be called lazy.

Good point, thanks. Headline updated.

[mping]

" and they are very good at what they do), but they aren't really stepping up to the plate either" - This doesn't make sense.

Anyway, either they were hired to work during business hours, or not. You can't hire to work 9-to-5 and expect people to work 24/7. Besides if you are working 24/7 you will burn out. It's that simple.

And how big is the company? Is it really the case that one person working really hard will make a difference? If you work with people, try to understand their angle; maybe you're right, maybe you're wrong, maybe everyone's right.

[webmaven]

Try this rephrasing and see if it makes more sense: "They are good at what they do, but aren't doing enough."

[gamedna]

First and foremost, always do your best no matter what anyone else does. You are trading your time in exchange for $$ from your employer. By metering your performance you not only degrade your value, you degrade your entire team.

As an engineering leader, I find that most employees are driven by passion, and it seems that your colleagues are not passionate about what they are doing. This may be a sign that your hiring manager may have selected the wrong people, or in the case that they are the right people that this is a sign to look for a better opportunity elsewhere.

It sounds like you have a work ethic, and if you are patient it will be rewarded. Who knows you may end up as the tech-lead someday. Keep it up.

Now for a word of caution... "I am working day and night and send emails 24/7 whenever I have a question or have completed a task" It is critical that you maintain work/life balance. Allow yourself to unplug during the weekends and shut off your email after you are done with work. Your mind needs to rest and recharge.

[joesmo]

Sounds like you are the one with a problem, not them.

[pyrophane]

Synthetic post? So this is a joke?

[webmaven]

Not a joke, but it isn't true either (at least, it isn't true of me).

I tried to plausibly invert the 'Ask HN: How to handle a workaholic colleague?' post after I came across this comment:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12721029

[paulcole]

I think the word they were looking for is synergistic.

[bjourne]

I don't know.. maybe the answer to the pair of you is "Mind your own damn business?"

[nicomfe]

http://i.onionstatic.com/avclub/5328/63/16x9/640.jpg

[Rainymood]

I have little work experience (mostly academic), so bear with me. Maybe go to the higher ups with this and tell them that you are willing to put the extra hours in but expect to be compensated? Maybe they'll tell you to go for it maybe they'll tell you to slow down for a while. Either way you get an answer and some rational expectations about the future about your compensation and appreciation as an employee.

Lots of negativity and hostility here to the OP btw. Op might do us well to give us some more info (big corp or startup for example?)

[aprdm]

Glad it is a synthetic post. Some people really think like that though.

[webmaven]

Yup. I've encountered it before.

Side note: The attitude interacts oddly with such things as incentives and nepotism (ie. the person working themselves to the bone is a relative of the CEO and was given a lot more equity than their position or seniority merit, but they don't get any of it because they burned themselves out before the vesting cliff).

[schwede]

Some people just might have other things they care about more than work while not at work.

[ryanckulp]

I'm in a similar position.

At best, you can get rid of the lazy colleagues.

At worst, you can take all the credit when something goes well.

Somewhere in the middle, you could pretend the colleagues don't exist, and run the company more boldly.

But before any of that, ask yourself if you're doing all you can to motivate them.

Do you...

* Celebrate colleagues when they have a 'win'?

* Have a genuine interest in your team members' welfare outside of work? (They'll know, it shows)

* Ask questions, have 1:1 meetings, to get inside their heads and learn what drives them?

Good luck (myself included).