Working It Out

So as far as I'm concerned, work is approaching a bit of a crisis point and potential showdown. Not as far as my own job is concerned - I'm happy with what I'm doing. But as far as the wider team is concerned, it's - well, concerning.

To briefly fill in the background - the team is 12 people + manager, of which only one has been on the team for more than a year and a half - and they're not really in the same 'team' strictly speaking. Of those, three are grads like myself; another four are essentially the same level. Another is part time, and there are three permanent experienced project managers.

Of those, two are extremely overworked - one experienced PM and the one person who's been there for a long time. The workload is fairly busy between all the grad/grad-levels on the team. People exaggerate how busy they are, but all are busy. The other two experienced PMs are not busy and not caring.

And they're taking the piss.

Not doing full hours, complaining about how busy they are and trying to reassign work to others who are busier. Claiming excessive time off in lieu when noone can remember them doing anything to warrant it. Working from home once a week - when you can get little done (although some might speculate how genuinely they are 'working') anyway.

Oh, and these are the people who are paid double most of the rest of the team - this should imply they put in the hard work more. I believe in a decent work ethic, but I'd at least excuse relatively more slacking off from someone on half the salary, a relative lowbie. Someone who should be showing seniority and behaving like it should definitely not.

As for our manager, she's absent this week (on holiday), but might as well be absent the rest of the time for the level of guidance and clear direction we get.

It's come to a head for me when this week when I learnt that some of the newer people to the team were feeling pressurised, guilty for taking off time in lieu (validly) and having to justify it. Justifying it because people are resentful of others taking excessive liberties with similar attitudes. People being resentful because there is no leadership.

It's becoming absurd, yet noone is saying anything. The ones who are complaining are, ironically, those who have no reason to. The rest of the team is either wanting to just get their head down and get on with it, not wanting to complain because they don't like to, or not wanting to rock the boat - and a combination of the above.

But when a relatively new starter to the team feels pressurised for doing everything right because others are resentful that others are doing everything wrong, then someone has to say something. Because this is unacceptable.

And I'm concerned that it's going to have to end up being me if noone else does.