I was an admin assistant supporting 5 professionals, I was swamped with work, time was running out so I handed some of it off to Lazy Suzy, who only supported three people and had nothing to do. Two days before deadline she dumped it back on my desk, saying she had been “too busy to get around to it”. I knew this wasn’t true because her department had nothing on at the time. For me this was the last straw. I wanted to get her fired.
I went round to the three execs she supported and said “I’m doing a review of admin workflow, what admin tasks do you have outstanding?” “None right now” was the answer. This wasn’t unusual. Theirs was an ebb-and-flow kind of unit. Swamped one week, twiddling your thumbs the next. But our unit was busy most of the time.
I worked overtime to get it done. I’d previously spoken with my manager about being overloaded, so I went to her office and used that info about no assignments in the pipeline in that other unit to make the case for revising the admin workflow.
At the Monday morning staff meeting our manager asked why I’d had to use overtime to get the work done. I said “Ask Suzy. That work had been on her desk. Then she brought it back to me.” Suzy said “Because I’d been too busy.” Perfect! She’d trapped herself in a lie! My manager said “May I ask, doing what for who? Because as far as I know, you were completely available. Did any of you have tasks assigned to Suzy last week?” They all looked at each other. See, none of her three people knew that the others had also not tasked her with any assignments. Suzy blushed crimson red and stared at her shoes. She had just got caught lying to our boss in front of ALL of us. It was excruciating. Everybody winced.
I KNEW that Lazy Suzy not helping out when she had NOTHING to do would piss off our manager to no end. Interviews for Suzy’s replacement began the next week. She was gone by the end of the month.
