I've been at the company for seven years now. I work with four other people, one has been with the company for five years and the other two are young (first job out of college) and have been with the company under two years. I have a different title; different job duties, more education, more experience and have thus received several promotions in my time at the company. I have the highest rank out of my group. I’m not the manager but our real manager is not even in the same building and therefore has very limited interaction with us. He’s passed all his responsibilities to me so I’m responsible for managing the group even though I don’t have the title. Even my bonus is based on how I keep the group on task, up the productivity of the group, etc. The two newer employees have had issues with spending a lot of time on the internet, texting, personal phone calls and it has come to me and the other employee to pick up the slack. I’ve contacting my manager about the situation but nothing has been done. Needless to say the atmosphere in the office is not pleasant; there are two of us working our butts off while the other two are chatting with their boyfriends on the phone. I’m supposed to stop the bad performance but I have don't have any power and they know it! They could care less about my bonus.
I recently overheard a conversation between the two newer employees (they didn’t realize I was working late and was still at my desk). They are trying to figure out a way to get me fired. They said lot of horrible things such as “I want to murder her” and “she is a control freak and makes us look bad.” There is a lot of resentment; they don’t understand why the two of us who have been with the company longer don’t take advantage of having a absent manager (they lie about their hours while we put in extra time, they take an hour and a half lunch while I take a half hour, etc).
Any how, this leads me to my question-should I tell my boss about what I overheard or should I just ignore the situation? I’ve been with the company seven years and have never had a less than perfect performance review and I don’t want to validate their pettiness but I also want to protect myself from slander. Should I start documenting the poor performance some how? Should I confront my coworkers? Any advice would be great.

Hi, 457890!

My suggestion would be for you to tell your boss about the situation and to do so in a way that would show that you are looking out for the best interests of the company.

You could do this in writing or in person, but preferably in person, at first. What you say to your boss could be prefaced with something like, "I'm having a real challenge here and would appreciate your help." Also, "there are things happening in our workplace that are not condusive to the workplace environment being the best that it could be and that are possibly being a detriment to our company".

What do you think?

I would keep a diary of everything that is going on and everything that is said about you. I would approach your boss again with a written letter, and keep a copy. I would let him know that you are unable to meet your bonus without working your butt off. I would also ask him since you are running the office as a manager in his absence, are you able to give these girls a verbal warning. If he does not acknowledge what you have written to him, then I would go to somebody higher. If there is nobody higher I would ask to have a meeting with him, and bring your diary with you. Good luck

If these two employees were daily taking home office pens and pencils and reams of printer paper, would you say something to your boss? Since that's stealing from the company, I'm sure you would. Well, what they are doing is also stealing from the company -- they are stealing time and preventing production, and affecting the positive attitude and productivity of two other employees.

I agree with Clough's suggestion on what to do.

It's really important that you document what is going on. You also need to record the amount of time the newer co-workers are spending on phone calls, internet, texts.

Is there a company policy that covers this? Perhaps you can send a general email, to all employees in your section reminding them of the company policy (that way they can't say they didn't know).

Speaking to your manager is essential as I'm sure that he would be concerned about employees that are not contributing to the company's success.

Why don't you and he work together to sort this out? It might help to create more of a connection between you.

Are you coming back to here, 457890?

Thanks!

Thanks for all the great advice everyone! I feel so much better. I have a meeting with my boss tomorrow. Hopefully the situation will be resolved soon!

Would you please let us know what happens?

Also, just a suggestion - it's best to be proactive rather than reactive, positive rather than negative, thinking good thoughts about how to best serve and protect the values, goals and integrity of the company, looking toward initiating and implementing solutions rather than further problems.

You also might want to write down what you're going to say so that you have it organized in your mind. Plus, you might want to have a friend review what you're going to say. We could also do that here, if you would like.

You can do this and do it well! :)

Any news on what happened with this situation?

Yes, a person who has a management duty but no authority is in a bad place if the actual boss will not deal with the issue.

At times you assign them their duties and if they do not, it is reported that they are not doing their duties. While we don't like to see things fail, we also can't always keep doing the work of others.