In as much as it pertains to me, I don’t tolerate it. Otherwise, if people want to bullshit their way through their career, I don’t really care. This happens in every company that has more than one employee (almost).

If someone else starts ordering me around when they don’t have the authority to do so, assuming it would change my course of action, I’ll tell them politely that I might be able to get to that when I have time. If they escalate it, I tell them to talk to my boss about rearranging my priorities. And if they do that and succeed, that’s fine. Once you establish that you don’t report to them, I’ve found they typically leave me alone. If not, I talk to my boss about it in private.

It somewhat depends. Is it unionized work? Is it hourly or salary? What type of work, and what are the metrics for quality/quantity of output?

I have a base load where I simply couldn’t do less if I tried or I’d die of boredom and simply envy anyone who can.

also any shitkicker who fancys themselves in charge will quickly get told to act their fucking wage.

The title sounds like this person is jealous that someone else found out they could do less work for the same money.

I don’t let what other people do ruin my happiness. If I’m happy with the work I’m doing and the amount I’m getting paid then I really don’t care what other people do.

I’m in a similar situation and I’m taking it poorly because I feel that it is affecting the possibilities of the company, and with that mines as well. So currently I’m in the process of searching for a place that can have more future. Which being also an introvert is being quite a hell.

What the guy over there said.

Do you want to focus on your job or a social club ?

My work stands on it’s own two legs. Their work doesn’t affect my paycheck. If their laziness impacts me, I will not stay silent about it at all. Other than that, I’m punching my clock and focusing on what I need to.

If someone tells you to do their job, tell them ‘no.’

If the supervisor tells you to do it, tell the supervisor that you can’t handle more responsibilities because you’re at your limit.

You have to stand up for yourself.

I like to encourage a culture of laziness at my work.

Suffer it.

Ideally, get to where you accept it.

Sorry to shortcut the process, but if you can’t fix it and especially if you’d risk your own employment trying, it’s better to keep your own job and the reduce the amount that this person lives rent-free in your feelings.

Just play the long game, which is focusing on getting good at your job to develop your own competency. In the long term, competency will help you get ahead.

Being popular at work is one of the competencies though, so you need to figure that one out too. Branch out and improve your social skills.

People are capable of rallying around someone who’s reliable. Reliability in work becomes a big part of likability, actually. And if that’s not the case, you can nudge the culture it in that direction by thanking people for delivering what they promised to you when they promised to do it.

Basically, when personal status and competency at the job are out of sync, that’s an unhealthy state for the workplace. You can (to a degree) fix your own problem and the workplace’s problem at the same time, by just using your own voice to acknowledge and appreciate when people do their jobs well.

It’s a good feeling to go after a team as a goal, and doing the job well is a co-op aspect of the workplace. It’s like bros at the gym: each person might be working on their own thing, but they share an interest in getting better. Even if the company doesn’t have any other inspiring direction, the direction you can share with your coworkers can be “doing this in an excellent way”.

So all of this boils down to a couple simple things, and the game works at many levels. It works immediately and long term, and for yourself and everyone else:

1. Decide that your reason for doing the job well is primarily that it feels better than doing it poorly. Train yourself to do the job well for the pleasure of a job well done.

2. Speak up and recognize others when they do their jobs well.

I don’t begrudge a coworker befriending a supervisor. Maybe they are genuinely friends.

As much as you like people who come in a do their job and go home. Many others like it when they come in and a friend is there and they can chat, have a good time, and still get their responsibilities done.

If they can’t get their work done, then it’s a supervisors issue. You don’t have to do their workload.

It depends on what you define as lazy and popular.

I’ve had staff that were visibly not working harder than other staff, but their work was of significantly higher quality than others. Since the “lazy” worker produced more and could be counted on to do the work with less supervision, I gave them more flexibility in the office. I was playing favorites, but the favorite was more valuable as an employee.

And I’ve had other staff that would be considered more popular, but that was in part because they would help others at work doing coordination and mentoring tasks. I would also offload some of my managerial tasks to them if I was overwhelmed even though they didn’t have the title. If I offload the management of a task to someone else, I expect people to treat them with the same respect they treat me. I’ve seen that expectation not get followed and I’ve had to step in to remind staff that they need to coordinate with others, not just me.

I find that a lot of people who “do their job and go home” don’t end up doing any of the coordination or communication required for their job, even though their job is technical design. They end up being worse than they think at their job because it is so hard to work with them and won’t chime in on cases where there is shared responsibility.