How to deal with a coworker's lack of motivation due to them retiring in a few months?

Question

(This is an education setting, not a business per se, so keep in mind some things work differently)

My coworker will be retiring in a few months, but is driving me crazy. Her personal tasks are becoming increasingly apparent on the job and she has done a few things that very much bother me in terms of ethics, in addition to the daily countdown of working days left. (I'm happy for her, as we have been friendly, I just find this annoying)

Underlying this is an (awkward for me) relationship with our dept of 3 people. Her and our other coworker have similar values (including both misusing sick time) and while they came more recently to the dept, feel that we have responsibilities in our workload that we shouldn't be doing. I am the dept head, but since it is an educational setting, it's different from being a "manager" in some ways. She is an assistant and so will help the other coworker very willingly on anything they ask but appears to delay the few requests I have. (She is an assistant in name although we call us a "team"). I have tried to maintain a friendly work environment for the sake of it, but have let her know when I think she has crossed the line (e.g asking if it's ok to leave work early for a clearly non-acceptable reason)

My question is - do I just suck it up for the remaining few months, or do I call her on it. She has been very adept about having "allies" at work and is very savvy about doing things strategically so she is shown in good light to those above. I think she is doing this because she is frankly "done" and also that she senses she can get away with things because I "need" her around and has a "good reputation."

Answer 1

She has been very adept about having "allies" at work and is very savvy about doing things strategically

Sounds like it's not worth getting into a war with her, she will be gone in a relatively short space of time, and you can use her leaving to set some new rules amongst those that are left.

If she does anything, just remind yourself how good you'll feel once she's gone.

Answer 2

She's leaving, any action you take now will be:

1. Entirely ineffective
2. Damaging to morale
3. Potentially damaging to your own relationship with remaining colleagues

As such, I see absolutely nothing positive which can come from bringing this up now in any "calling her on it" way, and several negatives.

I'd see this as a hand-off period - see her inactivity as a way to transition tasks away from her, as she won't be there to do them soon anyway, and her replacement won't be immediately up to speed.

I think your focus needs to shift from "she's slacking" (she's going to, there's nothing you can do to prevent it, suck it up), to "completing my own workload". She's leaving, you're annoyed that she's slacking, but you should only focus on it to the point of her helping you with your own workload. If you need a little more help, ask her for it, but may I suggest that phrasing it as a favour will do you a lot more good than phrasing it as a chastisement.

Answer 3

How will this affect your ability to manage the remainder of the team going forward? Do any of these people that choose to take her side, want to be the next assistant?

Anyone asks for time off that is inappropriate, say no. If you let them, you're just as unethical as they are.

Suggest she change her ways or you're going to use whatever disciplinary action is at your discretion. Stop using "this is an educational setting" as an excuse. I realize other industries may have it easier when it comes to disciplining people, but that doesn't mean it is impossible. They are still paid to do a job and should suffer the consequences when they don't.

Go through the proper channels. Document the infractions. Do your job. You choose to take on the responsibility as the department head. The others may not like it, but this isn't just a popularity contest. You have a job to do, so stop rationalizing it and finding excuses not to.It's no different than someone who thinks they get to slack of their final days because they think there is nothing you can do about it. She's leaving and is obviously going to be replaceable.