1

I work for a small team on a Help Desk and there are a couple people that just push everything aside and let the other two of us take tickets. There seems to be an unwritten title to them that my director already stated that everyone is equal. I have only been here a few months but seem to have been more productive than a couple others. They have been here a couple years and I know that they are paid more. I would like to be compensated appropriately for picking up their slack. Is this something that I should address to my director, or just deal with it?

12 Spice ups
2

It could be they are testing you or a training exercise.

3

No they are plain lazy. They have been talked to about their performance in the past.

4

Take it up with your supervisor…and get your resume spruced up.

2 Spice ups
5

They sound like Contractors

6

Wrong attitude.

It’s nearly universal in any work environment that some people are going to be doing the minimum required to maintain their ability to punch-in and punch-out everyday.

Your job is to do whatever the demands of the helpdesk are. That doesn’t necessarily mean to sit there and take it, but imagine how the conversation with your boss is going to go: “Hey, boss, I spend time checking on these other guys and they’re super lazy. I do [whatever] amount more work than them and it’s time for a raise!” Stick with what you can influence, which is your performance and relationship with the director. Don’t worry about the other guys as it’s only going to make you more toxic.

So far as compensation goes, do you feel like you have more responsibility than the conditions you were hired for? Workload is going to flex up or down based on external factors but the bigger paychecks go to the people with the ultimate responsibility for something and not necessarily the operators/technicians. Have you gained or demonstrated any skills that are a value-add to your employer on being able to close tickets faster or with better response times?

It’s a huge hurdle to stop thinking about things in terms of you/them and more in terms of business impact. But that’s how (good) managers are going to see things and the sooner you start learning to speak their language, the better your overall results are going to be. Imagine instead going: “Hey, boss, I know I haven’t been around very long but I’ve found that my [insert skill] has reduced ticket response times by x% and reduced the age of tickets by x days. I can create a plan to help the rest of the team get up to speed. Once this is successful, do you think there’s room in the budget to accommodate my increased responsibility?”

At the end of the day, as much as anyone likes to help people, helpdesk sucks. A better investment of time would be to study and gain networking/virtualization/infrastructure skills and to try and grow your role in that organization or another one that provides better opportunity to play with the fun stuff.

6 Spice ups
7

as the new person of a few months you should certainly make it your business to complain about people who have been there for years.
your boss will certainly appreciated the feedback and the relationship with your co-workers will flourish.

Asking for more money after only a few months is the best way of showing the boss that you really are committed and in the job for the long term.
Don’t be surprised if not only does he give you a raise, but it might even be double what you expect for being so valued.

i predict great things ahead for you.
Great great things.

6 Spice ups
8

As a life-long user and advocate of sarcasm, I spice you.

If it were me, I would ignore the entire situation and carry on about my business, worrying about myself, and how good of I job I am doing. Telling on Billy because he’s doodling instead of writing down answers is just as ridiculous as it was in grade school.

4 Spice ups
9

I wouldn’t go to any superiors. You were hired to do a job, and your work ethic should encourage you to do that job as best you can. You’re not picking up their slack, you’re doing your best. They are not. The fact that they’ve been doing helpdesk for “a couple of years” is most likely a direct result of that.

3 Spice ups
10

I agree with the others, I wouldn’t bring this up to your supervisor, even if you weren’t the new kid on the block. If they aren’t doing their job, it’ll catch up to them. The fact that you’re working hard while others aren’t just makes you look better, so I’d accept and run with it. Who knows, they may have other responsibilities besides responding to tickets which means they can’t devote 100% of their time to it like you can. Either way, you’re not their manager. Just keep shining in your role!

3 Spice ups
11

You are basically going to be judged by how many tickets you are closing

12

Be the most productive you can. If you’re doing all the work that means you’re gaining more knowledge and skill than the others. Then put your resume out there and find another job. Or request a raise and show that your performance proves you deserve it.

1 Spice up
13

If you’ve only been there a few months, it’s definitely too early to go complaining. Wait for your yearly review, By then your superiors will have a good working knowledge of how much more you do than these other guys. If I were you, I’d make sure EVERYTHING is documented. Keep a running record of your calls, your solutions (especially those where you had to think outside the box because the script was no help at all), and how much time you take on each call. It’s a pain, but pretty soon you’ll have a valuable record of your own performance that you can both learn from and, given time, see how far you’ve come. Then, if there is any questions later on by those above you, you can hand them your log book(s) as evidence.

1 Spice up
14

If you and the other person are clearing the majority of the tickets, your superiors can see this just from the ticket tracking. So you don’t need to bring it up. They are still there because they have a unique skill set that you or the other coworker do not have, they are laying the groundwork to fire them, or they tacit approval for their behavior. Either way with only a few months on the job it’s not your place to say anything. However, during your review you can ask for a raise based upon the fact that you are clearing a majority of the helpdesk tickets.

1 Spice up
15

So, what you’re saying is that they’re smarter than you and you’re bitter? They’re doing less work and getting paid more. That sounds like a winning situation, doesn’t it? You claim you’re doing more work and getting paid less. What does that say about you?

When you took the job, you made an agreement that went something like this: “I’ll show up for work and do the job and you’ll give me money.” Unless you specifically have a clause in there that references the performance of others, it’s not relevant.

Now, you can, at any time, decide that you don’t like your current agreement and renegotiate it: “If you don’t make them do more work than me or pay me more than them, I quit.” So, you are not trapped into anything nor are you being forced to do anything against your will.

In the final analysis, it’s up to your employer to determine who gets paid how much for what work. It’s not up to you. As mentioned here, the “It’s not fair!” attitude is going to be toxic both to your productivity and self-image. Concentrate less on your co-workers and more on being the best darn help-desker you can be. That will create opportunities, not petulance.

16

I agree with the rest and not mentioning it to your supervisor. If someone new did that to me, I would take it personally as if I wasn’t doing my job in making sure everyone did their share of work. And asking for a raise so soon? I would hope you ask me that while you’re in your probation period so I could let you go.

17

The times I’ve done long contracts on the support side I’ve complained about the productivity of full timers on the exit interview.

18

Thank you for all of your advice. This is exactly why I asked the community first before doing anything. I agree that I jumped to extreme solutions that do not make sense, and would only hinder the environment with my boss, coworkers and myself. Asking for more money is ridiculous and don’t know why I mentioned it. I was just trying to figure out if I needed to address it at all or just let it go.

I did not mean to come out as “arrogant” or “better than the rest of them”, I was just frustrated as I am running around doing things, they are picking up any tickets and going on constant breaks. As the new guy I understand that I have a job that I agreed to do and that I just need to be the best worker I can be and continue to grow.

Again, thank you for all of your advice and input. (Even the smart all-icy ones)

19

I have some input. I’m not saying that its relevant to you, but I have certainly seen this be the case.

In my current role, there are reports we can run and things we can look at to review employee productivity. It’s not always blatantly obvious to somebody that isn’t aware of these metrics (or to somebody that is new…) and how to interpret them properly. Just because you dont see your coworkers doing what you are doing and whats expected of you, doesn’t mean that they don’t have additional tasks they are responsible for on a daily basis.

Here is just one example. We have an employee who is responsible for revising and editing documentation and requesting more documentation from the engineers. If you looked at his calendar, he isn’t hammering through tickets. If you look at his call-logs, he isn’t hammering out calls or taking in calls. So, does that mean he’s unproductive? Not by a long shot. He’s engaged in a very time-consuming, critical task that he agreed to do, due to his immense documentation background.