My colleague works harder than I do. He gets up at 6 or 7 and works till 6, 7 or even 8 pm.
I don't know why he does this. We are union employees. He clocks out and keeps working.
He is burning out– every time I talk to him, he says he has so much work.
My instinct is to say, “Why are you working so much? Tell them to take that work and shove it.”
(What I would actually say is something like “Perhaps you should say it's too much and just stop.”)
Buuut… I don't want to be perceived as messing with things. He is the type of person to turn around and say, “xx told me to say ___.”
So basically I don't trust him to be discreet about any advice I give him
There's also some self interest here- I don't know what I'll do if they ask me to do more work. They may say, “xx does this much in a day.”
Should I say “xx works overtime and I can't do that”?
I'm new at the job and not through my probation. Right now I just need to get through my probation and become an official employee.
But looking ahead, I feel like this will be raised. I am a good person and would like to do more work, but honestly can't comfortably do so.
There are others in my position who don't do as much as he does. They also do lower quality work. He does high quality and high volume. I am a high quality person and I'd rather do high quality work. If I have an increase in workload, however, the only option is to do less for each person.
The other way to look at it is that if xx does more work, then I don't have to do as much.
But I think overall the workload is determined by what others are able to do. So if you're doing “less” than others, you look less capable.
So it may be in my best interest to tell him to do less.
So how do I do that without getting myself in trouble?
Sorry this morphed into a different question. I don't like to see him suffer and want to help him, and it also makes me concerned about the bar he's setting.