Don't bother saying anything...in this enviroment the comment you will hear is that "your not a team player" and that "you have no idea what they do (even though YOU are doing it). You could "wait" till someone notices but by then the person will have gotten promoted over you. Its a no win situation. Been there time and again.

I think we have some confusion here (i.e. Derogatory: disparaging, critical, insulting, offensive, deprecating, belittling) when I think you meant to use Detrimental: harmful, damaging, disadvantageous, unfavorable, negative, injurious. They are NOT interchangeable.

The biggest problem I've had in my job is that its the HR people who are goofing off, then expect everyone else to cater to their scramble to get things done.

Is this behavior chronic or occasional? I'm in a different building than the rest of rmy department and company contacts. Sometimes I need to "socialize" in order to keep in the loop. I try to touch base with these people at least once a week either in person or by phone. What type of personal calls are these? There are some calls that need to be made during the business day. For instance, contacting your child's teacher is sometimes necessary to do during the teacher’s free period. This usually doesn’t coincide with the business day. Has the behavior been noticed by others or just you? Before mentioning this to others, could you have a luncheon with a development session on time-management? You appear proactive in mentoring these people while at the same time trying to make your point. Then if it becomes necessary to mention this, you have some documentation to back your claim. While these diversions should not be a habit, sometimes they are necessary.

I'm not assuming anything. I know they dump all of their work on me. I've addressed the issues to my supervisor though no changes have been made. Ironically, when my supervisor is out of the office or is expected to be out of the office for quite some time more work gets dumped on me and ultimately I end up doing all the work while everyone is left socializing, laughing about and getting absolutely nothing done.

I agree with Patty. Why should you do their jobs and they still get their same salary? As long as you do it, nothing will change. If these folks are not your immediate supervisor, then you can refuse and like Patty said, blow them off by telling them you are not able to get to it today, tomorrow, this week, next week and possibly never.

I'd also agree with Patty. Many of us have been caught in similar situations and have been burned by them. If these co-workers have no qualms in slacking off, they're certainly going to have no qualms in going after you if you complain about their behavior.
It's best to just stick to what you're assigned to as much as possible and letting your co-workers know that you can't get to this other work right away. If it does comes up with your supervisor, tell him/her what you have been accomplishing and why you did not have time to do this other (their) work. If the supervisor feels like something needs to change, then it's on their head.

Try to work around it. Too many people are lazy these days and you need to turn it back to them. Forget about their socializing and phone calls. Your main concern is taking on their work. Push back (gently) their responsibilities their laps. If anyone asks me to do something, and it is not my responsibility, I let them know I need to direct them to the appropriate person for proper handling. If one of the slackers is coming directly to you - let them know that you have multiple priorities on your desk already and you would be happy to help in about a week. This way you haven't said no and they'll probably go away. If they don't go away... add that you need to also check with your boss before taking anything else on to make sure he/she doesn't have anything else pending as a priority for you already. If all else fails, you need to talk to your boss about others coming to you with their work requests. Explain to your boss that others are coming to you asking you to take on one of their projects and that you are worried you will not be able to continue to primarily focus and produce the quality work he/she deserves. Hopefully he/she will back you up and give you the power to turn their requests away.

I have been told I am responsible for their work loads because I'm the Administrative Assistant. What I don't appreciate is when nothing is done about those who dump all of their work on me to do and use the excuse that I'm "cross trained". While I understand the term, but I've been cross trained in the event that person is out of the office for the day, week, etc. Not when they are in the office and just don't "feel" like working on that particular project. I will be in the middle of something more of a priority and it doesn't matter; I'm expected to drop it all and focus on what they've got. I especially hate when something is due that day and it's brought to me last minute and I'm expected to cover for them. Believe me I have reported this to my supervisor and I'm left with no other options as to where I should go from here when my supervisor has yet to do anything about it. Except that mention in meetings we should all work as a team --- without bringing up examples or scenarios as to why.

I don't think you are tatteling at all. If you have spoken to your supervisor about this and they have brought it up in meetings, without giving examples, I would suggest that they give examples next time. If your work starts to suffer because you are doing other peoples work, your job could suffer. I love being busy and taking on new projects, I guess i am lucky to work in a place where everyone is on the same team.

I would avoid "tattling" but would find ways to make known what you are working on. Ask questions, drop the name of the project etc. If the supervisor realizes/catches on to what you are working on then you could very well benefit from it. If you go to them directly it may reflect negatively on you. Of course it all depends on the people involved too.

I disagree with the belief that they eventually "get caught." I've been working for over 35 years and if there's one think I've learned its that unless they are blatant and their boss has had problems, it will pretty much go (intentionally or unintentionally) unnoticed. I worked in a lawfirm where one younger woman consistently came in late, left early, wasted more time that anyone I've ever seen, and because the Parnters (I think) wanted to show their tolerance, she's still there. Where I work now there's a woman who's been in the company over 20 years. She wastes more time than the other woman and works overtime (anywhere from 30 min to an hour) EVERY DAY. Considering her salary, her overtime rate is quite high so she gives herself a nice little raise every year. Everyone has their time approved by their manager and it gets approved, but in my opinion, if you have to work overtime EVERY day EVERY week, you have time management issues. BUT, say something about it? Never. If folks like that get by with what they're doing, why change...and saying something about it will only make you look like a whiner.

SO simply and eloquently put.

Beautiful. Never heard of this one but will put it on my screensaver. Thank you.

I keep a monthly log of everything I do in an Excel file called Highlights. For example, Barbara B asked me to complete her travel expense report, Manager C had me complete 5 new hire paperwork, scheduled 10 interviews for Manager D etc. Each quarter I send a copy to my supervisor so he knows what I have been doing. It's a great tool to see what I have done, who I am doing work for etc. Last time he said I made him look good because I helped everyone in the building including groups that have their own administrative assistants. You might also be able to use it to negotiate a better salary. I keep each years highlights in the same workbook, using a separate sheet for each year.

I really like that idea. You might even expand on it to assign everyone a color, so they can more easily visually see who has been dropping off the most work. You could do it like a spreadsheet, assigning a column and color to each person who has brought stuff to you in the past. Make sure you put your supervisor first and with a color they would like, then assign the ugliest colors you can find to the others.

My commissioner does color blocks for his day, so he can see where he's supposed to be by color - he has 2 offices, 30 miles apart. He tries to spend a part of his day in each one, not usually with much success.

I tease him, we did the color block thing years ago. He now has 1 Executive Assistant, 1 Executive Secretary, 1 Admin. Assist (part-time - me), and a wife. He calls the other 3 of us "Moms 1,2, and 3," so I tease him that he's got 4 women to run his life and he actually EXPECTS to NOT have every minute of his workday committed for him!

Have you tried this? When someone brings work to you, indicate you won't be able to complete it until such and such date because you are working on whatever projects. Even if they say it needs to be completed that day, ask them which other project you are working on should be put aside and double check with your manager to make sure that is okay. Indicate who is directing you. If you need to repeat yourself, do so. Always be professional and friendly.

We had a manager who would socialize for a large part of the day with the employees on the floor. He would have me work on things for him or for his area when he could have completed it himself. He wasn't my direct. When I tried the approach indicated above, he would sit and speak in an authoritative way and kept reiterating over and over again it needed to be completed that day. Each time he said this, I would repeat back to him I would not be able to complete it that day because of xxxx project. If I have time, I will complete it; however, more than likely that will not happen because of xxxx. This would go back and forth until finally I would stand up and say, "Okay, I just wanted to give you a heads up. If I can, I will. However, it more than likely won't be. I just wanted you to know ahead of time because I didn't want any problems to occur later one." I was prepared to speak to my manger if I got called in which never happened. A couple of years later, when new management arrived, he was let go.

Your other approach is to find another position. Transfer to another department or resign once you have something else locked in. In the end, it's your call about how much you can take and are willing to accept. This situation may never change. Only you can change how you respond to it. Good luck with whatever you decide.

I would only say something if it affects your job directly. You could then document specifics for about 1 month, then have a meeting with the dept. mgr. Do it in such a way that you are expressing concern about your job performance (being overloaded) versus complaining about them. My 27 years of experience has shown me that most mgrs, even senior, has no desire to change things.

I thought there would be some constructive ideas flashed around, but instead, I seem to find the contrary. It's similar to a co-worker asked to do something, but respond, "It's not in my job description." Or, when the manager asks, "No! I can't do it right now." I'm sorry, but I can't really comprehend how any employee can say "no" to your boss. Has anyone mentioned job descriptions really do not exist and are of the past? I believe it's called, "multi-tasking." Myself, I would only document if it has an impact on yourself. I'm also quite sure your boss is aware, and don't be so sure this person will be promoted. He or she may be promoted out the door. It's doesn't go unrecognized. I can only imagine if you had that much work to do, then you may not have the time to ask these questions, especially in this economy. No one wants to hear a complainer, and it's best to concern yourself about you, and your actions. Gosh, I would hate to think someone maybe speaking about you. "Gotta go! I have to get back to work!"