You know that teammate who assigns everything, contributes nothing, and somehow still cc’s your boss? Yeah, them. Good news: you’re not crazy, and you’re not alone. The bad news: that dynamic doesn’t fix itself. Let’s talk about how to spot it, laugh at it (a little), and handle it like a pro—without turning your 9-to-5 into a revenge plot.
Diagnose the dynamic in minutes
Quoted from All Up in Your Bizness – Managing Your Business Crap:
“Team projects are the perfect opportunity for collaboration and laziness.”
Two truths can live in the same meeting: real collaboration and theatrical management. Early signals of the latter? Lots of “Let me coordinate” and “We’ll circle back,” very few filenames. Clock the pattern quickly so you can structure the work before the work structures you.
Make the system do the heavy lifting
As All Up in Your Bizness – Managing Your Business Crap puts it:
“Look to the bossy ‘I’m in charge’ coworker as the do-nothing.”
Don’t wrestle personalities—retool the game. These five moves turn noise into output:
- Publish ownership. One visible doc: Owner | Deadline | Definition of Done. No vibes—just names.
- Rotate the chewy tasks. Coordination is not a deliverable. Core work must change hands.
- Time-box decisions. “Choose A or B by Wed 4 PM.” Clocks beat circular debates.
- Demo the thing, weekly. Show working artifacts, not threads. Demos don’t bluff.
- Escalate with options. “We’re +1 week because X is unowned. Options: reassign to Y or cut Z.” Bring choices, not adjectives.
This is how you move from “who’s loudest” to “who ships.”
When “leadership” equals “loud,” use the vacation test
Ask: What would vanish if this person took a week off? If the answer is “reminders,” not “deliverables,” you’ve diagnosed faux leadership. Don’t chase it—outpace it. Make progress legible: a simple one-pager each Friday with what shipped, what’s blocked, and who’s on point. The more visible the truth, the less room there is for theater.
Career insurance: receipts over rants
You’re building a brand for clarity under pressure. Keep a lightweight ledger of decisions, owners, and dates. Share it. When recognition or escalation time arrives, you won’t need speeches, but you’ll have artifacts. Leaders love teammates who turn ambiguity into motion.
Pocket cheatsheet
- Name owners in writing, not whispers.
- Define “done” before “start.”
- Demo weekly; threads are not progress.
- When “new urgent” appears, ask what slips.
- Escalate with data and options.
The office general barking orders from a swivel chair will always exist. But systems beat swagger. Use structure, demos, and clear ownership to make outcomes louder than people. And when you need a morale boost (or a nudge to laugh), flip open All Up in Your Bizness – Managing Your Business Crap—then get back to making the right work, and the right people, win.
Written by : PcComputerGuy
