> Okay. I'm upset about something, here, and I'd like to get some other perspectives on it. This morning at work, I was chewed out by my boss for not doing my job well enough. Now, I'm not ordinarily the type of person to be upset by this, but here's the trouble:
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> I work very hard at my job. As some of you may know, I work the overnight shift, and I certainly have my share of duties to attend to (I posted a long, incomplete list in chat earlier today). The trouble is, I work just about non-stop (I like to take fifteen minutes off around three o'clock - in fact, I *believe* it is required by law that I get a fifteen-minute break somewhere in my eight-hour shift), and can't get all of it done. Why, you ask? Because I am left with anywhere between a half-dozen and a half-score duties from the previous shifts that aren't done and have to be done before I can do *my* work. I told this to my boss, and he said he would be talking to them, too.
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> Now, don't get me wrong - I have no problem with being reprimanded, and I know that this in particular was more or less a routine talk that he was having with pretty much everyone. My trouble is the total lack of discipline. I work very hard, and I get told it's not acceptable; at the same time, other people do next to no workat all, and, while I'm sure they're told that it's not good enough, there are no real consequences for their behaviour. I like my boss - he's a very nice, understanding, dedicated man - but he just doesn't have the heart to fire people. Only one person has been fired in the six months that I've been at this job, and that was for not showing up to work for a week and a half without any notice (and, yes, it took him a week and a half to fire her). This is especially poor for my morale.
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> I guess my question is: What do you all think I should do?

This is probably really stupid, and I don't know enough about your job anyway, but you asked for an idea, so here is one.

From what I've heard, other people not pulling their weight is one of the most common problems in a job and it's probably one of the hardest to solve. The self-help books would say "you should put your foot down and refuse to do other people's work for them". Yeah, great idea, if you have the sort of job and amount of power where you can *do* that without the response being "Fine, you're fired."

It seems that the problem comes from your boss being too nice to discipline people who need it. How well do you get along with him, and how much does he trust you? If he is *aware* that people need a metaphorical kick in the butt, but can't bring himself to do it because he's afraid it'll make people (sniffle) hate him, maybe he'd go with the idea of palming off the responsibility onto someone else. Like you. Tell him if he gives you a new job title that makes it sound like you have some sort of authority, you'll do all his butt-kicking and embarrassing "you're fired" meetings for no extra charge. If that would work, you not only get rid of the discipline problem, but you get a much better job title to put on your next CV.

Brunnen-"of course, then they'll hate YOU, but they'll be leaving anyway, so who cares?"G