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TLDR: I have a lazy, incompetent coworker that will not change his ways and my boss won't do anything about. My company is known for not firing incompetent people. How do I become okay with this?
Background
I work in a fast-pace manufacturing facility as an equipment engineer. Bob, my coworker in the same group, owns tools A-M and I own tools N-Z. We help each other's tools when one of us is out of the office. Our job is to make sure our tools are performing well and when they are, find ways to further improve the performance through projects. There is substantial overlap between our tools, but not 100%.
Problem
Bob is lazy and technically inept to the point that I do not allow him to make changes without my approval (this isn't official, but I just stonewall him until his laziness takes over). He did not complete any meaningful projects in 2023. He is difficult to work with due to his gruff and stubborn personality. During our group-wide weekly progress check-ins he only has excuses as to why he made no progress. He makes other people do his work for him.
This laziness can affect me when Bob is tasked with something that affects the entire group because either a) he will do it incorrectly, forcing me to go back and correct it, or b) won't do it at all/requires constant follow-ups. In the end it's just safer, better, and faster if I do it myself, thus putting more work on me and further enabling his laziness.
I have brought this up to our very-conflict-adverse manager, Charlie, on a regular basis over the past year and consistently get told he will talk to Bob, only for nothing to change. I've expressed my grievances in a lot of ways but to no avail. It's fucking infuriating and causes me major stress.
Solution?
Is this just something I have to get over? How do I get over this? Is there some Machiavellian tactic I can pull to force Bob to work harder or get fired altogether? (Although I'm scared about him working harder on technical projects due to the aforementioned ineptitude.) I've tried and tried and tried to become okay with this, but the situation completely contradicts my life philosophy that everyone should pull their weight in a group and live up to a certain standard of performance, both of which are being grossly violated by Bob (and Charlie, too, by not enforcing anything).
Why do you care if Bob screws up? Obviously Charlie doesn't care, at least not enough to do anything. Just let Bob screw up. If it's clear that Bob "owns" a different set of responsibilities than you do, his screw ups should only reflect badly on him and might even make you look good by comparison. Either Charlie will wise up and do something about it or he won't. Either way not your problem.
Also I would consider looking for a new place to work, since poorly managed businesses usually don't do well in the long run.
Bob’s fuckups can affect me greatly. For example, if he doesn’t put documentation in place for the tools of his that I’m not familiar with and they break while he is unavailable, I’m stuck cleaning it up. Other projects he works on may negatively affect the entire fleet of tools, in some cases forcing me to answer despite it being his fault. And yes, I know this sounds ridiculous.
We have a new manager coming on that I’m hopeful will change things.
If Charlie doesn't care when Bob screws up, why would he care if you screw up due to Bob? Why are you "forced to answer" if Bob isn't? Is this an office politics situation where Charlie and Bob are friends or something?
Why would the following not work:
Because we are "supposed to be a team" and "supposed to help each other out". There's no refusing to work on things here because other people are incompetent. (Kind of crazy to say that out loud!) The nuances are difficult to explain over text.
Two more examples to help paint a picture:
Parts regularly fail on our tools and it is our responsibility to make sure we have them in stock, including parts that have never failed before. If I asked Bob to ensure we have stock of part1, but he doesn't do that and that part fails on my tool, then I'm still responsible—it doesn't matter that Bob's tools also use the part.
If Bob made a system-wide change and that messed up my tools, I would still be responsible and have to report out on it. I've been reprimanded before for "throwing others under the bus", despite it clearly and fully being their fault.
It seems you have rediscovered the ancient wisdom that the reward for hard work is more work. The office doesn't work based on objective principles (like any org will insist to its grave), it works on the squeaky wheel getting the grease—and the strongest links getting the heaviest loads. Don't get me wrong: being a star performer can have its benefits in the right orgs with the right incentives—but if they aren't there (which seems to be the case as evidenced by your frustration), there's absolutely nothing wrong about withholding that performance.
I imagine that at some point, you (probably implicitly) volunteered yourself to be Bob's fixer. Now that you've shown you can do it, it's expected. It's hard to unwind that expectation without drawing attention. You can't just up and stop fixing Bob's mistakes, but you can steadily fix them less and less. Your cover is that maybe his fuckups are getting worse and worse, or perhaps your own responsibilities are growing and you have less and less effort to offer for it. There are likely a dozen more angles of attack for someone who knows your situation as intimately as you do.
Don't explicitly offer these things as explanations, but try to weave them implicitly in the excuses that you offer for why you couldn't fix Bob's mistake in a timely manner that avoids pain for his higher ups. Leverage plausible deniability to the maximum extent. Feel out how much pain you can expose Bob's superiors to using which narratives as cover and lean in to the ones that work.
Good luck.
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You talk a lot about how things are "supposed" to be, but it's clear that there are no consequences if things don't happen the way they are supposed to. So why does it matter what is "supposed" to happen?
Then be incompetent like Bob, since there are no consequences for this and others will be forced to pick up your slack. If they tell you to fix Bob's mistakes, say "sure, I'll try" then just don't (or only try as hard as doesn't inconvenience you).
So order the parts you need for your tools. I don't see what this has to do with Bob.
So just factually report what happened, and "try" to fix it, but don't put in any extra effort because it's ultimately not your problem.
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So when your tools fail, do what Bob does- let the criticism slide over you, make excuses, then move on, since apparently there are no actual consequences beyond verbal reprimands.
Do make sure to document everything to demonstrate you fill your responsibilities and any problems were because Bob's mistakes impeded you.
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