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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).
While I don't think you need to change your attitude, I think it's helpful to understand that people rarely change their behaviour without there being some consequences or outside force that makes them do so.
There will always be Bob's in the world. Currently he's incentivised to continue his behaviour. Your boss's job is to make sure the work gets done. If your boss does not think their will be consequences for himself (such as being understaffed) he is limited in how much he will push Bob.
I'd look for other positions. I wouldn't tell your boss what you're doing or try to leverage 'if things don't change, I'll quit!'. I'd just quietly look for a better place for yourself that aligns with your own temperament (eg a job that doesn't force you to pick up other's slack in order to be diligent). It could be inside the same organisation or it could be somewhere new. Consider not taking roles where you are responsible for joint output and look for ones where you have your own deliverables that don't require other's input.
I'm dealing with a similar thing second hand right now with a close friend who has stakeholders in her job role that are blocking her from making changes to make her company more profitable. To do what she wants means more work for the blockers who are solely concerned with doing to bare minimum to meet their KPI's. They don't care about the company at all. Big agent/principal problem. Management are very slow to figure out the misaligned incentives, so my friend has to waste an unknown amount of time watching the blockers make excuses in meetings for why they don't want to find ways to make more profit until management figures it out. My friend has not surprisingly started looking for a new job in her spare time.
I strongly agree with your "people rarely change" statement and that's the attitude I have. I have tried to change the incentive structure for Bob by highlighting his massive shortcomings to Charlie, but to no avail as stated. I'll continue to brainstorm other ways.
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