I work at a small nonprofi t as the assistant
to the executive director. Very shortly
after I was hired, a new writer was also
hired. Let’s call her Carrie. Carrie did not
have experience in writing the particular
kinds of proposals our nonprofi t requires,
but the executive director thought she
was a good fi t for the position. Th ere was
a rough start to her tenure, as a lot of
deadlines came up quickly and she was
doing a lot of things last minute. Her
writing was not the best during this period,
but both the director and I chalked it up
to her rush in trying to hit the deadlines.
Recently, she turned a project over to
the director in order to be reviewed. She
had plenty of time to work on it, but still
strugg led immensely; she had to work
closely with the director rewriting it. After
that, the director told me she was unsure
of how to help Carrie polish the work by
the time it got to her to review, and that
she was frustrated by Carrie’s performance.
In order to save the director some time,
I thoroughly proofread the next project
and gave Carrie many sugg estions and
notes, which she implemented before the
draft was ready to be reviewed by the director.
Th e director has since read it and praised
Carrie for how much she improved.
As my offi ce is just outside of Carrie’s,
I heard their conversation, and she
did not mention that I had contributed
at all. I’m not necessarily in need of
praise and admiration for helping the
specialist, but I am frustrated because
I know Carrie’s salary is substantially
higher than mine and I feel as if I am
more capable of doing her job than she is.
However, I am hesitant to go to my
boss and tell her any of my concerns
because it may refl ect poorly on me.
My boss is also not afraid of fi ring
people who are unable to do their
job to her satisfaction, and I don’t want
Carrie to be fi red. I really like her
as a person; I just feel like her abilities
do not measure up to the requirements
of the position. What should I do?Name WithheldLet’s try to keep two sets of questions
distinct. One has to do with whether14 8.4.19 Illustration by Tomi Um
Illustration by Louise Zergaeng PomeroyThe Ethicist By Kwame Anthony Appiah
To submit a query:
Send an email to
ethicist@nytimes
.com; or send mail
to The Ethicist,
The New York Times
Magazine, 620
Eighth Avenue, New
York, N.Y. 10018.
(Include a daytime
phone number.)Katie writes: My
husband and I have
two Squatty Potty
toilet stools: one
for the upstairs
bathroom and one
downstairs. When
we have guests over,
my husband hides
the downstairs one.
I think we should
leave it out.
————
Since you have
ruthlessly hijacked
my column to buzz-
market Squatty
Potty, the court feels
no compunction
in siding with your
husband: Hide
that thing. If you
don’t know what it
is, reader, the S.P.
is a special toilet
footstool/human
defecation aide.
And if your guests
don’t know what it
is, they will wonder
and worry about you.
Then you will have to
explain it — which,
in my opinion, is
not great cocktail
chatter. I am glad for
you and your colon,
Katie, but we do not
go to parties to be
reminded of that
stuff. And, excepting
extreme cases, your
guests should not be
using your bathroom
for that purpose
anyway. So
why invite them?Bonus Advice
From Judge
John Hodgmanyour colleague is capable of doing the job
she was hired to do. The other is about
whether it’s wrong of her to conceal the
fact that she relied on your help to get this
project done, and, if so, whether that’s
something you should report to your
boss. You’re honest enough to indicate
that your feelings about these issues are
aff ected by the fact that she’s paid more
than you are, while you’re convinced you
can do her job better than she can. But it’s
worth trying to sort through the issues
here as dispassionately as we can.
On the fi rst question, it looks as if
the answer is no. She’s not ready to do
the job. On your account, she’s never
actually produced a satisfactory written
proposal on her own. If your boss knew
that, there would be two responses avail-
able: The boss could arrange for Carrie
to be coached — as she did with the fi rst
proposal and you did with the next one
— in the hope that she would soon be
able to operate on her own. Or she could
decide that she made a mistake in hiring
her and give her notice that, unless she
improves substantially, she would have
to go elsewhere.
That you like Carrie and don’t want to
see her fi red refl ects well on you. But it isn’t
a reason for your nonprofi t to keep her. It
does provide you with a motive to keep
covering for her, I suppose, but doing so
won’t solve the problem that her lack of
competence creates. It can’t be effi cient for
the boss to spend a lot of time rewriting
her; it can’t be effi cient for you to spend a
lot of time bringing her work up to snuff ,
either. If you think you can train her so that
she’s able to do good work without your
continued assistance, then this would be
a generous thing to do, and I’d commend
it. (That’s assuming it doesn’t eat into your
time so much that you cease being able to
do your own job.) But if that is going to
happen, it would be better to be above-
board about it so that your boss is aware
of your role in bringing her up to speed.
And, to turn to the second question,
she should indeed have been above-
board about the help you gave her. It’s
unsurprising that she didn’t mention
your role here, because it would have
undermined her claim to be getting
better at the job. Still, the fact is that
your boss now has a false impression
of Carrie’s skills. That rankles you, and
resentments like yours don’t make for
good offi ce relationships. But the biggerWhat Can I Do When
a Colleague Takes Credit
for My Work?