Coworker Trying to get out of Assignment a week before her vacation. AIO?
She's done it before and it worked so she tried it again yesterday and lost the effort to get out of it, but still has done nothing.
Background, we have the same supervisor but I am above her. I am tasked with assigning matters that come in and we use a simple rotation between four people, myself included. It puts me in a difficult place because I have the responsibility to assign, make sure the tasks are completed, and I have zero authority to hold someone accountable for insubordination.
A matter came in Monday, her turn in the rotation, plus the work was essentially done as the parts for this matter were already received. Quickly after being assigned she sent an email with same excuse she had successfully used in the past. I responded appropriately that didn't appear to be a valid reason to not have this assignment but deferred to the attorney to make the judgment. He agreed with me, but as it's his assignment too, he deferred to another attorney in our department. In the meantime I asked her to open the file (not actually work on it) and I pulled other docs for her to file, while we wait. She refused to respond. Did nothing.
We had our weekly meeting Tuesday morning. I asked what her reasoning is to cause her to think she should not work on this matter, but she wouldn't answer. Deferred to the attorney determination, who had already agreed this issue she raised was not a reason to be taken off the assignment, just waiting on 2nd attorney input. She was rude in my opinion, but she went out of her way after the meeting to try to throw me under the bus.
My supervisor called me because I had hurt her feelings. She hurt my feelings too. My response was that was about getting the job done, about the work, not about feelings. Our supervisor arranged a phone call for later, wanted us both to apologize, I said ok.
Meanwhile attorney 2 weighed in and attorney 1 gave her the matter, as I had assigned. I assisted and opened the file. This was still early Tuesday morning 9ish, that coworker now has the assignment to complete. She didn't get her way. 930 am she has the file I opened and all the parts. Do the assignment.
Instead she does nothing on it, but has time to write out her feelings about what I did wrong, how dare I ask her for follow up info about the matter. She wrote it out like an essay and read it to me in our afternoon phone call. So I responded as to my legitimate concerns, needed to know if she has gaps in her learning that would cause her to mistakenly think she could not do this assignment, but I apologized if I was rude as my intention was to get the assignment completed. I did say it "felt like insubordination". Her reply was zero apology, I'm not her supervisor, etc, ... this is with our supervisor trying to get us to apologize to each other. I said "so my feelings don't matter, only yours? I apologized but you won't? This is assigned to you and both attorneys have agreed with me that your reason is not an issue, you can do this assignment." Phone meeting ended.
3 hours later near end of day, I checked, she still has done nothing on the matter. I sent an email to our supervisor and other coworker who will have it next in the rotation, then clocked out.
The effort to not do the assignment in two days has taken way more effort than her just doing the assignment. It would be done now. She has 3 days before her vacation, and she gets back before the matter needs to be completed. AM I OVERREACTING by insisting she still has this assignment?