I'm a mid-level engineer on a sysadmin team that builds tooling for our wider organization. I joined about ten months ago and have roughly four years of experience, mostly in software development, so I'm one of the least experienced people on the team even though I'm at a higher grade than a couple of colleagues.
One coworker, Derek, has been relying on me constantly. When I first joined, I helped him with basic PowerShell questions, networking problems in his development environment, and other routine tasks. It felt good to be useful, and my manager even praised me for helping the team.
The issue is that the same requests keep coming up every day. This week alone, I've spent one to three hours daily troubleshooting things that most of the team can handle independently. Recently, he edited a configuration file incorrectly, deleted files he needed without keeping another copy, and misunderstood the ticket requirements. What should have been a short task turned into me effectively completing the entire ticket for him.
Derek has been on the team for six years and has around 25 years of experience, so this isn't simply a case of someone being new. Other people seem aware of the problem, but I've become his default person for help. I have substantial work of my own and can't keep losing hours to constant hand-holding.
How should I raise this with my manager without making it sound like I'm trying to get Derek in trouble? Should I set firmer boundaries with Derek directly, require him to document his questions or open tickets, or simply accept that supporting him is part of my role?
3 Answers
Stop doing the work for him. Ask him to explain what he has tried, point him to the relevant documentation, and let him carry out the steps while you observe. For repeated questions, create or link to written guidance and ask him to follow it before coming back. If he makes a risky change, that should go through the normal review and backup process instead of you quietly fixing everything afterward.
Talk to your manager soon and bring examples: how often the interruptions happen, how much time they consume, and which of your tickets are being delayed. You can suggest a solution, such as a support ticket category or a scheduled office-hours slot, so the time is tracked and the responsibility is shared. You should also tell Derek directly, politely, that you can’t provide unrestricted one-on-one help throughout the day. Being helpful doesn’t mean becoming his permanent safety net.
Set a boundary and make the workload visible. When Derek asks for help, ask him to open a ticket or put the question in writing, then respond when you have capacity. Don’t silently drop your own work to help him. Tell your manager that you’re happy to support the team, but you’re spending several hours a day on it and need priorities clarified. Ask which of your current tasks should be delayed when this happens.
Frame it around competing priorities rather than Derek’s ability. That gives your manager a concrete decision to make and avoids turning it into a personal complaint.
Also give him realistic response times. You don’t need to jump immediately just because he appears at your desk; having other deadlines is a valid reason to schedule help later.