What are the qualities of a good co-worker?

Coworker is reporting me to my boss and lying. Help?

• I started a new job 3 months ago and I work with an extremely annoying elderly woman. My elderly coworker was fired from her last position at this company and rehired. She has a thick southern accent and speaks very unprofessionally and unintelligently. She is also fanatically religious and gossips about people’s personal lives in the office. On top of her annoying qualities, she doesn’t do her job correctly. Not only does she make multiple little mistakes on a daily basis that I have to correct, but she also make bigger, more serious mistakes. I hate confrontation and I don’t want to create a negative work environment for us, so I have never complained about her to my boss. I just tried to keep to myself and do my work. In the past when I have tried correcting a few of her mistakes, she completely overreacted and yelled at me in front of everyone in the office. Four weeks after I was hired, I was given a second job to do on top of answering the phones, so now I am doing the job of 2 people. My coworker only answers the phones and she slacks off where she either sits at her desk and reads magazines, or she will take 8 bathroom breaks a day or just leave the office for 20-30 minutes and not say where she is going. Meanwhile, I’m stuck at my desk doing work for at least 4 hours before I can take one break to use the bathroom. Yesterday she reported me to my boss and lied saying that I’m not doing my job. I confronted her about it and she says that she never reported me and she knows that I do a lot of work. Not only is she two-faced, but she is a complete liar. How do I handle her? I am so stressed out and I dread working with her.

• Answer:

  talk to your HR department and file a complaint