Have you ever worked in an office where it seems your co-workers have forgotten the word "work" is in their job description? You know the type: sits around chatting with anyone who will listen, finds reasons to leave the work station and gad about, stretches out a simple 20-minute task to make it last an entire day.

You put up with it for a while, simmering quietly, hoping the boss will notice Ms. Lazy and crack down on the frittering, but it doesn't happen. After all, this lazy person is usually likable because she's busy being a social butterfly.

When there are no repercussions to her laziness, your resentment begins to build. You're getting the same pay, but definitely not doing equal work. You're also shouldering more work— her work — which is unfair. That feeling of being exploited and treated unfairly is a huge de-motivator.

What can you do to protect yourself? Maybe more importantly, what shouldn't you do?

Don't try talking to this person about it. She doesn't want to hear about her slouching her workload and how it affects you. She'll play the victim role, complain to others that you're picking on her, and continue with the same behavior but with even more gusto, now that she's feel justified by you "targeting" her.

Don't talk to the boss. If he hasn't noticed her lack of work ethics on his own, then your complaining to him won't open his eyes. He'll consider you a "tattletale," probably lecture you on getting along with your co-workers, and mark you as a troublemaker.

Don't complain to other co-workers. No matter how sympathetic they might seem. When it's your complaint against this friendly (but lazy) staffer, they'll side with the person they like and offer up excuses for her behavior. Once again, you'll be labeled a troublemaker who can't get along with others.

Don't take on her responsibilities. You might think the company needs it, and if Sally Q isn’t going to do it, then you'd better. Wrong. You don't. That enables her laziness and shields the boss from noticing who is doing what.

So, what can you do?

Nothing. That is, do your own work, not hers. If work piles up on her desk, it's her problem. The boss asks you where a report is, remind him that Sally Q is taking care of it, and you don't know the status of her project.

I once worked at a company that was a 24-hour operation. A certain task needed to be accomplished on the night shift, and one supervisor exclaimed, "Well, don't assign it to Rachel — she'll never do it. Give the assignment to Mark who will be diligent enough to do the task."

I was incredulous. "So you're in favor of giving more work to the responsible employee and letting the slacker off the hook?"

They were stunned because they had never looked at the dynamics that way. They didn't realize they were rewarding the lazy worker by giving her less work, and punishing the dependable staffer by assigning him more work.

By allowing the lazy coworker to rise or fall on her own, eventually the boss's eyes open to the reality.

I know this from personal experience. I worked at a company once with just such a lazy person. He disappeared for long periods of time, stretched a 10-minute job to last all day, and invested much energy in socializing with everyone to become their best friend.

Meanwhile, the heavier workload fell to me. And I did everything I say not to do: I complained to the boss and to my co-workers. Yes, I was targeted as being the only person who couldn't see how nice this guy was, and what was my problem.

I finally shut up and ignored him (which wasn't difficult since he was hardly ever at his workstation). Eventually, people started to see that when he was supposed to contribute help, he was either nowhere around or was simply chatting, not helping anyone.

Granted, it did take a while for people to notice that instead of working, he was spending all his energy avoiding work. And that's when he was let go.

The point is that without your help or complaints, lazy workers eventually get noticed for their lack of contributions to the team effort. Either they'll get an ultimatum to shape up, or they'll get terminated. Your goal is to stay patient and wait for that reality.