Last night I was still obsessing over this around 2:30 AM, so I sat down to type it out at 5:30 this morning with a small coffee and a black ballpoint in my pocket. I’m still hung up on it, like really.

I work at the front desk in a hotel in Udon Thani, I’m 34. I handle the little management tasks around the hotel. What happened was my line manager suddenly came up to me and told me to take back part of the workload from one of the staff because he’s going to “step down” from some duties. My boss spoke super fast and didn’t explain the reason at all.

Not okay. Just no details, then tells me to take over his tasks and if there are problems report back quickly, but didn’t tell me how to talk to that guy or whether he should be given a chance to fix things.

What really bugs me is my boss’s tone and attitude — it felt like there was this hidden annoyance. And my boss told the story from only one angle, like “he messes up a lot, he should take responsibility,” but I’ve never actually seen it clearly myself.

That staff member is quiet, not chatty, he’s only been here about 5 months and 3 weeks. I see him trying at his job. Sometimes slow, but I’ve never seen theft or any serious bad behavior. But my boss seemed to be implying he’s just lazy. So now I’m wondering, does my boss have some personal issue with him, or is there something I don’t know?

Part of me wants my boss to explain the details first or to be the one to talk to him. But if I ask too many questions I’m worried I’ll be seen as not following orders or being nosy, like I’m opposing my boss. And another part of me doesn’t want to be the middleman deciding about a coworker without hearing his side first.

Right now I’ve already taken on the extra tasks and have been doing them for about two days, but I keep thinking whether I did the right thing, or if I should go talk to him first to hear his side and then report back to the boss with both sides.

Or am I overthinking? Am I too weak for not just doing it without questions, but if I question too much I’m worried I’ll be seen as not a team player lol T_T

Anyone here who’s been through this — what did you do? Should I ask my boss for more details, go talk to the employee first, or ask the boss to clarify his timeline? I’m scared if I mess this up the team vibe will get worse.

This is my first time posting, I’m a newbie, sorry if I messed something up. I’ll be waiting for advice.