Colleague taking the piss….

As is the generalisation that all working parents work harder than anyone else...and yet, that's allowed to stand.

unless this situation impacts your workload in some way and that you need to pick up the slack for her, I would say keep out of it. If there is a problem with her work and work ethos, I am sure your line manager will recognise this and take the necessary steps to sort things. In the meantime, don't pick up any slack for her and focus on your own workload. Don't cover for her and if she really is as lazy as you say, she will be outed. The fact she is being allowed to use her hours for travel is ridiculous. But there is nothing you can do and you will only hurt yourself if you get involved with this believe me.

one outcome of the pandemic is that people who don't have young children at home worked really fucking hard to cover for their colleagues and are now feeling the effects of that

This seems like a huge generalisation.

If public service, then paid for by tax payers!,! I’m sure most tax payers would agree that there are plenty of things tax can be spent on other than some employees taking the piss! Claiming for work hours that you have not actually worked is fraud

Thank you @thesurrealist. I’m glad your new job is working out better for you too.

Could not agree more. Op has confirmed she is in an NHS role and it really isn't as simple as just doing your hours. And suggesting that women who don't want/cannot have children should support those that do is at best misguided and at worst just plain offensive.

The mental health impact of the pandemic is a lot more nuanced than parents having colleagues pick up their work…

I am quite aware of that, as someone who worked on the pandemic response from day 1 (before the govt) and someone who continues to work on the effects of the pandemic.

If you want to start a thread about the MH impact of the pandemic then I'll willingly share my experiences. However, this thread is about people taking the piss at work and one outcome of the pandemic is that people who don't have young children at home worked really fucking hard to cover for their colleagues and are now feeling the effects of that.

@rainbowmilk I'm glad you have now got a more sensible working life, but I'm sorry that it came at the expense of your health. I hope that it does stimulate a change in the attitude of your employer

The mental health impact of the pandemic is a lot more nuanced than parents having colleagues pick up their work…

THANK YOU (again).

I racked up 650 hours of unpaid overtime during the pandemic as I was covering parents in this way - over 17 weeks of unpaid work. The problem now is that parents have returned to work but feel they’re “owed” having their kids at home/working under their hours because it “worked” during the pandemic. It didn’t - it came at the cost of doubling everyone else’s workload.

I’m now on mandatory reduced hours because I burned out. And yes, all of this is bad management, but it’s also entitlement, and seeing “well it worked during the pandemic” is really starting to wear thin.

I'd say it's down to poor management. Chances are your manager knows what is going on but it's easier to turn a blind eye then address it, especially if the work is getting done anyway.

Until then parents have successfully proved throughout the pandemic that they are able juggle work and families.

Except, of course, they didn't and in many cases it was at the cost of other people's health and well-being -but at that time employers and e players without young children to home school made allowances.

We're not in a pandemic now. Childcare and schools are open and so should be used.

During the pandemic the people who didn't have young people in my team at the time and I were working at least 15 hours a day. We took it in turns being home and being on site. The parents in that team worked a 7.5 hour day exclusively from home to help them manage homeschooling/childcare and work. They also had less work to deliver.

18 months of 15 hour days -often 7 days a week, all leave cancelled. Constant demands and pressure to deliver takes its toll.

So now the rest of us are burnt out and needing flexibility too. That's what I've tried to do in my new job and it's working for now. But people taking the piss - parent or not. Not delivering their workload (we're a strategic team not frontline but responsible for delivering services to a large region) will result in the, having that flexibility taken away.

It's just wrong! I feel for you abd your colleagues, but you know managers know what's happening.

I heard from a colleague who I think is under performing (not my team but we have work that abuts) that he actually works just 50% of the time cos he took this job losing 50% of his salary. He took the job cos he didn't want to be away from home overseas as much as his old job needed and it was stressful! Also heard in a diff dept a contractor was taken on for 6 months. She delivered zero work in any placement.

Where is management?!

Did you say you were public sector? If so flexi time is usually offered with core hours - lots of working parents use flexi time
to enable the school run/drop
off/pick up.

As for children in the background - what the actual issue? Even at senior meetings it is not unusual to see children at some point - this is one of the changes that the pandemic brought and I think you are a little mean spirited to raise.

You are directing your annoyance at the wrong people - when childcare becomes more affordable I think there will be greater use. Until then parents have successfully proved throughout the pandemic that they are able juggle work and families.

finally one thing to note - maybe your colleague is working outside of the hours you do - not uncommon for working parents and their online diary is not necessarily representative of their workload.

Sorry OP but your post has made me feel sympathy for your work colleague.

Has it occurred to any posters who think this ok, that OP cannot just not take on any of her workload bcos it’s possible the “workload” are humans who require treating & not a project or documents or other.

It’s easy to say don’t take in hers but the workload may be literally be patients, who I didn’t realise you can just ignore & say oh my colleague is meant to be dealing with them so I’ll leave them sitting there - even though she’s not even here & I’m now free.

This thread is hilarious.

Presumably all the posters thinking OP’s colleague is doing nothing wrong you would be happy if the NHS told you that there was an error in yours/a relatives care, or your appointment is cancelled last minute, because the person you were meant to be seeing has fucked off early to get a work/life balance, and they can’t afford to hire another person to fill the hours because that person is still being paid full time

@Laughingteacakes I did read your posts before responding.

1. Are you sure she isn’t catching up on work outside of working hours? Its possible in my line of work
2. You and your team should stick to your workload. By taking on extra work you are compounding the issue. Your mgmt can’t see the resource gaps. With gaps visible, mgmt will either scrutinise or add extra head to the team.
3. Don't raise issue about a team member and all this talk about her childcare and what she owns is giving you a bad look.
4. If you want to raise an issue, gather data on workload, hours worked and impact on the team. That way your genuine concern is well demonstrated.

I agree with this. The end result is, sadly, a loss of flexibility for everyone or employers deciding not to employ women with children.

The first one would piss me off as a childfree woman, but the second.....well not my problem and don't expect me to support you if you're taking the piss.

@thesurrealist Thank you. I’d add to that that it isn’t the job of female colleagues to help a woman parent her children. If a mum is unhappy with the division of labour then she needs to speak to the child’s other parent, not expect her female colleagues to do her additional hours for her.

I don't understand half of this drivel....but workplaces are not there to carry people. Flexibility is a privilege that depends on everyone doing their jobs and not taking the piss.
If someone's life is so chaotic that they can't do their hours and look after their kids then they need a serious conversation with their line manager about dropping hours.
Too often a woman's workplace has to suffer because a mans workplace is prioritised. It is not the function of a workplace to support a mans career. That is between the two parents to work out.
Oh and if a woman is so determined that she is not going to use childcare, then she can't work can she.
I said in an earlier post that I don't care if I hear/see evidence of kids in the background - but that doesn't mean that I would allow someone to look after their young kids at home when they are supposed to be working. After the age of say 10 fine.

Clearly a lot of people on this thread who think it’s perfectly fine to take the piss and commit fraud by stealing time (for their own personal purpose) that they are actually getting paid to work. They should be ashamed of themselves. No excuse for this at all. A good reflection of how this country is going downhill and these people who are probably sat there moaning about it are fully contributing. Lazy f**rs.

You need to highlight this again with your manager.
If nothing is done I would stop doing work in your own time (I would do this regardless) and even start your working day from the time you leave your home . Two can play that game .
I once worked with someone who took the piss nothing was done until the whole team adopted the same attitude. The lack of output soon came to the managers attention. She asked what was going on " oh we're just doing what piss take does "
Changes were swiftly made .

As much as I want to defend my fellow NHS managers - some I've come across have definitely been pro,toed way beyond their abilities and you just think wtf? It certainly encourages this kind of piss taking and makes me angry because most managers are actually really good and work very hard -it's not the same pressures as front line work, but it's a different set of pressures that we have to work under.

Sorry for the derail.

like the climate change protest in parliament was an inside job - that’s how we know about labour ending working from home - in complete opposite to their climate change policy - as to the protestors - how do you think they got through security?