Colleague taking the piss….

I haven’t got the faintest idea what you’re on about, but I mean “class” as in a “class of people”, not as in working/middle/upper class.

You know I’m a bit like you and my work ethic is that I will always do my best job . But threw covid I worked non stop while most if my colleague made up every excuse under the son . So gave me perspective and since then I miss work if I need , I stopped taking calls after work hours and when I needed long term sickness leave during my recent pregnancy I had it without feeling guilty .
My advice is do your work , let others do theirs . Do not feel obligated dog step up to do others jobs . It’s better in the long run

WFH is one thing, WFH whilst looking after young children is quite another. Especially when it affects your ability to actually do the work.

I used to work with someone who would come in late, leave in the middle of meetings, disappear early. She had children but it was actually because she was so disorganised. She gave working Mums a bad name. They made her have a flexible working agreement but she couldn’t even stick to that.

You can't understand why a colleague who is taking liberites with their time and impacting on their team mates is causing those team mates to get their knickers in a twist?

I don't read the OP's post as her being concerned about the colleagues routine, just how that routine is affecting and impacting on the other colleagues and team mates.

I’ve worked in the NHS for 42 years and I am still picking up the slack for lazy colleagues. I’ve just been thinking of all the shirkers I’ve worked with. They seem to get away with it unfortunately. At least I have a clear conscience, I know I’m hard working and would be mortified to think anyone thought I wasn’t pulling my weight. I often think if the NHS was privatised these people wouldn’t last 2 minutes, not that I want that!

It's not fair, if she is paid for say 36 hours, but only actually spends say 27 hours doing her work of course that is wrong. Think that is quite common in some places, I have herd of others doing this.

Shirkers are a nightmare & doing it in plain sight must be really galling.

Could you raise it with your manager as a team - so as to show that it’s not just affecting you? Plus then can’t be written off as an issue between just the 2 of you.

Sympathies it’s a nightmare when you feel you’re being mugged off by someone in your so called team & nobody’s doing anything about it.

Good luck

You're being too nice. Colleague knows you will pick up the slack and is happy for this to happen. To all those Mumsnetters saying leave her alone, imagine if everyone slacked off like her. Of course you need to have a proper meeting with the line manager and sort this out. The colleague needs to pay for some more childcare as she obviously needs it to do her contracted hours.

This.

Its so obvious its unbelievable.

I don't know anyone who would tolerate this for a minute, much less allow it to go on for months and months.

So passive.

I can't imagine the foolishness of working for free whilst a colleague does fxxk all.

As for all the posters telling her to mind her own business?
Laughable.

It is the OP's business when her private life is impacted by working for free to cover a colleague taking the piss!🙄

You are projecting. There is nothing in the details the OP has posted that suggests she has been at all bullying.

She might not be able to get childcare for her children. I have just booked a space as I’m TTC because the childminders are all booked out.

we have just bought a Tesla because my partner was sinking large sums into our old diesel with no hope of it becoming better again. Electric is much cheaper especially once the car is paid.

The days I wfh I can do my hours with childcare in place. I just can't do that when I have to drive into work, I just can't get wrap around childcare and no after school clubs. Those days I make up for it by writing up notes, reports and sending emails in the evening. My manager is aware, but to my colleagues, it probably looks like I am taking the piss.

Lazy people rely on others picking up the slack and not challenging them. Not fair on the colleagues nor the taxpayer.

If she can't manage her time, she needs to go part time and get her pay adjusted.

I think you should stop trying to micro manage your colleague and concentrate on your own work. Raise your concerns with a line manager and do things properly.
I used to work with a few presumptuous, vindictive women, who were bullying and unkind and embellished everything I said or did and turned it into a negative to try and prove that I was not capable of working the same load with young kids. They were vile and didn't know the half of it. It sounds like you and your other colleagues are determined to see the worst in her, which makes you look like a bunch of bullies. Be careful how you handle this as it could very much backfire and be harmful to your own reputation.

This - If her manager is happy with her performance then it’s not your business.

I'm late to the party but even if she was doing her work, if you are working extra hours consistently to get the job done all you are doing is masking an issue unfortunately.
I am also NHS and would struggle to put a business case together for staff/ resource/ technology/ investment to help/ if the work was getting done.
I have team members that do this. They are not martyrs, they care greatly about what they do but i try to make them see its on me, not them if things don't get done and all they are doing is hiding a problem. Having a healthy work life balance means being more likely to have happy staff who on a rare occasion will go the extra mile (not every single day) when it's needed.
I'd want to know if I was this persons manager so I could gather evidence, but I'd also want to make sure you were ok and not in danger of burn out.
I really hope your line manager listens

Would be good to be a fly on the wall! Bet Mumsnet remove this discussion overnight - trades union people trying to stir up a hornets nest on chat rooms whilst there’s industrial action going on elsewhere - bit like the phoney question yesterday about a woman who claimed she met a guy in a bar, got drunk, had a ONS and felt like a slag - but then the I.p. Address flagged up as suspicious - bet you tomorrow this thread will have been closed down FAKE ISSUES ETC

You need to out her. If she has designated tasks and you and the rest of the team are picking them up simply stop doing them and the truth will out.

@rainbowmilk it’s got nothing to do with class! But a lot to do with people communicating at work (and you don’t need the misogynistic men in the trade unions to represent men and women) both men and women - it’s just some people are too busy ganging up on others - being all nicey nicey to their face and then running them down behind their backs - got something you want to say at work - say it to the appropriate director and stop being a pain in the bottom you sit on!

Bad manager not to sort this out. They should be aware, especially after a year.
Be very careful not to end up as the shot messenger on this.
As a manager for longer than I can count, it’s essential things like this are sorted asap. One bad apple means the whole team suffers. It’s hard though - they can be the first to cite any type of defence they think will stick. I’ve had someone blatantly working two jobs while in the office and I still ended up with her citing me for disciplinary issues when I’d done everything by the book. Sorry for this, must be an absolute pain.

I am baffled at the many pp who have advised OP to focus on her work and not on the colleague….her colleague’s idleness is causing an increase to her work. So by her raising this, op is focusing on her work. The focus is to reduce her increased workload cus her colleague sucks!

You and the other team members just do what you're meant to, any slack, let it go and when your manager asks why, you can all tell them that you're not covering her any more so stuff isn't getting done

ok you are a martyr. I am a retired NHS manager and I used to get fed up with people doing extra hours because they couldn't leave stuff.

Another one who thinks work/life balance is just for mums eh @illicitinkling? That was the mentality that saw me burnout! Everyone is deserving of the ability to structure work around their personal life, as long as they’re performing and doing what they’re paid to do. Not just one class of people.

YABU - you are making a lot of assumptions about your colleague and seem to have spent a lot of time analysing her movements and diary, which I think is bordering on obsession.

if you feel you are working harder than you should and that there is a lack of parity between team member then the only person that can resolve this is your line manager.

there could be lots of different factors at play here, doing work off line ie marking up notes, reading through reports and prep, quality of her actual work which may be better than average, feedback from others and lots of things that a line manager could be seeing as a total picture.