Colleague taking the piss….

I have had similar. This person managed to run her own MLM business in work hours. Our manager knew exactly what was happening. She didn't have to do anything though as others picked up the slack so she wasn't affected.

She did have to address it when some work didn't get done and people above her found out. She asked one particular person why (a person who usually went above and beyond but this time didn't) and got told the situation which she already knew about but had ignored. The slacker was obviously spoken to, seemed to improve marginally for a few months and then got another job in the same place but a different department.

Yanbu.

We have a colleague like this. For years he got away with a lighter workload because he was friendly with our manager.

I'm not sure why people are questioning how you know about her work load compared to yours. Where I work it is patently obvious. We have a list of cases each day, visible to all. So in our case we could see how many he cleared a day.

In terms of workload being increased due to his slack, if he wasn't around when a case became urgent, one of us would have to do it.

In our case our manager was off sick for quite a while so we got an interim. He was great. He did analyses and rejigged the pipelines.

In your case I'd perhaps try to arrange a regular 9am catch up meeting or similar. Copy everyone in, including manager. If she can't make it suggest another day at 9am. Not unreasonable if you all start at 8.30. If she has official flexible hours, she will say so.

large house... expensive car... said car was bought a few months ago. And if you are [buying] an expensive car on credit

what I take from this thread is how much people know about their colleagues' lives & financial situations. I know almost none of this about my colleagues. How they bought their cars, if their car was expensive, or even what car they drive. I have one colleague whose home I've been to so I know where it is, roughly how big, and can surmise (from their age, likely time living there) they are probably mortgage free.

I think you are being unreasonable. She might have an agreement with your boss and if she is getting her job done, then she shouldn't be punished for doing it efficiently and prioritising her well-being and life.
I don't know if this is true in your case but in my case those who works the longest aren't the ones doing the best job, so maybe take a lesson from her and work smarter, not harder.
She honestly sound like she has her shit together and good on her!

I worked with a couple of piss takers in an otherwise overworked team. They turned out to secretly be a couple and covering each other's backs.

It was infuriating seeing them turn in for work hours late and then disappear 2hrs later, go out for 4hr lunches, not bother turning in due to childcare issues, take leave but frequently not officially request it so were taking double the leave each year. Even caught them asleep at their desks.

I was new on the team so not my place to tackle it. I was persuaded not to report it as doing so would mean my manager would likely get sacked as he hadn't noticed any of this. I came back from maternity leave to find out both piss takers had been promoted. So that's over £100k between them a year that the taxpayer are funding for 2 people to sit on their arses and pretend to work. I was fuming when I found out.

OP get her reported like I should have reported these CF'ers. Maybe ask your manager if the rest of the team can structure your working day like the CF and get paid for your commute.

Would you seriously hang on a decision to only work four hours a day on this?

How do you know in the situation that you don’t have shirker colleague doing 80% and OP doing 120% to achieve this? Wouldn’t you care?

Op I worked with someone like this too. Before that we were a great team and anyways supported each other, got the job done and had a fantastic reputation in the community - very well thought of. It was a job where you were free to manage your own time.
New starter (from another department) saw this as a change to completely take the piss.
He did a quarter of the work of anyone else, worked less hours than the part timers despite getting full time pay- constantly lied about appointments, fiddled his fleck and leave.
it has an impact on team moral despite what others say. Manager was weak and wouldn’t tackle him as he was a union rep who would have kicked up a huge fuss. She did however tackle the others about the fact no one wanted to give him the time of day.
i ended up leaving a job I loved as I couldn’t stand it. All you can do is keep telling you LM and presenting evidence and hope they pick it up.

I do the school run, endless school demands and have a child pottering around in the background on days during school holidays where I don’t have childcare as there are no non-sports holiday clubs in my area.

Since WFH became a thing, I’m at home more often than not now. I work a lot of evenings after the bedtime routine, but these days I hide behind the Teams capability to ‘appear offline’ because frankly I’m fed up of people (and interestingly, mostly junior colleagues) telling me when I should and shouldn’t be working.

People probably make assumptions about me.

OP you need to handle your work more professionally:

1. Unless you are a job where people's lives are seriously impacted, like children's social care, you need to stop working unpaid hours. You have no basis to be annoyed at her for you making such a batshit choice.

If you do work in something like that (I'm a teacher, I know what it's like) then it's doubly important you do 2.

1. The first thing you do when you have a problem with a colleague is tell them, face to face. You need to have enough respect for her to give her chance to understand and fix the problem informally. If you can't do that then stop moaning.

If that doesn't work you write to your manager, factually explaining the issue and giving numerous very specific examples. You ask how it will be resolved. You don't need and shouldn't get any info about disciplinary proceedings but you should get to know how the workload is being redeployed.

If, after appropriate time and several follow ups, they don't reach a then you follow up with their manager. Your problem is more with your manager than the colleague- it is they who need to distribute workload evenly.

If you still don't get it resolved you use the formal grievance policy focusing on the inequitable workload, not the colleague.

What would happen if you and others didn't pick up her work,
Would anyone suffer?

While I don't think you're vile I do think you should just do what's been allocated to you during the day and no more.
Unfortunately if people suffer because of your colleague not doing her job that's down to her to face up to but for as long as you're willing to do it for her she'll continue doing as she does.
Remember the more you do for piss takers the more they'll want.

Speak to her about it then speak to manager.

Because it’s a responsibility that in the absence of flexible working would have to be outsourced and paid for, ditto childcare.

If you do benefit from WFH policies which allow you a better work life balance, whilst your workplace is hybrid, then it is clear that not all the workforce derives equal benefits, after all someone has to be in the office, and for all that plenty on this thread say that they fulfil their work requirements by working at night etc, good for them, but some poor sod(s) is left picking up the 9-5 in the office because someone has to do it. And if you are that poor sod in the office, you are picking up all of the minutiae which would otherwise be shared, yes, your workload is impacted because you are dealing with general office admin much of the time.

My manager has pulled 3 employees with preschool age kids back into the office full time and revoked their wfh rights that we all have certain days a week for 12 months as she found out they were doing childcare in work hours

If the work wasn't getting done, then good on the manager

We could do with more decisive people like this, though I can imagine how it went down if they were pisstakers

you can't control what she does, only what you do...while you are picking up work that she should be doing, its as though you are giving her money. Your choice.

oh and yes, i had kids at the time, not that i'd ever expect others to repeatedly pick up the slack for my life choices

YANBU

Can't believe everyone leaping to defend her lazy ass!
i used to work in the nhs- no shortage of lazy colleagues and useless managers to (mis)manage them- of course you're not imagining it and it's beyond infuriating
i think it's public sector life- can people really not conceive of this happening?
don't have an answer, i'm afraid, but solidarity- even reading your post has brought back some of the rage!

Our manager doesn’t seem to be interested as the teams work is getting done

And that's your problem right there, especially as you said you're choosing to finish the work on your own time

The obvious answer is for the rest of the staff to stop picking up the pieces, tell the manager it can't be covered and leave them to work out why and do something about it

It's the only way they'll ever care, and this is after all their job

I think you should leave this up to your manager.
I do nursery pick up around my job 2 days a week I make up the time later in the evenings or start online by 6.30 those days. It's what works for my family not having late pick up all week. My line manager doesn't care as long as I'm getting my work done and it's common in my team.

She also travels from home to work in her work time so that she can be at home at the times she needs for her childcare, without making up the 1.5ish hours this takes her each day.

So she's getting paid to commute. Nice work if you can take get it!

It sounds as though this person might be really struggling, if it's not your responsibility to address this person's behavior, then don't. If you are happy working as hard as you are then what is the issue? If you would like to do less, then do less.

Is it like social services? She’s totally taking the piss. Tell your manager and tell your manager how frustrated the team are. That you all intend to work your colleagues hours from now on.

Are you a health visitor?

Agree. It’s disgusting.
My manager has pulled 3 employees with preschool age kids back into the office full time and revoked their wfh rights that we all have certain days a week for 12 months as she found out they were doing childcare in work hours. Not at all fair on the rest of the team. Especially as it’s a well paid job which also offers nursery vouchers as a company perk.

I can't actually believe some of the responses here!! Workload should be equitable, no matter what your personal circumstances are! I'm all for flexibility for working mums/people - I worked full-time paying for childcare and engaging in further education for 18 years.

I am in a situation where I was 'inherited' by a manager (promoted way above their level of competence, but there you go!) and life is made difficult for me and another team member who is a number of years older. The fact that I am also massively more highly educated than she is, or indeed any of the rest of the team, seems to be resented rather than harnessed. I definitely think there is an element of ageism with a manager who gets angry if questioned on anything.

I am constantly checked up on and literally harassed about where I am and what I am doing - micromanaged within an inch of my life! - and I've been pushed into the 'quiet quitting' scenario, because I just can't deal with that level of scrutiny! I just want to be left alone to get on with it - and I totally feel that we should be managed by output, but that's never going to happen.

However, like you OP, I also have a colleague who I can clearly see isn't pulling her weight. She was one of my manager's recruits, who apparently can do no wrong. She has very young twins, and it's my understanding (although I don't personally know) that she plans work meetings around the children. I would get such a bollocking if my personal life impinged on my working life in any way!

I've heard complaints from union reps and managers about my colleagues, but all I can do is my best for my own cases.

However, the inequitable treatment does stick in my craw, I have to say.

So, I am with you OP. It's not fair on other team members that a colleague is contributing much less because they have children, and won't pay for appropriate childcare!