Colleague taking the piss….

If there’s no agreement in place re. Flexible working then she’s taking the piss. She should be paid pro rata according to the hours she actually works or pay for child care so she can perform to the same level as her colleagues.
talk to your manager and ensure the manager is aware of the hours she is dropping due to her commitments. It’s unfair on the wider team, and causes unrest amongst colleagues. If there is no formal agreement for her to do this then it should not be tolerated, as essentially the wider team are paying for her childcare with the extra unpaid hours they are working to pick up the slack.

These comments are taking the absolute piss. Her gain is your and the team's loss making up for and covering her shortfall. How greedy and unfair she is. Definitely escalate this.

I have a colleague who arrived late to the office the other day because she was taking her kids to school. I thought nothing of it. Another colleague had to deal with a gardener the other week, and someone once interrupted a quick meeting we were having so they could answer the door.

Those examples are a bit different to someone being an hour and a half late every day. Surely you can see that?

Those querying the lighter workload thing and how does the OP know, in my workplace there’s a ‘waiting list’ of cases to be allocated and as we clear one case we’re allocated another. On our work plans it’s very clear and obvious to all if someone is clearing far fewer cases than other team members. Not getting through your workload means the pressure is on the rest of the team to take them on and work harder. We also have shared diaries where we have to detail all of our time, again it’s easy to see what work is actually being done.

This gets said quite a lot on here about lock down dogs, but I can’t see why having a dog affects someone’s ability to work. Childcare I get, but not looking after a dog. I wfh, and have a dog. I feed it and walk it in the morning before I work, and then it basically potters around during the day (I let it out in the garden during lunch), and then just walk it again after work. What do you think people do with their dogs, which would impact on their work? Am I missing something?

‘Leave the poor woman alone’ when she starts at 10 when she’s paid from 8.30, has the dc behind her in work calls and is leaving her colleagues with 50% more work because they abide by the rules?? No way! Speak to your line manager, OP, this is not sustainable and you should not be doing her work.

FFS! Many people raise children and work, that doesn’t give parents who work a license to shirk off work and expect colleagues to pick up their slack. Thank goodness you chose to stay at home and save your colleague the stress having to pick up the parts of your job you clearly couldn’t “juggle”. That’s entitled behaviour and it was your choice to have children - not your colleagues!

I agree with others this is a management issue, escalate to your line manager OP. It’s completely unfair if the rest of the team are having to pick up work that your colleague should be doing.

This is very much a line manager issue - if the team are picking the slack up & not being clear around all the work to be fair.

We at work have our contracts saying you have to have child care in place. It allows for emergencies etc

Our work is quite flexible within reason - we have had issues recently as we’ve been reminded that the work core day is 9-5 (or within reason can be flexible around those times I work for example 8-4:30) It was due to some people only available for meetings 10-12 & 1-2 - which means quite stressful backtoback meetings on everyone.

Not one of my team has ever commented that I finish at 4:30 - most don’t log on till 9 so unaware that I start at 8 - but my manager ensures that I’m not taking all the early mornings crap or no one else at the end of the day - she ensures everyone takes on work fairly.

Don’t get in a fix around the car etc, focus on you. Discuss your workload with the manager without pointing blame, it’s irrelevant.

Are you 100% sure she's getting less work done? I ask because I actually do less hours in my job than other people because humans can only focus for four hours a day - and studies have shown that working longer hours actually leads to LESS output than short, concentrated hours.

If she's working like this and is producing the same work with shorter hours - YABU, take a leaf from her book and work more efficiently.

If she's doing shorter hours AND less work, and you know this for sure, YANBU - you should bring it up with your manager

I get where you are coming from. It's fine for others to portray people as martyrs but it sounds like you are in an occupation with service users where people need help or support. I too work in this kind of work environment and like you have colleagues that do very little whilst I do extra, not because I'm a martyr but because at the end of the day if no-one helps these vulnerable service users they are the ones who suffer and I don't like to see that . I honestly don't know how some of my colleagues in my last team slept at night for how little they did for their wages and it used to make me angry that they were being paid from charitable donations and doing fuck all most of the day. I would rather do extra work than see people not get the help they need. I constantly addressed it with my last manager who for whatever reason chose to ignore the slackers, so I left.

I feel you OP.

We have a CF in our office that just calls in sick when there’s a difficult task to do. Others will judge me for thinking this but you can set your watch by it. I predicted yesterday she wouldn’t be in and there was the email, not in for the rest of the week. I’m in the public service and there’s not much that can be done about sick leave.

I’m confused how you all have you own work load/diary’s and yet you pick up her work?

Is it possible the manager let her get away with being flexible with her hours because when she works she is productive and she is good at her job?
or do you think the manager just doesn’t care/want to deal with it.

Totally agree, especially with your last sentence.

Yes and I think @TiddleyWink doesn't understand the attitude I'm responding to either.

Good managers in modern companies generally assess output. Of course that also includes hours worked, but it means people meeting deadlines, completing work and taking on more if they can.

I've seen some very archaic attitudes by posters on mumsnet when it comes to WFH and work in general. "I'm not paying my staff to work in their pyjamas" was one post, by a woman who expected everyone to dress, apply make up and present themselves as they would in the office, despite being alone in their bedrooms.

I regularly work into the night and some weeks I have to spend almost every night working in excess of my hours. That's the nature of my role. But I don't feel I'm picking up the slack of others, nor do I resent colleagues working on other projects who don't have as many inflexible deadlines.

Focus on you and the impact the workload has on you with your line manager. Keep your colleague out of it. You are making a lot of assumptions about her and probably have little insight into her life and what really goes on. You can’t change anyone else and it’s not your place to hold them to account in this situation.

This, a million times over. I made this point on MN in respect of my similar situation and was told that women don’t need flexible working, only mothers.

Is it not an option to pay for the after school care rather than sacrificing your evenings and weekends?

I say this as was in a similar position when after school care was cancelled during covid times but I now pay for the care as it’s available, so I can get my work done.

@Snoozer11 when there is equity in terms of flexible working then I agree with absolutely everyone you have said. Within a workplace it all falls down when individuals avail themselves of flexible working practices to such a degree that it is not possible for others to have any benefits of flexible working.

I'm so glad I'm a stay at home mum, all this stress is no insensitive to get back to work.

@Laughingteacakes
I know she has a much lighter workload because we are all aware of each other’s workloads and diaries etc, we do the same job, it’s hard to explain but we all know exactly what each other has in their monthly workload.

Who is giving her this lighter workload?
Why is her diary not as full as others?

@Noln the problem with working in public sector with vulnerable individuals, is the wheels fall off at the least opportune moment. We are spread thinly already so there is rarely a back up

2 of my colleagues won’t take their turn with team tasks. Come in late, don’t attend meetings, leave early etc. Not answering phone calls during work hours etc. These are definitely swanning about and not healthy boundaries!

@thesurrealist

You sound similar to my (public sector) manager.

Before going to your line manager, how much do you know about your colleague? She may have flexible working in place or have other things going on in her life that she is struggling with and has spoken to your manger about working round her commitments because of x,y,z. Which would be none of your business and your manager nor your colleague would have to explain any of this to you.

you seem very presumptuous about your colleague and could end up looking the fool.

If work load is a problem for you maybe you should speak to your manager about flexible working hours for yourself…

Yes this. I'm also a public sector manager. As long as the right people are attending the right meetings at the right time, and I get the papers etc that I need to do my job, I can't honestly say I don't care what hours are worked or whether someone has a young child at home while they are working.

Luckily my team appreciate that being able to work that way is a privilege and so don't take the piss. If anyone did, then it would be a strict 9-5 in an office and no fucks given about kids or dogs at home.