Colleague deliberately staying late at work just to accrue TOIL?

I don't think @CinnamonJellyBeans needs to get a grip. She's spot on and explained it much better than I can.
You can really spot the piss takers on this thread. It's not about "working to live" it's about having a sense of pride in what you do not being proud you've scammed your employer out of 2 hours a week.

That doesn't stop it from being a management issue.

In order to build up a week’s worth of toil by staying 15 minutes late every day, she’d have to do it for about 6 months would she not?

"We're all protected by laws to stop employer abuse of our time"

Oh really? Why do so many people do unpaid overtime then?

Some places have a flexi time system so you wouldn't need approval.

"we are a very small team who has an issue (imo) with sickness. Although we all have different roles, it inevitably impacts everyone when someone is off, even for leave. "

This is your problem. Your management is not dealing with leave absence properly. Either you are under staffed or something is being badly managed. You should be able to cope with people being on planned leave.

What this woman is doing with toil is a normal consequence of flexible working and clocking in imo.

@CinnamonJellyBeans surely the employer is at fault for allowing this kind of thing to happen in the first place, though? Employees can only take the piss where the system allows them to do so.

Get a grip 😂

Give it a rest OP and stop obsessing over what others do and get on with your own job. Or ask your manager for more work if you have time to get funny about what your colleagues are doing.

To have her TOIL approved the way she is, management have to be aware of what's happening - so I'm not sure how she's taking the piss?

Surely the issue is the management or the workplace in general for allowing the situation in the first place?

Everyone who says it does not affect the OP, I disagree.

Quantitatively, she has to cover some of pisstaker's duties when she is having stolen time off, so this is extra work, possibly to the detriment of her own work

Quantitatively it affects the morale of the team: when you're working hard and seeing your team-member wilfully slacking for the same reward, it feels bad and encourages resentment, reduces harmony and the good-will needed to make the company run smoothly.

This idea that we should steal time from our employers, just because we can is definitely becoming more prevalent in UK society. We're all protected by laws to stop employer abuse of our time, so why on earth do the wrong thing, just because we "can"?

The pisstaker is no better than a shoplifter, who steals because she "can". When I go to the supermarket, I experience unwanted scrutiny: the doorman, the cameras, the bloody till asking a million times if that's really my own plastic bag. The stupid one way exit path. This is due to people who just take without paying, forcing the rest of us to put up with security measures that we don't need.

People like the OPs work colleague steal from their employer and cause the rest of us to be subjected to infantilising rules at work, like clocking in and out, appraisals, performance management, medical evidence for a rare day off and the withdrawal of working from home, so you can be monitored closely in the office.

To be honest, I'm not sure how your TOIL rules work in your IT department, if it means you're hardly there during normal working hours.

To the OP, I think TOIL procedures require a degree of honesty from everyone involved, or they create a really bad work atmosphere where people are unwilling to make an effort, because they suspect other people are taking the mickey.

Does your workplace have any sort of way to raise concerns to management anonymously? I would make a general comment to management that you felt the TOIL rules weren't being applied fairly, and that procedures could do with being tightened up-, so that there wasn't the temptation to exploit them.

Where I work you're not allowed to work anything less than 30 mins to build up TOIL. And you have to have it agreed first. She's taking the piss & it is your business if it impacts you

The flip side of that is, that if you're regularly working 10-15 minutes over your shift, it can easily bring you under NMW which is illegal. Probably not an issue for most salaried workers, but it can easily cause problems when people are paid by the hour.

When I worked in retail, people were paid for every minute they worked over their contracted hours - so if we closed at six but John still happened to be dealing with a customer until 6.05, he got paid for those five minutes etc.

This.

Yes I worked in the CS for four years and I loved it. This is not a swipe, it is my experience in a department, which is different to yours

i was shocked doing bank work at a colleague who was absolutely wasting time, doing her own private banking etc, sending out christmas cards., and then complaining if i did too much work as it took away from her over time

Thats stealing though, if you were having meetings overrun by 15 minutes every other day thats 45 minutes a week and 3 hours a month - it soon adds up.

I used to work on flex time contract and if we were lea it was deducted and late or early for whatever business reason t was added. We were customer facing though - so sometimes customers kept us late

roughly 40 weeks

I'm gob-smacked that management would allow someone to lodge 10 or 15 minutes of TOIL. Does management have a way of recording actual work done (key strokes, computer activity)? Otherwise everyone could rack up 15 minutes a night by stopping for a chat, washing their coffee mug and retrieving leftover lunch from the fridge!

IME of workplaces that had a TOIL system we could only record TOIL when we'd racked up 30 minutes and we had to provide evidence of why we had stayed late and why the work couldn't have been done in contracted working hours. It was tacitly assumed that 10-15 minutes here and there would be naturally evened out when, for example, the employee was late, or needed an hour or two off for childcare or medical appointments. I would be too embarrassed to lodge 10 minutes of TOIL: it would seem to me to be opening the door to a manager to start questioning why I hadn't worked a bit faster or more efficiently to finish that 10-minute task earlier, or left it undone till the next day.

I would say that 15 mins extra at the end of a day to finish a phone call or a piece of work is expected, and not paid as overtime/TOIL. Most office workers are paid an annual salary and not an hourly wage.

My team members take the piss with no consequences so now I just do the same as them. Much better for my mental health than trying to get management to take action!

Someone manipulating the system and a sloppy line manager. Agree that TOIL policy needs clarifying. Totally avoid complaining about an individual - but, as PP have said, you can raise concerns about your own workload/stress (without mentioning her) or ask for a written TOIL policy (as you've noticed people treating differently and would like clarity so you do the right thing). A weaker manager might jump on 'someone has asked for a policy' as a reason to start imposing boundaries.

That kind of manipulation would be stamped on at my workplace - there is some flexiblity within the same week (e.g. leave work a bit early for hair appointment Tues, work late Weds- courtesy check with manager). Full or half days off in lieu are normally only given for things like working/travelling for work at weekends. Departments that need out of hours cover or incident management (like IT) have their own arrangements.

Not something I did so you’re wrong there. I said previously I’m now retired. I was referring to the office snitch we had who was often wrong in her assertions anyway

We can't even record TOIL if it's less than 20mins and there has to be a specific reason. Like a training session or meeting over ran.