Colleague deliberately staying late at work just to accrue TOIL?

This would piss me off too.
You'll be picking up the slack whilst she's off.
Your manager sounds ineffectual for sure. They should have dealt with this to avoid it leading to staff division.
I work in a clinical NHS position. Can't even begin to imagine how much TOIL I would have if I added it up but I'd probably be able to retire a few years early.

@Cattery must be playing the same game as your colleague, racking up TOIL and organising appointments for the dentist etc during working hours. Clearly rattled!

It obviously does as who is doing the work when this person is off?

I work 17 hours over 3 days and build up a lot of TOIL because external agencies often schedule things for days/times outside my normal hours. At the moment, I have almost a week's worth of TOIL, and I have 2 all day events coming up plus a tribunal hearing on a day that I don't normally work.

I've always kept a record of how much TOIL I've accrued and why, just in case anyone asks why it's so much and I know that I'd never remember. My manager once asked if I kept a record but has never asked to see it.

Imo, it's pretty poor management if your manager isn't at least asking the question, especially if the rest of the team are able to do your jobs within normal hours. In my team, all the p/t staff end up with TOIL, it kind of comes with the territory.

I'm appalled that management haven't noticed her longer hours and reduced productivity. Don't they have any checks and balances in place?
I'd say something if this affects your workload. It's simply not fair for a team to carry someone.

This would annoy me too, why can't everyone play by the rules, and do the right thing. it's those people that take the piss that just demoralise everyone else! For those saying keep your nose out it doesn't affect you, well actually when someone takes the piss, it does affect you! You end up picking up the slack and it causes resentment.
I'd ask for the works TOIL policy for your own peace of mind and ask for clarification regarding staying late. At least then you'll know what the policy is.

Smart, I would take this approach as it does impact you so it’s 100% your business :-)

That's weird that's she's just going off during work hours but then also claiming TOIL. I wouldn't day anything tbh though cos they might just ban all TOIL and you might need it someday. Don't do her work though.

It does impact the rest of the team though when someone 'works' when it's not needed and then takes a whole week off, everyone else needs to pick up her slack 🤷‍♀️

Don't worry, it is only the people who would take the piss themselves who would criticise you.

Exactly. Throw her in it.

YANBU to take action OP!
@ThisOldThang , not sure why you've picked on PP, it's not about specific TOIL rules but how they suit business need.
I'm also in IT and we get TOIL for pre-approved purposes like on-call rotations (double pay for outside hours incidents) , releases, major resiliency events etc.
We can't just decide to 'stay on longer' on an ordinary day and claim TOIL. In fact most of us do at least 15 mins extra every day just to wrap up.

OP I'm genuinely baffled as to how your workplace allows this. Nobody clocks off bang on time anyway... 15 minutes? Seriously?

If I was you I'd refuse to cover for her.

I'd suggest you and other team members do the same, and take leave when she us on shift, so your colleague knows the impact. Your manager will soon stop it if it becomes a problem, and you won't look like a moaner by raising it. You and your colleagues will also get a much needed break.

As you say, how on earth has she managed to accrue so much TOIL working 10-15 mins over 3 days a week to accrue for a week off? That's madness!

If you're not busy like you say and all the work can be done within your working hours like you say then I'm not clear on why is this an issue? She's being flexible with her time but she's still working all the hours in the week that she should be. If you have a problem with sickness then that is something that needs to be addressed If that is due to stress or burnout or poor management. Presumably you all have the option to do this and she's not actually doing anything wrong.

I do build up toil in my job and I try to save that for short notice childcare if my son is sick since annual leave needs to be booked in advance and I use it for other commitments, and I can't afford to take unpaid leave. If you go to your manager about this you will risking the flexibility that all your team has because the easiest way for management to resolve this will be firstly to review whether or not you're all needed since you're not that busy and are needing to "look" busy, and you'll lose the ability to be flexible with your hours when you need it. Other colleagues may depend on this to sustain work. As a single parent I need this flexibility and you'd curry zero favours with me if you were the reason I lost that option.

It’s not my “issue” anymore. It was what everyone in the office observed.

In my old work there was one woman who was paid hourly, by choice, while others in her team were salaried. She always seemed to be very 'busy', always working late, but nobody could quite work out why. The work I did for her was pretty much leaving her to forward a spreadsheet to the team we fed into. Everything else was done by me, in collaboration with that higher team.
It turns out she was running some sort of personal vendetta campaign against various organisations from her desk. She was also caught monitoring the toilets. Writing down the name of who went to the bathroom, which one they used, and for how long?!
The director did not ask her to do this.
obviously. But would explain why she was always so 'busy'.

I'd raise it. It's unfair and encourages this kind of behaviour. Your company need to add TOIL to whatever policy is in place re your working hours, breaks etc. Ours is that any TOIL should be taken at the next available opportunity and not accrued.

I'm amazed your workplace has such a lax policy on toil. I have to ask permission to stay late and explain why it can't be done tomorrow. Managers are always very supporting and have never declined me staying late because it's always when something urgent and last minute has come in. Being able to just accrue toil without an explanation is wild.

@KatParr a pp is right do this from a position of is the work fairly distributed as it’s not right x is having to work more time than anyone else.

Try to drop in that her productivity must be higher with the long hours.

Expect your manager to do nothing, most don’t because it requires a difficult conversation. The way for a manager to deal with it is by outputs I.e. how much more is she producing/processing.

The other option is to do the same and build up TOIL yourself, book appointments etc. as you have the defence that x is doing this so why can’t you.

I think I'd ask your manager if that's something you could do, a sort flexible working, could you also work an 30 mins extra and save up for a week off or does it need permission or to be pre-arranged by management if there is a business case for it.
I think with the thought of everyone taking advantage this will be formalised as toil for business needs only, not just hanging about to earn a day off. She needs to be more efficient and get her work done in the time alloted.

I'm so glad I'm getting out of this nonsense. It's not just about having to cover her work. She is getting paid for something she's not doing. So it is affecting other colleagues.
My conscience wouldn't let me do it either but then I do have a fantastic work ethic.

@KatParr then that's on you, but it doesn't mean your colleague is doing anything wrong.

Let's be honest, most people really don't give that much of a toss about their jobs - it's just something they have to do in order to pay the bills, so if they can get away with going to appointments on work days or getting more annual leave, they will.

I work in education so you have a combination of salaried teaching staff who basically never get TOIL (accepted as part of the job) and hourly paid support staff who do. One member of support staff put in LOADS of extra hours helping with an extra curricular activity they particularly enjoyed. Got feted by all, so helpful, what a godsend, there at all hours slaving away etc etc - then claimed all those hours back as TOIL and therefore wasn’t available in their actual role to support salaried staff who needed the support! We were fuming! Not so much at the staff member as tbf if they were allowed to do it, why not, but at management for not noticed and putting a stop to it. It has been noticed now though after we said “er…what’s going on…?”

I never take TOIL, much prefer to take is as overtime and get paid for it.