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Original poster

Colleague constantly ringing in sick

42 replies

StuckHurtDone · 02/04/2025 18:45

And I mean constantly… at least a week per month! Not that age matters but she’s a young adult ~21 and has been with the company for around 9months. She is part of two teams at work, but prefers one team, and strays to the other side even when she’s meant to be working on the other If that makes sense?
for background…. She is part of a wealthy family (who are clients of ours) and has made it clear that she ‘does not need the money’ in the sense that her wages are ‘play’ money, and she also gets an allowance from her partner monthly!
nobody’s financial situation is anything to do with me, I understand that! BUT…. She is having such a detrimental effect on our workload. Managers just seem to accept it… but I have worked myself to the bone the last 2 days and am done in knowing she will now be off the rest of the week, and having to work 2 people’s jobs!
coupled with the sickness she is late EVERYDAY,
something I’ve bought up every single time she’s late… but I just get told ‘it’s noted’ but nothing is done about it. She costs us at least an hour every week in lateness and yet everyone else busts a ball to be on time (early most of the time!).
she has 2 managers as she works cross dept, but none of which want to pursue any complaints…. Do I go to HR myself?

id like to add that if someone is genuinely sick I get it, it can’t be helped, but there’s patterns and preventable in my opinion. I have no problem with someone being off sick, I myself was off sick last year for around 4 weeks, but this was supported by a drs note, and due to a mental breakdown (nothing to do with work). These sickness episodes are for around a week a time, and always trivial….

OP posts:
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LadyGaGasPokerFace · 03/04/2025 20:28

I bet if her parents knew she’s pulling sickies they’d be pissed off. It’d really show them up that she’s behaving like that. They didn’t get to where they are without hard graft. They’d be embarrassed. Shame that you can’t let the cat out the bag…

Brefugee · 03/04/2025 20:17

StuckHurtDone · 02/04/2025 19:19

I completely get that I need to stop doing 2 people’s jobs, and I’d like to say I could, but I’m a very demanding job, where things can not be left to another day, so by 12pm I feel like I’ve worked 100hours! I have consistently gone to management, but it’s brushed over, so do I now escalate to HR?

yes, they can be left to another day. Do your job, flag up that you can't manage more, and keep on doing that.
Just drop the rope, make sure your back is clear for your own work, and maybe handle one or two extras "to show willing" but you don't have to cover for anyone.

Do you have minimum safe staffing levels? flag up the fact that you are falling under those, if it is the case. Call in sick for 2 days for stress to recover, and then just do your work.

ETA: whenever you get a new task, ask (preferably in writing or within someone else's earshot) what you should drop to prioritise that task. Keep on doing it for every single task, especially extra ones.

Beautifulweeds · 03/04/2025 20:15

Can't you say unable to do because her job wasn't done? Or just forward anything to do with her input and cc it?

Nepotism can only last so long I hope. Xx

BoredZelda · 03/04/2025 20:10

louderthan · 02/04/2025 23:29

I have nothing to add to the excellent advice given by others but I am shocked that you are expected to disclose personal medical details in a group WhatsApp chat!! I’d be straight to HR with that if I was you. Potentially a serious breach of GDPR surely?!

Yep. You can’t be forced to divulge private health information to your colleagues. I can’t believe this is the system for calling in sick. Of course they’re reported something minor, they aren’t going to tell the truth on there.

namechange55465 · 03/04/2025 20:03

louderthan · 02/04/2025 23:29

I have nothing to add to the excellent advice given by others but I am shocked that you are expected to disclose personal medical details in a group WhatsApp chat!! I’d be straight to HR with that if I was you. Potentially a serious breach of GDPR surely?!

I missed this!

IIRC legally you don't even have to tell your manager why you're off. So being expected to tell all your colleagues is pretty shocking.

louderthan · 02/04/2025 23:29

I have nothing to add to the excellent advice given by others but I am shocked that you are expected to disclose personal medical details in a group WhatsApp chat!! I’d be straight to HR with that if I was you. Potentially a serious breach of GDPR surely?!

Mistressofpemberly · 02/04/2025 21:50

StuckHurtDone · 02/04/2025 19:19

I completely get that I need to stop doing 2 people’s jobs, and I’d like to say I could, but I’m a very demanding job, where things can not be left to another day, so by 12pm I feel like I’ve worked 100hours! I have consistently gone to management, but it’s brushed over, so do I now escalate to HR?

No you just be an employee… work to the line and let the managers deal with it.
if you take pride in your work that’s difficult. But just do it and the situation will resolve. It’s not your problem.

SausageMashBeans · 02/04/2025 21:45

She’s 21 and gets a monthly allowance from her partner?!

lap90 · 02/04/2025 21:18

For a moment i thought we might be colleagues as it’s the exact same in my workplace… i understand your frustration.

gmgnts · 02/04/2025 21:04

There is nothing that saps the morale of conscientious workers more than witnessing slackers and piss-takers getting away with it! Management need to step up and deal with this.

Lin Manuel Miranda Oscars GIF by The Academy Awards
Bingbopboomboomboombopbam · 02/04/2025 20:49

If they haven’t done anything about it by now, they probably just won’t. It’s just poor, lazy management.

I have a similar issue at work - an extremely incompetent colleague, but he clocks in daily so apparently that’s “good enough”. I’ve been watching him do next to nothing for over a year now. I’ve accepted defeat and will just move jobs as soon as the opportunity arises.

BlondiePortz · 02/04/2025 20:46

She must have been reading MN that is te answer to everything, but in reality unless thr management do anything it will continue

Wakemeupbe4yougogo · 02/04/2025 20:44

That sounds so frustrating. But if this has been going on for 9 months, nothing is going to change - I'd suggest management are happy letting it ride. So my option would be to look for a job where hard working and reliable employees are treated better because they are literally gold dust.

namechange55465 · 02/04/2025 20:41

"why x,y,z hasn’t been done?"
"Because Sally is off sick."

If they are getting at you about prioritising "wrong", then ask them in the morning when she is off. "I am going to prioritise A, B, C unless you would prefer me to do otherwise".

The problem really isn't that she's off sick - it's that your managers are expecting you to cover for her. So that's what you need to approach HR about, if it can't be resolved with your manager.

LlynTegid · 02/04/2025 20:38

Weak managers are not good and regardless of the circumstances of your colleague this should not be brushed over. Hope you can get something done about this.

godmum56 · 02/04/2025 20:34

Definitely good advice on here. Account for the work you have done and leave the rest. Rinse and repeat. While you continue to flog your guts nothing will be done.

simpledeer · 02/04/2025 20:32

@Duggeewoof I see you didn’t get the tongue in cheek reference.

Genuinely though, OP is at risk of making herself look more problematic than her colleague, no matter how unfair that is.

MurdoMunro · 02/04/2025 20:31

Until you turn your attention to the managers and your own actions in response to being short staffed then this won’t get resolved. Who she is, her age, her connections and the nature of her illnesses are have no bearing on you getting this fixed.

Duggeewoof · 02/04/2025 20:29

simpledeer · 02/04/2025 20:06

You are making this woman’s absences your business when they really aren’t.

Just do your own work and nothing else. If you carry on bitching to management about her, you are going to make yourself very unpopular. Nobody likes a grass.

Head down and focus on your work and nothing else.

@simpledeer grass? You sound like a 10 year old. Grow up darling.

Secretsquirels · 02/04/2025 20:29

Start asking your manager to help, on a regular basis, if she is off sick.

"Hi Fred, I'm really sorry to ask this but is there any chance that you can come and give us a hand at base A today? We're trying to distribute the x vaccines urgently but we're short staffed".

"Hi Fred, I've got 15 emails from vets this morning asking for drugs to be distributed but I have only got time to get 10 out. Would you be free to help for a couple of hours or do we send these late? So sorry to put this on your plate but I'm the only person in today"

"Hi Fred, Just a quick message to see if there is any chance that we can get some sort of temp in tomorrow to stand on the counter and sort people as they come in? I know that's expensive, and normally Sophie and I would manage this between us, but she's been off all week and we're massively behind"

Original poster
StuckHurtDone · 02/04/2025 20:25

SilverGlitterBaubles · 02/04/2025 20:17

Have others on your team raised these issues? If enough of you have provided feedback then perhaps they might take action. It is also possible there is more to this issue than you are aware of.

aside from other person being off sick, the other 2 are managers. They constantly tell me that it’s ‘noted’ and will be discussed with her, but it never is, and if it is it’s clearly not made any difference (based on her lateness!). I’d like to think that this latest ‘sickness’ will trigger something but based on experience I don’t think it will. In regards to those saying it might be a long term illness that has been divulged to hr and management, this is not the case. Reasons for sickness vary, always‘minimal’ issues… and the reason I know is because in order to report our illness we report via WhatsApp to our manager/team so therefore the reason is there for everyone to see

OP posts:
imadeitnice · 02/04/2025 20:21

I have a similar situation at work. I and my colleagues find it really stressful as we don’t have the kind of job that you can catch up on. So the stress of a particular colleague always calling in sick does impact our day and workload and is very stressful. We are effectively a healthcare call centre so when we’re one person down, the impact is on us and patients that are waiting for us to answer their calls/queries and we have to take the frustration of patients, due to her absences causing the phone queues to be even longer than they already are when fully staffed. It’s been going on 18 months. She’s not done a full week in those 18 months.

SilverGlitterBaubles · 02/04/2025 20:17

Have others on your team raised these issues? If enough of you have provided feedback then perhaps they might take action. It is also possible there is more to this issue than you are aware of.

MixedBananas · 02/04/2025 20:13

Is this in the UK. If it is a large business then they have HR in place already to deal with this. When a person comes back to work they conplete a fit to return form. After 3 occassi9ns or sickness more then 7 days HR eill call a meeting.

She may have disclosed a sickness or disability at interview or upon acceoting the rooe and HR and Managmebt have acce9ted the condition. I used to work for HR and there are special allowamces for l9ng term health issues depending on JD and HR discretion.
You might not know the whole picture and it isn't for you to go snooping. You may get in massive trouble.

simpledeer · 02/04/2025 20:11

StuckHurtDone · 02/04/2025 20:08

Unfortunately, or fortunately for me… I work In the veterinary industry. We obviously have daily tasks that need to be completed, but we generally work on a day by day basis. We are currently in our busiest season (large animal… spring… lambing….) so if a vet (or a director more important!) calls in demanding certain drugs be ordered or researched then we have to jump to it! So it’s not a case of saying tomorrow I won’t be able to do X, as we simply do not know what X is! For example I spent 75% of my working day assigning a certain vaccine to farmers, (that has been out of stock for a month and is detrimental to farmers!) ensuring they have the correct amount of doses, the right route of administration and that we have the enough storage for said medicine! So my ‘usual’ day to day jobs has gone out of the window!! And no capacity to do anything else! Once the manager appears, it’s a question. Of why x,y,z hasn’t been done and then blame for prioritising things that NEED to be prioritised?!

yes, technically she is ‘junior’ in terms of length of service, but we are both on the same pay, we have the same responsibilities, we have the same managers.

in respective of her family and my company… they are long standing clients prior tk her being employed, and I know it will continue so no loss of business. Her being employed doesn’t have any effect on the relationship with client and us, except she can transport medicines back to her base, without the farm having to spare someone to come and collect them if that makes sense?

So what’s the problem? You can account for your time. It’s managers responsibility to reallocate duties.

If there is too much work that’s not your problem. You just do your hours and leave.

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