The working world has become ridiculous

[Rothschild]

Recently a manager at my company attended an online meeting in tears because of a minor issue regarding her child's school. She excused herself from the meeting and took a mental health day.

I can barely get hold of anyone at 3pm in my (large) organisation because everyone is doing school pick up. I don't believe they're getting much work done once they've picked up because they become hard to contact, don't respond to messages and won't attend meetings, despite it being their normal working hours.

It's ridiculous. When our children were small we paid for wrap around childcare or for someone to collect. We were available to work between 3 and 4pm and afterwards.

I'm not talking about anyone who has negotiated flexibility or finishes at 3pm, I'm talking about others who are, frankly, taking the piss.

And if I had taken a mental health day every time I'd had some difficulty in my life I'd have hardly worked.

I work with someone who has her diary blocked out 3-4pm every day and then from 4:30 onwards. She also has multiple ‘private’ meetings on a Friday which means she only has 2 hours “free” all day on a standard working day. Originally, she was taking a ‘late lunch’ to collect her children from school. Both are now in secondary school and I know they both get the bus to different schools as she has told me. However she still has her diary blocked out for these same periods. There has been multiple complaints about her behaviour but nothing changes.

There's working flexibly and then there's taking the mick! Those without kids can't just start skiving from 3pm onwards every day. People shouldn't use kids as an excuse to do what they want, when they want.

You don't sound like an honest person, I won't be taking your word for it.

Wrap around care is costly for employees and they expect a high salary in return.

Many employers are flexible in their approach now, rightly so.

A continuous change of staff is no way to to approach a workplace that gives benefits to staff that will stay loyal and for longer - that's the good working model.

There is absolutely no way you could know this.

Not everyone states their issues to everyone listening. There are always hundreds more things going on than you know about.

It’s not just parents etc… in my workplace about 20% are between 18-25 and you can guarantee atleast 3/4 of them will call in sick over the weekend. They mostly only work weekends. Literally hardly any work ethic anymore.

I have meetings that start later in the day because that’s when some clients are available
Forcexample if I’m doing social housing with tenants being moved to a new building my meetings can’t start earlier as none of them seem to be available

We also have client meetings after site meetings
Client meetings may involve 12/15 people from many different offices some of which will also have site meetings etc etc earlier in the day
These meetings can go on for hours.

Not everyone has a choice to dictate what their clients and other consultants do on the basis your team aren’t around when they should be

The attitude will put people off employing people with kids.
I remember those days
We don’t want to go back to that, we want women to climb the ladder and be the best they can. Not fall at the first hurdle because they can’t get a job based on the bad attitudes of others

1. i feel like most people do not think they’re paid enough to bother giving a shit
2. this is a massive issue across LAs can’t get hold of eanyome ever even if you work internally. Or even worse you have to fill out a form and can’t get anyone’s number
3. So many places hiring methods do not sort wheat from the chaff. No one gives a toss

People also saying they can't come into the office because they have to walk their dog and asking for their travel to be paid, if we keep going like this productivity will drop off and affect the economy etc

UK productivity is basically sub 1%

Yes indeed. I work part time because I want the flexibility for my kids but I take the pay cut to do so. Really really annoys me people taking the piss. One colleague had parental leave and used it to do building work on his house - he even sent us the pictures!

Nails it!

I work incredibly hard and am very good at my job and sometimes pick my kid up at 3.15. It’s not one or the other.

Tell me I have to be in the office until 5pm every day and I would walk, taking my skills and experience with me. I will prioritise my family every day of the week over my work and I encourage my team to do the same. That’s not to say my work doesn’t take priority when it has to, of course it does, but not for the sake of being present in and office until 5pm just to prove a point.

I think two things can be true at once:

• workplaces need to accommodate parenthood, not least because failing to do so is harmful to women.
• colleagues should not be picking up slack created by the parenting responsibilities of others.

My view is that almost all workplaces now are kept understaffed, and that is the source of a lot of these kinds of problems. I think we have all been slowly acclimatised to more and more understaffing as business owners gripe about things like employers' NI contributions (whose effective incidence actually falls - you guessed it - upon workers).

Just idly scrolling my newsfeed and this timely article appears.

www.businessinsider.com/instagram-chief-adam-mosseri-announces-five-day-office-return-2025-12

Wish I worked where you work! I never see my kids. I get on a train at 6.43 and this evening I got the 7.43 back home.

I think this is partly to do with the huge number of people on benefits with no requirement to work, as constantly reported by the press. People see the headlines telling them about people on benefits taking home as much, or more, than them, and they think, ‘why do I bother?’.

I think this is especially the case for young people who are on shit wages and can’t afford a house. They see other people their age getting paid to sit at home with anxiety Or depression, and it kills any motivation and work ethic.

If love to leave earlier but I would lose my job. All very well saying walk away but there's not exactly well paid jobs waiting to snap.me up.

Bizarre and patronising

Also no one wants to pay for childcare

After our childminder retired my two dc were on the wraparound care waiting list for a whole year before we gave up and decided to just work with the kids at home after school! But apart from the 30 min pickup time itself I’ve never been ‘unavailable’ for meetings/contact.

I suspect that if private sector employers are allowing employees to disappear for school pick ups it is because they know full well that they pay far too low a wage for said employees to put their children in wraparound care instead.

Or he was skiving.

I agree! I requested a single UNPAID day off well in advance to do some training that I was willing for fund that would 100% benefit my Job. It’s only available term time given the training provider and I work term time

manager ‘no we don’t do that’

yet there’s numerous colleagues of mine sick right now with ‘stress’ because they wanted to take a cheaper holiday (they’ve told me!) or taking sick days here and there just for a break from the job.

I’ve had 3 days off since I started because I got that nasty virus and had a yo-yoing fever for several days. Don’t even get me started on the return to work meetings I have to do because I’ve been off sick with a bloody virus.

im retraining in the hope i can get away from it. Why stay with an employer who won’t even encourage staff to train up? It baffles me.

that’s what gets me. My pay is crap given what I have to do, know, negotiate and the health and safety aspect. It’s just not worth it.

But I need the reference and the money.

Go self-employed - you can't afford to take days off sick!!

That’s where it depends on your work though. In many industries if you want the experience and skills then you have to accept that you need to be flexible as an employer to get that because there are choices out there for people.

Completely get that many jobs can’t just allow you leave at 3pm. But the OP is talking about when employers allow it and she just doesn’t like it. One of the reasons employers allow it is because long term it ensures they have good people in the roles they need!